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Originally Posted by arkteia  I always thought that krypteia was more similar to the KGB, not only controlling the helotes but also spying after its own citizen. Cleomenes I, the spartan king, wanted to organize the helots' revolt. Was he the only one? Krypteia could also prevent some Spartiates from forming close bonds with helots, for example, a Spartan man who had a child with a helot woman getting attached to her... |
There really is not a great deal of knowledge on the krypteia. Everyone has a differing theory, but apparently, if you wanted to be a mover and a shaker in Spartan politics, you had to have belonged to the group. As for them being a secret police, it was the hippeis that normally took these action at the orders of the ephors, so unless the two groups were intertwined (entirely plausible), the krypteia probably had a differeing function.
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