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Short description

Even Spartiates could fight on horseback, but they lacked the tradition and skillset of better known Greek cavalry.

Description

Spartan cavalry did exist, but these were not the Spartan elite themselves: while the horses were in possession of the Hippeis class, they had men from the lower classes fight on them. Such emergency cavalry forces could be activated at any time even into the 3rd century, but they never played a big role militarily. Armed with a long spear or lance and protected by a medium sized aspis shield, these men can serve to hunt enemy skirmishers or fleeing forces, but they are no match for the professional and experienced cavalry of the Hellenistic kingdoms.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

In a Greek polis, the cavalry was usually made up of the wealthiest men, those who belonged to the class of Hippeis, the ones who could afford a horse (hippos). In Sparta, however, the members of the Hippeis class usually did not keep horses and fought on foot, as the Greek historian Ephoros of Kyme (ca. 400-330 BC) stresses in his famous comparison between Spartans and Cretans (the latter did fight on horseback, at least initially; see Ephoros in Strab. X, 4, 18, C481). Accordingly, Thoukydides mentions them as the “so called Hippeis” (Thuk. V, 72, 4). These Lakedaimonian Hippeis were 300 selected men, usually in their mid-20s, who were renowned as the best warriors among the homoioi. Xenophon writes in his Constitution of the Lakedaimonians: “The Ephors, then, pick out three of the very best among them. These three are called Commanders of the Guard. Each of them enrols a hundred others, stating his reasons for preferring one and rejecting another” (Xen. Const. Lac. 4,3). This royal guard was reserved for the service of the Spartan kings themselves, only once, during the Graeco-Persian Wars, did the Lakedaimonians decide to give Themistokles the Athenian this kind of escort (Hdt. VIII, 124, 3).

While initially a separate unit, the Hippeis later became part of the regular Morai (regiments) of the Spartan army and were mauled by the Theban Sacred Band at the Battle of Leuktra in 371 BC (Figuieria, The Spartan Hippeis, in: Sparta and War, 2006). Afterwards, Spartan military power diminished, but we do find mention of Spartan horsemen from the late 5th century BC. In the half-mythical age of King Lykourgos, they had apparently had a larger body of cavalry that fought in square like formations in so called oulamoi (Philostephanos in Plut. Lyc. 23, 1). Though a large mounted army of the Spartan forces is not known from historical times, it may well have been organised in oulamoi – that is, if it was ever bigger than one oulamos, as the ancient authors often imply that the number of Lakedaimonian horsemen was extremely low. According to Thoukydides (IV, 55, 2), they hastily formed 400 archers and riders together to counter Athenian raiding during the Peloponnesian War, but it is unknown how big the percentage of cavalry was.

In any case, Spartan cavalry did exist, but these were not the Hippeis: while the horses were in possession of the Hippeis and other wealthy Spartiates, they had men from the lower classes fight on them, in the same way as a tyrant could be declared winner of the Olympic Games if his hired crew won the chariot race. Xenophon (Hell. VI, 4, 10-11) relates: “(…) The cavalry of the Lakedaimonians was exceedingly poor at the time (of the wars against Thebes). For the richest men kept the horses, and it was only when the ban was called out that the appointed trooper presented himself; then he would get his horse and such arms as were given him, and take the field on the moment's notice. As for the men, on the other hand, it was those who were least strong of body and least ambitious who were mounted on the horses.” These emergency cavalry forces could be activated at any time even into the 3rd century, but they never played a big role militarily.