Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/409

 THEBAN HOP1 fTES. 387 rere termed the heniochi and parabatae, charioteers and com- panions ; a denomination probably handed down from the Ho- meric times, when the foremost heroes really combated in char- iots in front of the common soldiers, but now preserved after it had outlived its appropriate meaning. 1 This band, composed of the finest men in the various palaestrae of Thebes, and enjoy- ing a peculiar training for the defence of the kadmeia, or citadel, was in after-days detached from the front ranks of the phalanx, and organized into a separate regiment under the name of the Sacred Lochus, or Band : we shall see how much it contributed to the short-lived military ascendency of Thebes. On both flanks of this mass of Boeotian hoplites, about seven thousand in total number, were distributed one thousand cavalry, five hundred peltasts, and ten thousand light-armed or unarmed. The lan- guage of the historian seems to imply that the light-armed on the Bosotian side were something more effective than the mere mul- titude who followed the Athenians. Such was the order in which Pagondas marched his army over the hill, halting them for a moment in front and sight of the A dienians, to see that the ranks were even, before he gave the word for actual charge. 2 Hippokrates, on his side, apprized 1 Diodor. xii, 70. Hpoe/iaxovTo 6e TTUVTUV oi irap' eneivoie 'Hvio^ot KO.I ai Kahovftevoi, uvSpeg kmfanTot rpcaKoatot. . . .01 6s Qrjfialoi dia- raif TUV au/j.aruv pu/xaif, etc. Compare Plutarch, Pelopidas, c. 18, 19. Boeotians) TOV %,6ov not eftevro T& drrha TETay/j.evoi uairep l/ze/l/lov, etc. I transcribe this passage for the purpose of showing how impossible it is to admit the explanation which Dr. Arnold, Poppo, and Go'ller give of these words e&evro ra oTrha (see Notes ad Thucyd. ii, 2). They explain the words to mean, that the soldiers " piled their arms into a heap," dis- armed themselves for the time. But the Boeotians, in the situation hero described, cannot possibly have parted with their arms, they were just on the point of charging the enemy: immediately afterwards, Pagondas gives the word, the paean for charging is sung, and the rush commences. Pagondas had, doubtless, good reason for directing a momentary halt, to see that his ranks were in perfectly good condition before the charge began. But to command his troops to " pile their arms " would be the last thing that he would think of.
 * Thucyd. iv, 93. Ka? kTceidfi /ca/laif avrolf el%v, vTrepEuvrjaav (the