Spartan Mora regiments at Battle of Plataea

[Paralus]

The potted, abridged and pocket Readers’ Digest Toynbee is:

• * There is the Spartan army of Herodotus (Plataea).
  * There is the Spartan army of Xenophon.

Briefly, Toynbee states that the in the army of Plataea Periocoi and Spartiates are brigaded separately. The army is brigaded into five lochoi which are commanded by lochagoi

In the army of Xenophon (and of Mantinea) Spartiates and Periocoi are brigaded together and the army is now made up of six mora which are commanded by polemarchs. The “big change” occurred sometime after the great earthquake.

Lastly, Thucydides fails to take into account that the mora is the largest unit in the Mantinean army and Thucydides’ numbers should be doubled as there were six morai and one more of “Brasideans and neodamodeis”.

The other side is:

• * The Brasideans and neodamodeis are indeed separate units and not the “Lacedaemonians themselves” as above.
  * Polemarchs appear in Herodotus’ army: “The general of the Lacedaemonians was Euaenetus son of Carenus, chosen from among the Polemarchs, yet not of the royal house…” (7.173.2)
  * The Lacedaemonians comprised both the Periocoi and Spartiates (as I’ve opined above).

The latter view relies on the fact that Herodotus gives the dispositions for battle (7.28.2-3) with the 10,000 “Lacedaemonians” holding the right wing:

On the right wing were ten thousand Lacedaemonians; five thousand of these, who were Spartans, had a guard of thirty-five thousand light-armed helots, seven appointed for each man. The Spartans chose the Tegeans for their neighbors in the battle…

Herodotus has used both the terms “Spartiates” and “Lacedaemonians” in this description. One doesn’t suppose that the Spartiates stood alongside the Tegeans (next to their left) and allowed the other 5,000 “Lacedaemonians” (obviously the Periocoi) to hold the extreme right. It would seem more likely that they made up the rear ranks of the 10,000 Lacedaemonians.

As already noted, Herodotus records dead Tegeates and dead Spartiates but no dead Periocoi. Perhaps they were in the rear four ranks? Perhaps, at Mantinea, the army of Xenophon was yet to appear and lochos was the correct term?

Hey! Don't mix up your Pauls. I would never have commented on Herodotus and Thucydides writing anything about the aftermath of Leuktra. hock:

He, he. Perhaps you should become "New Bruce"?

Toynbee's suggestion, not mine and not one I believe, is that the "Mora" was composed of coupled lochoi, one of Spartiates and one of Periokoi. His explanation of the "lost" lochoi at Mantinea was that Thucydides calls the combined pair "lacedaimonian" lochoi and thus undereports it by half. I found the paper if anyone is interested.

Yes please...