A Peerless Peer
Page 60
Pitanate
Mesoan
Conouran
Limnate
Amyclaeon
For convenience I have assumed that each lochos was divided into the following companies, with the Lycurgan Company the designation for the reserve units created only during a call-up of 5 age cohorts or more:
(1st) Heraklid Company
(2nd) Kastor Company
(3rd) Polydeukes Company
(4th) Menelaion Company
(5th) Lycurgan Company
The assumption is that roughly 40 men from each lochos retired from active service each year, and were replaced by the young men who had just attained their citizenship. A call-up of one class of reserves thus meant adding 200 additional men to the army. A call-up of 5 classes would mean an additional 1,000 men (see above).
Glossary of
Greek Terms
Agoge
The Spartan public school, attended by all boys from the ages of seven through twenty and by girls for a shorter period–probably from seven until they had their first period. The agoge was infamous throughout Greece for its harshness, discipline, and austerity; however, not–as many modern historians would have us think–for the exclusion of literacy, the arts, or intellectual training from the curriculum. On the contrary, ancient commentators claimed that “devotion to the intellect is more characteristic of Sparta than love of physical exercise.” Furthermore, although the children lived in barracks, they were also introduced to democracy early by being organized into herds, or packs, which then elected their leaders. Nor, as many modern sources suggest, were they completely cut off from their families. They probably went home at holidays (of which there were at least twelve), and would have been able to see parents in the city almost any day. Sparta was a small society, and the agoge was in the middle of it.
Andron
The chamber in a private house where symposia were held. It was often provided with permanent benches or shelves built against the walls for the guests to recline upon.
Aspis
The round shield used by Greek heavy infantry. Often also referred to as the hoplon.
Chiton
The basic undergarment worn by both men and women. It could be long or short, belted or unbelted, and bound at one or both shoulders. Slaves seem more likely to have worn it clasped only on one shoulder, and short chitons for mature men were also associated with unfree status.
Cithara
An ancient stringed instrument.
Eirene
A Spartan youth, aged twenty, on the brink of citizenship and serving as an instructor in the agoge.
Ephors
Executives of the Spartan government elected from among the citizen body for one year. Any citizen could be elected ephor, but no citizen could serve in this capacity for longer than one term.
Enomotia
A unit of between thirty-two and forty men in the Spartan army, commanded by an enomotarch.
Gerousia
The Council of Elders in Sparta. This body consisted of twenty-eight elected members and the two kings. The elected members had to have attained the age of sixty, and were then elected for life. Although this institution was highly praised by commentators from other parts of Greece, who saw in the Council of Elders a check upon the fickleness of the Assembly, the senility of some Council members and the “notorious” timidity of the Council were often a source of frustration among younger Spartans.
Helots
The rural population of Lacedaemon, descended from the original settlers of the area. Helots were not slaves. (See Historical Notes for more information.)
Hetaera
In Athens, an expensive whore, patronized by the very rich. Hetaerae were the only women allowed to take part in symposia. The majority of hetaera were slaves, pimped by their masters.
Himation
The long, rectangular wrap used by both men and women as an outer garment.
Hippagretai
Three men appointed each year by the ephors as company commanders in the royal Guard. Each of the three men selected one hundred men to serve in his company.
Hippeis
The “Knights” or Guards; a three-hundred-strong unit of young Spartiates (aged 21-30) chosen by the hippagretai. They served as the personal bodyguard of the Spartan kings when on campaign, and appear to have also fulfilled certain police functions inside Lacedaemon. Appointment to the Guard was very prestigious and was reversible. Since the appointments were made annually, Guardsmen had to maintain their reputation throughout the year to ensure reappointment. Presumably a change in commander might also result in a change in Guard composition.
Hoplite
A Greek heavy infantryman.
Hoplon
The full kit of a Greek heavy infantryman, including armor, greaves, aspis, spear, and sword. Often used interchangeably with aspis, however, to refer to the round shield alone.
Hydria
A pitcher for water.
Keleustes
The officer aboard a Greek warship who commanded the rowers–watching for problems, relaying orders, and the like. A very important position requiring a great deal of skill, these men were in some ways more “professional” than the captains, who were simply men drawn from the upper classes, often for their ability to finance the construction of a ship. They, along with the helmsmen and bowmen, were the “mates” or “officers” of ancient ships.
Kleros
The land allotment granted each Spartan citizen on maturity as a result of the Lycurgan reforms. A kleros was allegedly large enough to provide for a man and his immediate family; and according to tradition, there were originally six thousand of these allotments. Another three thousand were added in the next century as the population grew, but it is impossible for all kleros to have been equally productive, so that increasing inequalities of wealth were inevitable.
Kothon
A drinking vessel similar to a modern mug, distinctive to Sparta. In most of Greece, drinking cups had two handles; in Sparta, just one.
Krater
A large jar of pottery or bronze for mixing water and wine to the desired level of alcoholic content.
Kryptea
The Spartan “secret police,” made up of young citizens who were tasked with keeping rebellious helots under control. It was probably not formed until after the period described in this novel. (See Historical Notes.)
Kylix
A drinking vessel with a low, shallow bowl on a short stem. These could be quite large, requiring two hands to hold, and were often passed around at a symposium.
Lacedaemon
The correct designation of the ancient Greek city-state of which Sparta was the capital. Lacedaemon consisted originally of only the Eurotas valley in the Peloponnese, Laconia. In the late eighth century BC the valley to the west, Messenia, was captured and remained part of Lacedaemon until the fourth century BC. There were a number of other cities and towns in Lacedaemon, but the bulk of these were inhabited by perioikoi rather than Spartiates. The Spartiates were concentrated in Sparta because of the requirement of attending the messes (syssitia) on a nightly basis.
Lochagos/Lochagoi
The commander of a lochos; lochagoi is the plural form.
Lochos
The main subdivision of the Spartan army; variously compared to a battalion, regiment, or division. It had an estimated peacetime strength of four hundred men and a maximum strength (full call-up of fifteen classes of reserves) of one thousand men. (See appendix on the Presumed Organization of the Spartan Army in 480 BC.)
Mastigophoroi
The assistants to the headmaster of the Spartan agoge, responsible for maintaining discipline among the boys attending the agoge. Also, the assistants to the judges at Olympia, who were responsible for maintaining order among the spectators.
Meleirene
A Spartan youth, aged nineteen, about to become an eirene, and two years from citizenship.
Metoikoi/Metics
In Athens, free men living in the city but not enjoying citizenship status. They were subject to special taxes and in need of an Athenian patron in order to be registered. Anyone living in Athens more than a month without being registered was liable to be arrested and sold into slavery.
Mothakes
In Sparta, youths from families too poor to pay the agoge fees, who were sponsored by other Spartiates. The status carried no stigma after attaining citizenship; and many famous Spartans, including Lysander, were mothakes.
Paidagogos
In Athens, a man, usually a slave, responsible for looking after school-aged boys–essentially, escorting them daily to the grammar master, the singing master, and the palaestra or gymnasium.
Paidonomos
The headmaster of the Spartan agoge.
Palaestra
A public place for exercise, particularly wrestling.
Penteconter
A single-decked, fifty-oared Greek warship, predecessor of the trireme.
Pentekostus
A unit of 100 to 200 men in the Spartan army; similar to a company in the army today, and hence often referred to as such in this series of novels.
Peplos
The most common garment worn by women in Sparta at this period. It was basically a single rectangular cloth, folded vertically in half and sewn up the open side. It was held up by clasps over one shoulder or–if a hole for the second arm was made in the folded side–by clasps at each shoulder. Spartan women continued to wear this garment after it was out of fashion elsewhere, and the fact that it was left open from the thigh down for greater ease of motion earned them the (derogatory) epithet of “thigh throwers.”
Peristyle
A courtyard surrounded on all sides by a colonnaded walkway.
Perioikoi
A non-citizen resident of Lacedaemon. Like the helots, the perioikoi were descendants of the non-Greek native population of the area prior to the Dorian invasion of the Peloponnese in roughly 900 BC. The perioikoi enjoyed free status and ran their own affairs in their own towns and cities, but had no independent state, military, or foreign policy. The perioikoi–like the metics in other Greek cities–were required to pay taxes to the Lacedaemonian authorities. They also provided auxiliary troops to the Spartan army. Since Spartiates were prohibited from pursuing any profession or trade other than arms, the perioikoi had a (very lucrative) monopoly on all trade and manufacturing in Lacedaemon.
Phouxir
The “fox time,” an uncertain period during a Spartan youth’s upbringing when he was required to live “off the land” and outside of society. I have chosen to place this period at the end of boyhood and before youth and to fix the duration at forty days. Some historians believe it lasted as long as a year. It was during–and only during–this period that stealing by the boys was tolerated by society. Otherwise, stealing was considered demeaning–although, obviously, a skill once learned could be used again if detection was avoided.
Pilos
A felt cap worn under the Greek battle helmet, or as a head covering against the cold; also worn by helot attendants without helmets.
Polemarch
A military commander.
Spartiate
A full Spartan citizen; that is, the legitimate son of a Spartan citizen, who has successfully completed the agoge, served as an eirene, and been admitted to the citizen body at the age of twenty-one.
Stade
The length of the Olympic stadium. It was used to measure distances in ancient Hellas.
Stoa
An open, roofed area supported by columns. In its simplest form, it is little more than a portico built against a building. More elaborate buildings, such as Pausanias describes in his travel guide to Greece, might have several rows of pillars. They could be round or rectangular in shape; and Pausanias reports on several of these structures in Sparta, most built at a later date than those described in this novel.
Symposium
A dinner or drinking party, popular in Athens. These could include intellectual discourse or be characterized by erotic entertainment and excessive drinking–or both.
Syssitia
Spartan messes or dining clubs. Adult Spartiates were all required to join one of the many existing syssitia when they attained citizenship at age twenty-one. Thereafter, they were required to dine at these messes nightly unless excused for such things as military duty, athletic competition, or hunting. The existing members of each syssitia had to vote unanimously to admit an applicant. Recent research suggests that membership in the various syssitia may have been based on family ties or clan relationships, but this is not certain. They were not, however, merely military messes based on military units, and they were explicitly designed to encourage men of different age cohorts to interact. Each member was required to make set contributions in kind (grain, wine, oil, and so on) and was expected to make other gifts, particularly game, in accordance with his means. Failure to pay the fees was grounds for loss of citizenship, and failure to attend the meals without a valid excuse could result in fines or other sanctions.
Thetes
The lowest class of Athenian citizens, who, although they were freemen, generally owned no land and could not afford hoplite panoply, let alone horses. They manned Athens’ fleet of triremes, receiving pay for this service, and also made up the majority of the bodies voting in the Assembly or serving as jurors in trials. At the start of the Peloponnesian War there were an estimated sixty thousand thetes in Athens.
Also by
Helena P. Schrader
This is Sparta—as you’ve never seen it before
The smaller of twins, born long after two elder brothers, Leonidas was not raised as a prince, but rather had to endure the harsh upbringing of an ordinary Spartan youth. Barefoot, always a little hungry, and struggling to survive without disgrace, he never expected that one day he would be king or chosen to command the combined Greek forces fighting a Persian invasion. But these were formative years that would one day make him the most famous Spartan of them all: the hero of Thermopylae.
Two cities at war;
Two men with Olympic ambitions;
And one slave–the finest charioteer in Greece.
This is the tale of one man’s journey from tragedy to triumph–and the story of the founding of the first nonaggression pact in recorded history: the Peloponnesian League.
A lame Athenian schoolmaster, sent to Sparta against his will—
An ambitious Spartan officer, struggling to overcome the shame of his birth—
And the widow of a hero, struggling to raise two young sons and a daughter in the midst of a vicious war—
These narrators tell the story of how the Spartans forged a revolutionary society under a radical new constitution after a period of unrest, and describe Sparta during the Second Messenian War.
Overnight, the beautiful Messenian princess Niobe and her disfigured slave Mika become captives of the dreaded Spartans. While Niobe’s beauty attracts the attention of Prince Anaxilas, Mika is sent to work for an ordinary Spartan wife and her daughter, Kassia. Yet Niobe soon provokes the hostility of the Spartan queen, and Anaxilas turns his affections from Niobe to Kassia.
As the novel unfolds, the role of beauty and its impact on human interactions is explored, right up to the unexpected ending.