Paradoxically we have more information on the Spartan breakdown of units in their phalanx than for the Athenian. I say paradoxically because Athenian writers (Thucydides and Xenophon especially) wrote these breakdowns, perhaps because the Athenian system was familiar to their readers and the Spartan system differed markedly. In contemporary fifth and fourth century BC Spartan armies the lochos were also used and they too must have been of different strengths. It was also a larger division in Spartan armies with smaller divisions below it. At the battle of Mantinea in 418 BC we are given precise numbers of 512 men for each Spartan lochos (Thucydides 5.68.3 – 32 men in each enomotia, four enomotia in a pentekostyes of 128 men, four pentekostyes per lochos). Later, in the fourth century BC,…
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Ancient Warfare (Digital) - 1 Issue, AW XVI.5