Marcello Lupi | Session 3 of the Battle of Plataea Conference
Channel: The Center for Hellenic Studies
Date: 2022-06-29

The Spartan Army at Plataea. Demography and Tribal Order

Marcello Lupi (The University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”)

According to Herodotus, five thousand Spartiates, that is the youth (neótes) of the city, took part in the battle of Plataea and his testimony is probably the main information we have on the number of Spartan citizens in the age of the Persian wars (Hdt. 9.10.1; cf. 7.234.2). At the same time – and although some recent studies have largely undermined the foundations of this theory – the idea is still widely held that the Spartiates fought at Plataea divided into five battalions (lóchoi), each representing one of the five villages (óbai) alleged to constitute the city of Sparta. As this paper aims to show, once the theory of this presumed obal army has been rejected, it is much easier to assume that the Spartan army in this period was still organized according to the three Dorian tribes and their subdivisions. The implications of some ancient sources (the New Simonides; Demetrios of Skepsis fr. 1 Gaede) as well as Herodotus’ figures on Spartan demography during those years appear to support this reconstruction.