Plato, Laws 776c

πάντῃ. τὸ δʼ αἴτιον, οὐκ ὀρθῶς πως καί τινα τρόπον ὀρθῶς περὶ αὐτῶν λέγομεν· ἐναντία γὰρ ταῖς χρείαις, καὶ κατὰ τὰς χρείας αὖ, ποιούμεθα περὶ δούλων καὶ τὰ λεγόμενα. πῶς δʼ αὖ τοῦτο λέγομεν; οὐ γάρ πω μανθάνομεν, ὦ ξένε, ὅτι τὰ νῦν φράζεις. καὶ μάλα γε, ὦ Μέγιλλε, εἰκότως· σχεδὸν γὰρ πάντων τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἡ Λακεδαιμονίων εἱλωτεία πλείστην ἀπορίαν παράσχοιτʼ ἂν καὶ ἔριν τοῖς μὲν ὡς εὖ, τοῖς δʼ ὡς οὐκ εὖ γεγονυῖά ἐστιν—ἐλάττω δὲ ἥ τε Ἡρακλεωτῶν

for the language we use both contradicts and agrees with our practical experience of them. What mean we by this? We are still in the dark, Stranger, as to what you refer to. That is quite natural, Megillus. For probably the most vexed problem in all Hellas is the problem of the Helot-system of the Lacedaemonians, which some maintain to be good, others bad; a less violent dispute rages round the subjection of the Mariandyni