Spartan Mora regiments at Battle of Plataea

[Paralus]

Sorry?...... but your post seems addressed to a non-existent point.

Not at all: in fact you singularly sidestep the point. I actually postulated that the periocoi did form part of the “units” of the Spartan army. You either chose to belittle that with your “non existent point” or, quite possibly, misread the post.

You seem confused about who are "Spartans" and who are "Lakedaemonians". The terms are NOT synonymous. All Spartans are Lakedaemonians, but not all Lakedaemonians are Spartans.

Nothing of the sort. It is precisely why I wrote “an army Herodotus refers to as the “Spartans” or “the Lacedaemonians” (he does this constantly). A subtly beyond your comprehension it might seem (??); written to highlight the fact that the periocoi do not appear in either the fighting or the dead even though they evidently formed part of the “Lacedaemonian army”.

If one does not grasp these distinctions, it is pointless to even attempt to discuss this subject....

I shall list that with the “military matters not being my forte” put-down shall I? At least I am “colourful”.

Isokrates 'canard' must be taken with a grain of salt

Another “unhelpful” passage I know. This, at least, is only reduced to “canard’. Other unhelpful passages are dismissed as "bastards" (the author being in question) or emended away.

Xenophon, of course, is absolutely reliable.

This is the sort of uninformed comment which leads to confusion.

I’ll add that to the above. The Greeks looked askance at hubris…

When one looks holistically at all the evidence it is quite apparent that 'perioikoi' probably never served in Spartan 'Morai'.

In which case they served in totally distinct units … err… sorry, mora. Pity there is absolutely no evidence for this. Further, not a single periocoi served in the seminal battle of the late fifth century – Mantinea. Evidently the Spartans could well do without them?

As for your continued reliance upon “citizen troops”, this is, I’m afraid, a neatly constructed furphy. Such a “neat” distinction, based on the translation of Xenophon, renders it absolutely certain that not a single periocoi took the field at Leuktra (or, if they did, not a single one survived).