Lycurgus (28.5-28.6)

And therefore in later times, they say, when the Thebans made their expedition into Laconia,[*] they ordered the Helots whom they captured to sing the songs of Terpander, Alcman, and Spendon the Spartan; but they declined to do so, on the plea that their masters did not allow it, thus proving the correctness of the saying: In Sparta the freeman is more a freeman than anywhere else in the world, and the slave more a slave.

However, in my opinion, such cruelties were first practised by the Spartans in later times, particularly after the great earthquake,[*] when the Helots and Messenians together rose up against them, wrought the widest devastation in their territory, and brought their city into the greatest peril. I certainly cannot ascribe to Lycurgus so abominable a measure as the krupteia, judging of his character from his mildness and justice in all other instances. To this the voice of the god also bore witness.[*]