Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/366

 344 HISTORY OF GREECE. did the Lacedaemonians continue for a long time, poorly provided for defence, and altogether helpless for aggression, without being able to approach at all nearer to the Athenian hoplites. At length the Lacedaemonian commander, seeing that his position grew worse and worse, gave orders to close the ranks and retreat to the last redoubt in the rear : but this movement was not accom- plished without difficulty, for the light-armed assailants became doubly clamorous and forward, and many wounded men, unable to move, or at least to keep in rank, were overtaken and slain. 1 A diminished remnant, however, reached the last post in safety, and they were here in comparative protection, since the ground was so rocky and impracticable that their enemies could not attack them either in flank or rear : though the position at any rate could not have been long tenable separately, inasmuch as the only spring of water in the island was in the centre, which they had just been compelled to abandon. The light-armed being now less available, Demosthenes and Kleon brought up their eight hundred Athenian hoplites, who had not before been en- gaged; but the Lacedaemonians were here at home 2 with their weapons, and enabled to display their well-known superiority against opposing hoplites, especially as they had the advantage There has been doubt and difficulty in this passage, even from the time of the Scholiasts. Some commentators have translated TTI/.OI covs or 7ite. others, padded cuirasses of wool or felt, round the breast and back : se the notes of Duker, Dr. Arnold, Poppo, and Goller. That the word Tri/Uj is sometimes used for the helmet, or head-piece, is unquestionable. sometimes even (with or without #a/l/coi)f ) for a brazen helmet (ee Aris tophan. Lysis. 562 ; Antiphanes ap. Athenae. xi, p. 503) ; but I cannot think that on this occasion Thucydides would specially indicate the head of the Lacedaemonian hoplite as his chief vulnerable part. Dr. Arnold, indeed, offers a reason to prove that he might naturally do so ; but in my judgment the reason is very insufficient. TliXoi means stuffed clothing of wool or felt, whether employed to pro- tect head, body, or feet : and I conceive, with Poppo and others, that it here indicates the body-clothing of the Lacedaemonian hoplite ; his body being the part most open to be wounded on the side undefended by the shield, as well as in the rear. That the word nlTioi will bear this sense may be seen hi Pollux, vii, 171 ; Plato, Timaeus, p. 74; and Symposion, p. 220, c. 35: re- specting mAof as applied to the foot-covering, Bekker, Charikles, vcl ii p. 376. ' Thucyd. iv 35
 * Thucyd. iv, 33. ~;/ atteTt-pp t/n-eip'ta xprjaaadac, etc.