Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Cretan archers were a well known class of warrior whose specialist skills were extensively utilized in both ancient and medieval warfare. [1] They were especially valued in armies, such as those of the Greek city-states, (notably Athens, Sparta, Eretria, and Macedonia) and those of ancient Rome, which could not draw upon substantial numbers of skilled archers from their native populations.
Since the early 3rd century BC, the pilos helmet had become almost standard within the Spartan army, being in use by the Spartans until the end of the Classical era. [citation needed] Also, after the "Iphicratean reforms," peltasts became a much more common sight on the Greek battlefield, and themselves became more heavily armed.
In Book 7, he recounts that when the Persians sent envoys to the Spartans and to the Athenians demanding the traditional symbol of surrender, an offering of soil and water, the Spartans threw them into a well and the Athenians threw them into a gorge, suggesting that upon their arrival at the bottom, they could "Dig it out for yourselves." [6] [7]
Seeking the counsel of Demaratus, an exiled Spartan king in his retinue, Xerxes was told the Spartans were preparing for battle, and it was their custom to adorn their hair when they were about to risk their lives. Demaratus called them "the bravest men in Greece" and warned the Great King they intended to dispute the pass.
In 412 the agents of Tissaphernes, the Great King's governor of such parts of the coast of Asia Minor as he could control, approached Sparta with a deal. The Great King would supply funds for the Spartan fleet if the Spartans would guarantee to the king what he considered ancestral lands; to wit, the coast of Asia Minor with the Ionian cities.
This is the case of Plutarch in his Life of Cimon: [64] the helots of the Eurotas River valley want to use the earthquake to attack the Spartans whom they think are disarmed. The intervention of Archidamus II , who calls the Lacedaemonians to arms, simultaneously saves them from the earthquake and the helot attack.
The Argive side lost about 1,100 men (700 Argives and Arcadians, 200 Athenians and 200 Mantineans), and the Spartans about 300. [9] The Spartans sent an embassy to Argos and the Argives accepted a truce by the terms of which they gave up Orchomenus, and all their hostages and joined up with the Spartans in evicting the Athenians from Epidaurus.
The Lacedaemonion Politeia (Ancient Greek: Λακεδαιμονίων Πολιτεία), known in English as the Polity, Constitution, or Republic of the Lacedaemonians, or the Spartan Constitution, [1] [2] [3] is a treatise attributed to the ancient Greek historian Xenophon, describing the institutions, customs, and practices of the ancient Spartans.