Spartan Mora regiments at Battle of Plataea

[Ghostmojo]

Sparta had four group dwellings (Komae).
Pitana was one of them. Sources mix ususally the names of units and sub units.
Amofaretos commanded the Pitanates lochos - the unit formed from those who dwelled in Pitana ...

I don't think it is as simple as that Stefanos. Aristophanes (perhaps) incorrectly said there were four lochoi at Plataia (based upon the four villages) but Wade-Gery states there would have been five regiments present in 479[size=85:2b0hp4kw]BC[/size] - based upon the alternate five village (komai/obe) version which gave us Edolos, Sinis, Arimas, Ploas and Mesoages named units. This five unit Obal army having replaced an earlier tripartite tribal army based upon the three Dorian sub-groups. Thukydides muddies the water by stating there were seven (without the Skiritai). Aristotle later chipped in with various quotes as to five lochoi, seven lochoi and six morai!!! :roll: A certain Photios claimed Aristotle said there were seven lochoi and that Thukydides spoke of five. Confused? You will be :lol: .

If Amompharetos was an Eirene (as Herodotos says he was) and the Eirenes were brigaded separately from the adult citizen troops (as they were) and this brigade was subdivided into four lochoi (as it might well have been) then it becomes a bit clearer. The Eirenes were organised along different lines from the main citizen morai. Herodotos also records the names of three other Eirene captains who fell valiantly at Plataia. It is tempting to assume he is remarking upon the four lochagoi of the Eirene regiment.

In any event that would suggest the battalions of the youth (in 479 at least) might have been named after four of the villages even if the main army morai weren't. Those villages were of course Limnai, Konooura, Mesoa and Pitana. Remote Amyklai also had obal status after 750[size=85:2b0hp4kw]BC[/size] (if not before), and there has also been reference to another - Arkaloi - but this is far less certain. Troops from Amyklai appeared in all morai a hundred years later when the army subdivisions no longer were geographic.

In short, I think the whole matter of Amompharetos and the Pitanate Lochos refers to the Eirene brigade, and not the main citizen army, at Plataia.