Page:History of Greece Vol IX.djvu/371

 IPfflKRATES ATTACKS THE MORA. 349 hi battle order not far from the gates ; while Iphikrates with hia peltasts began his attack upon the Lacedasmonian mora in fianka and rear. Approaching within missile distance, he poured upon them a shower of darts and arrows, which killed or wounded sev- eral, especially on the unshielded side. Upon this the polemarch ordered a halt, directed the youngest soldiers to drive off' the assailants, and confided the wounded to the care of attendants to be carried forward to Lechaeum. 1 But even the youngest soldiers, encumbered by their heavy shields, could not reach their nimbler enemies, who were trained to recede before them. And when, after an unavailing pursuit, they sought to resume their places in the ranks, the attack was renewed, so that nine or ten of them were slam before they could get back. Again did the polemarch give orders to march forward ; again the peltasts renewed their attack, forcing him to halt ; again he ordered the younger soldiers (this time, all those between eighteen and thirty-three years of age, whereas on the former occasion, it had been those between eighteen and twenty-eight) to rush out and drive them off. 2 But the result was just the same : the pursuers accomplished nothing, and only suffered increased loss of their bravest and most forward 1 Xen. Hellcn. iv, 5, 14. TOVTOV^ [iev luelievov roi)g vTraaTriaraf upa/ae vovg uKotpepetv if Ae%aiov ' OVTOI Kal [iovoi TTJS fiopaf T fj aTirf&eip kaudrjaav. We have here a remarkable expression of Xenophon, " These were the only men in the mora who were really and truly saved." He means, I pre- sume, that they were the only men who were saved without the smallest loss of honor; being carried off wounded from the field of battle, and not having fled or deserted their posts. The others who survived, preserved themselves by flight ; and we know that the treatment of those Lacedaemo- nians who ran away from the field (oi rpe<ravref), on their return to Sparta, was insupportably humiliating. See Xenoph. Rep. Laced, ix, 4 ; Plutarch, Agesil. c. 30. We may gather from these words of Xenophon, that a dis- tinction was really made at Sparta between the treatment of these wounded men here carried off, and that of the other survivors of the beaten mora. The vTraairiaTai, or shield-bearers, were, probably, a certain number oi Hellen. iv, 8, 39 ; Anab. iv, 2, 20), persons of importance, and rich hoplites. It saems hardly to be presumed that every hoplite had an viraaKiaTijf, in spite of what we read about the attendant Helots at the battle of Platsea (Herod, ix, 10-29) and in other places.
 * ttendants, who habitually carried the shields of the officers (compare Xen.
 * Xen. Hellen. iv, 5, 15, 16. ra diKa a' rj'3rif TO