Spartan Mora regiments at Battle of Plataea

[Paullus Scipio]

Sparta had four group dwellings (Komae).
Pitana was one of them.Correct, there were at one time four villages/areas called 'obai'.(Pitana, Mesoa, Limnai and Konooura).Later Amyklae was added.However, an earlier Laconian sacred law refers to at least six 'Oba'. Herodotus equates these 'Oba' with 'demes' or 'komoi' in Attica. In any event there is no evidence that the Spartan Army ever contained units named after these districts.Aristophanes in the play 'Lysistrata' refers to Spartan women being divided into four lochoi, and an ancient anonymous commentator has written in the margin "the poet seems to have studied Lakonian matters rather carelessly for there are not four lochoi in Lakedaemon but five - Edolos,Sinis,Arimas,Ploas and Messoages - but Thucydides says seven, apart from the skiritae"
Sources mix ususally the names of units and sub units.see below
Amofaretos commanded the Pitanates lochosNot if he was an 'eiren' ! Even this is not certain for the text is corrupt and Amompheratus might instead have been a priest ['eirees'instead of 'eirens'.Herodotus says Amompheratus was buried among the 'eirens/eirees' [IX.85] - the unit formed from those who dwelled in PitanaAs stated, Herodotus is hopelessly confused about this matter. He even contradicts himself about his rank, calling him 'lochagos' ( Battalion commander aprox) at one point [IX.53.2] and a 'taxiarch' (Regimental/Brigade commander aprox) at another point.Thucydides flatly states [I.20.3]that"such a lochos has never existed"
It was considered senior to others and formed at the rightmost edge of the Sparta's Mora and therefore the whole Spartan Army.Impossible, since such a unit never existed !!!
That means that it had the priviledge to have the king and the Aigidae clan among its ranks.Evidence that this non-existent unit did so?
Pausanias says the Aigidae formed in the Royal stichos A 'stichos' was simply a file of men at this time. A 'lochos' was essentially a sub-unit of a larger one and later could even mean a file
Therefore Amomfaretos would probaly be position near the king's Bodyguards and carry the gorgoneio of Cahkioikos Athena as depicted in the Chiezi vase or the sample existing in the National Museum in Athens.Where is the evidence for this? The connection? The chain of logic/connection simply does not hold up!
All we can say with certainty ( from the votive figures found at the temple of Artemis Orthia ) is that from the seventh C BC onward, Spartans carried individual shield blazons. Aeschylus, at the time of the Persian wars, tells us that the character of each individual Hoplite was symbolised by his shield blazon [though not specifically referring to Spartans]. The famous 'lambda' is referred to by Xenophon for the 4thC BC and was probably not in use before 425BC when Sparta raised units of helots, likely state equipped, hence state owned shields marked "L" for Lakedaemon


Kind regards