11-24-2009, 02:38 AM
Quote:The evidence clearly points the other way, for all three major sources for the period are careful NOT to equate the two, and distinguish between them, even to the extent of referring to the Hippeis fighting in the vicinity of the King, but carefully avoiding calling them his guard. Notice that Thucydides (V.72), speaking of first Mantinea, tells us "King Agis positioned himself with the three hundred troops called the knights." The King went and stood/fought with the 'Hippeis'? He went to them? Hardly how one would speak of a King and his bodyguard ! As seen in Xenophon's description of Leuctra, the 'Hippeis' fall back, then the rest, after Cleombrotus and 'those around him' are killed/wounded, as Paul B. has shown, which does not fit a 'Guard' surrounding their King, more like the King and 'those around him' were adjacent to the Hippeis, as at Mantinea. Both authors are at pains to NOT call the 'Hippeis' a bodyguard.
It's worth pointing out that Thucydides, at least, is a little bit more specific than the translation you give here would indicate. A more direct translation would read something like "But with the rest of the line, and especially with the middle, where the King Agis was and, around him, those called the three hundred Hippeis [??? ???? ????? ?? ?????????? ????? ??????????], the Lakedaimonians fell on the older men of the Argives and upon the so-called Five Lochoi and upon the Kleonnaioi and the Orneatai and upon those of the Athenians stationed alonside..." (5.72.4).
Often, the construction ???? followed by a person's name or pronoun in the accusative case refers to that person's colleagues, followers, or retinue, so Thucydides may actually be saying that the Hippeis were in some way attending on the king -- i.e. functioning as a royal guard. Even if we chose not to read it in this particular way in this passage, it still really does convey the idea that the Hippeis were fighting *around* Agis, i.e. that he was embedded in some way within their ranks.
