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The siege was proving more difficult until Flamininus arrived with 4,000 Roman soldiers. [6] With the arrival of the new soldiers, the allied soldiers were encouraged and began bombarding the city again with their siege engines while the Rhodian and Pergamese fleet continued to put pressure on the Spartans from the sea.
Upon spotting the small group of Roman soldiers, a group of Spartan troops sallied forth from the gates and skirmished with the Romans about 300 paces from the city walls. The Romans forced the Spartans to retreat back into the city. [23] Flamininus moved his camp to the position where the skirmish had occurred.
The Persian army seems to have made slow progress through Thrace and Macedon. News of the imminent Persian approach eventually reached Greece in August thanks to a Greek spy. [49] At this time of the year, the Spartans, de facto military leaders of the alliance, were celebrating the festival of Carneia.
Like the other Greek city-states' armies, the Spartan army was an infantry-based army that fought using the phalanx formation. The Spartans themselves did not introduce any significant changes or tactical innovations in hoplite warfare, but their constant drill and superb discipline made their phalanx much more cohesive and effective.
The Roman army had not yet seen elephants in battle, [77] and their inexperience turned the tide in Pyrrhus' favour at the Battle of Heraclea in 280 BC, [74] [77] [79] and again at the Battle of Ausculum in 279 BC. [77] [79] [80] Despite these victories, Pyrrhus found his position in Italy untenable.
The majority of the Spartan army had accompanied Areus on campaign in Crete, where the Lacedaimonians were supporting the polis of Gortyn. [20] As such, Sparta must have seemed like an easy target to Pyrrhus. [15] Arriving outside Sparta in the evening, Cleonymus advised Pyrrhus to attack immediately to take advantage of the dearth of defenders.
Appian says he was "a Thracian by birth, who had once served as a soldier with the Romans, but had since been a prisoner and sold for a gladiator". [9] Florus described him as one "who, from a Thracian mercenary, had become a Roman soldier, that had deserted and became enslaved, and afterward, from consideration of his strength, a gladiator". [10]
Contrary to other city states, the free citizens of Sparta served as hoplites their entire lives, training and exercising in peacetime, which gave Sparta a professional standing army. Often small, numbering around 6000 at its peak to no more than 1000 soldiers at lowest point, [ 35 ] divided into six mora or battalions , the Spartan army was ...