The History of Sparta

Sparta had a very different system of slavery than other poleys. It was really their distinctive relationship with their slaves that made Sparta what it became. In most Greek polis, you had individual citizens working on family-sized farms with a couple of slaves per capita. But in Sparta they didn't even belong to individuals; they were all slaves. And because they didn't kill the Messenians and have lots of people to work on it for them, they did not become totalitarian beehives.