Unit Browser for RTR: Imperium Surrectum

Short description

Picked young Hoplites, tasked with guarding the Kings of Sparta.

Description

In their armament, the Spartan bodyguards (hippeis) were no different than the rest of the Spartiate Hoplites, but for the bronze muscle cuirass which they all wore. The emblem on their shields is the snare in a "Π" shape and the two snakes on their vertical limbs stand for the twin protectors of Sparta, the Dioskouroi Kastor and Polydeukes. The snake in the middle is the symbol of " Athena Chalkioikos ", literally the “Athena living in a bronze house”, the city goddess of Sparta.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

In a Greek polis, those who could afford a horse (hippos) were known as Hippeis, and accordingly fought on horseback. 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 as cavalry, 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 (Hippagretai). Each of them enrols a hundred others, stating his reasons for preferring one and rejecting another” (Xen. Const. Lac. 4,3). As Figueira (‘The Spartan Hippeis’, in: Sparta and War, 2006, p. 63) rightly points out, the Hippagretai must have chosen their men in turns, similar to the drafting system in US sports, as otherwise the first of the commanders could have just gone and chosen the best 100 men available. Losses were usually replaced in the next selection round, as there seems to have been no age restriction, but a constant challenge by those left out to become part of the unit. The spirit of the unit is exemplified by one Pedaritos, who, according to Plutarch (Mor. 231b), was overlooked in the selection process, yet left the field smiling brightly. When asked why he was so happy despite not having made it, he is said to have replied: "I am very pleased that Sparta has 300 men better than me." Finally, it should be mentioned that victors at the Panhellenic games seem to have had a special right to join the Hippeis and fight just next to the king (for more information, see: Figueira 2006, p. 64).

The 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. In battle, they were sometimes accompanied by parapistes, young Spartan servants or Helots equipped as skirmishers or actual horsemen (with the horses owned by the Hippeis; Dion. Hal. AR II, 13, 4) that made the unit much more flexible. At the Battle of Leuktra in 371 BC, however, all of this was fruitless, as the Hippeis were mauled by the Sacred Band of Thebes (Figueira 2006, p. 72). Despite suffering as much as the rest of the Spartan army in the century leading up to 270 BC, they retained their old glory and would be feared opponents on the battlefield. The decline of the agoge in the early 3rd century, however, would mean they were less rigorously trained than their predecessors of ages gone by.