Helots had been employed as light-armed soldiers attending on the heavy-armed Spartiatæ as early as the battle of Platæa in 479 B.C.: in the first years of the Peloponnesian war some of them had distinguished themselves in the field, and in the eighth year of the war (in the beginning of 424 B.C.) the Spartans, fearing they might be dangerous, thought of sending them on foreign service. This plan of removing them was not carried into effect: but a proclamation was put out that those Helots who were conscious of having done good service in the war might apply for their freedom: two thousand were selected and were emancipated with striking solemnities: but within a short time most of them disappeared, no one knew how, by secret assassination[109]. This first liberation of Helots ended in treachery and murder: but afterwards emancipations were frequently made in good faith. The men who were raised from serfdom did not become Periœci but were known as νεοδαμώδεις, or "men resembling new commoners." [109] Thucydides IV. 80. Bodies of Neodamodês are mentioned by Thucydides as existing in the years 421, 418, 413, 412 B.C.[110]: and in one of the occasions where he speaks of Neodamodês and Helots as serving together he explains the difference between the two by remarking that "the word Neodamodês signifies that freedom has been already acquired," thus proving for certain that a Neodamodês was an emancipated Helot[111]. After the end of the war the Neodamodês became more numerous: in the year 399 B.C. the Spartans sent out a thousand under Thimbron to Asia Minor at the request of the Asiatic Greek cities[112]. [110] Thucydides V. 34, V. 67, VII. 19, VII. 58, VIII. 5. [111] Thucydides VII. 58 δύναται δὲ τὸ Νεοδαμῶδες ἐλευθερον ἤδη εἶναι. [112] Xenophon, _Hellenica_ III. 1. 4.