11-24-2009, 02:14 PM
Quote:Good post, Ariobarzanes!
" But with rest of their army, and especially the centre*, where King Agis was himself with his Guard or "in the midst of his Bodyguard",
but rather the Hippeis are associated with and part of "the rest of their army" ( i.e. not the defeated Brasidioi, Neodamodeis and Sciritae)
* The King will have been on the right of the 'Spartan' army, with the allied Arcadians, Maenilians and Tegeans stretching away to his right, thus placing him in the centre portion of the Army as a whole.
Sorry about the omission of my real name -- it's fixed now.
Anyway, if the question is "Were the Hippeis primarily a royal guard" then I think the answer must be "no", since they seem to have been constituted as a "civic" body and since after all we see them functioning in other capacities (e.g. in the Cinnadon affair, in which one of the Hippagretai seems to have despatched some of the Hippeis with Cinnadon on his "mission" [X. H. 3.3.9]).
But that said, it's perfectly defensible to argue that from 1st Mantinea onward, the Hippeis customarily fought "in attendance on the King" or "around the King" (???? ??? ???????) when they were on the field, whether as a whole body or in a sizable detachment. After all, that's exactly where we find them in those little bits of evidence in which it's possible to identify their tactical location on the field: at 1st Mantinea, where they fought "in attendance on Agis", and at Leuktra, where Xenophon's language seems to suggest that we should consider them among those who fought "in attendance on Kleombrotos" (???? ??? ???????????, ?.?.6.4.13, assuming we should accept the emendment from hippoi to Hippeis).
