158 Notes to Pages 25–26
342b–c, Grg. 515e. See also Jeanmaire, Couroi et courètes, 542–50, and Thomas J. Figueria, “The
Spartan Hippeis,” in S W, 57–84. Cf. Thuc. 4.55 and Xen. Hell. 4.4.10–12 with Ephorus FGrH 70
F149: the three hundred hıppeîs were apparently not a cavalry unit in the strict sense, but rather
an elite infantry unit that accompanied the king—perhaps at first on horseback—to and from
engagements: see Greenhalgh, EGW, 94–95 and Chapter 3, below. Victory in the Olympic Games
apparently guaranteed election by the hıppagrétaı: consider Xen. Hell. 2.4.33 in light of Plut. Lyc.
22.8. During the march of Xenophon’s Ten Thousand to the sea, the Spartan Cheirisophus appears
to have organized a similar elite unit: Xen. An. 3.4.43. Note the various groups of three hundred
Spartan warriors mentioned in the sources: Hdt. 1.82.3, 7.202, 205.2 (which should be read with
220.3–4), 9.64.2; Xen. Hell. 6.5.31. Institutions of similar import are instanced elsewhere: see Mar-
cel Detienne, “La Phalange: Problèmes et controverses,” in Problèmes de la guerre en Grèce an
cienne, ed. Jean-Pierre Vernant (Paris: Mouton, 1968), 134–42; Pritchett, GSW, II 221–25; and
Geneviève Hoffmann, “Les Choisis: Un Ordre dans la cité grecque?” Droit et cultures 9–10 (1985):
15–26, and note Tac. Germ. 13.3–14.1. For an overview, see J. E. Lendon, “Spartan Honor,” in Polis
and Polemos: Essays on Politics, War, and History in Ancient Greece, ed. Charles D. Hamilton and
Peter Krentz (Claremont, CA: Regina Books, 1997), 105–26.
- Agathoergoí: Hdt. 1.67.5 with David Whitehead, “Ephorus(?) on the Spartan Constitu-
tion,” CQ n. s. 55:1 (May 2005): 299–301. There is no evidence specifying when a Spartiate ceased
to be a hēbōˆn. In ordinary speech, the term is used to refer to those who have become adults but
have not yet reached old age: see Tazelaar, “paides kai epheboi,” 143–46, 150. Most scholars,
nonetheless, assume that a man would leave the royal bodyguard when he reached his thirtieth
birthday: see, most recently, ibid. 150; Hodkinson, “Social Order and Conflict of Values in Classi-
cal Sparta,” 242, 244–47; MacDowell, SL, 66–68; and Cartledge, Agesilaos, 204–5. There are two
reasons for doubting that this was the case. There is evidence that the Spartans employed the terms
néoı and neō ́teroı to distinguish warriors under the age of forty-five from the presbúteroı (below,
Appendix 2); and in the Hellenica (3.3.8–11), Xenophon appears to use both terms, as synonyms
for hēbōˆntes, to designate the hıppeîs commanded by the hıppagrétaı. Furthermore, in the
Lakedaımoníōn Polıteía (4.3), he not only tells us that the hıppagrétaı were chosen from among the
hēbōˆntes; he adds that they were selected from among the akmázontes. In ordinary Greek parlance,
the last-mentioned term would normally be used to refer to a man over thirty years in age: Pl. Resp.
5.460e–461a. It is hard to believe that a people notorious for being inclined to honor their elders
would think that a man had reached his akmē ́ earlier than that, and it is even harder to believe that
they would be willing to entrust the royal guard to the command of men so young. - Eligible for magistracies: Xen.Lac. Pol. 4.6–7 with 2.2. Eligible for permission to travel
abroad: Isoc. 11.18, Pl. Prt. 342c–d. If my hypothesis as to the central importance of a man’s forty-
fifth birthday is correct (Appendix 2), the exclusion of all but presbúteroı from political office
would be yet another sign of the exaggerated respect that the Spartans showed to those of ad-
vanced age. Note that it was contrary to custom [paranómōs] for the Spartans to send hēbōˆntes
abroad as governors [árchontes] of allied cities: Thuc. 4.132.3. In this connection, see Arist. Pol.
1332b12–1333a16.
6 2.Bachelors subject to civic disabilities and rituals of harassment and humiliation: Clearchus
of Soli F73 (Wehrli); Plut. Lyc. 15.1–3, Lys. 30.7, Mor. 227e–f; Stob. Flor. 67.16; Poll. Onom. 3.48,
8.40, read in light of Xen. Lac. Pol. 1.6. Cf. Hdt. 2.80.1, Xen. Lac. Pol. 9.4–6. Clandestine nocturnal
visits to wives: Xen. Lac. Pol. 1.5; Plut. Lyc. 15.6–10, Mor. 228a should be read in conjunction with
Appendix 2, below. Relations within Spartan marriages: Nilsson, “Die Grundlagen des spartanischen
Lebens,” 849–62. Cf. Lupi, L’Ordine delle generazioni, 65–194, with Nigel Kennell, “Age-Class So-
cieties in Ancient Greece,” AC 43 (2013): 1–73 (esp. 24–42), and see Pomeroy, S Wo, 33–71.
63.Wife-sharing: Xen. Lac. Pol. 1.7–9, Plut. Lyc. 15.12–13, Nicolaus of Damascus FGrH 90
F103Z. Fraternal polyandry: Polyb. 12.6b.8. Marriage for procreation only: Plut. Comp. Lyc. et
Num. 4.1. Apatheía with regard to wife: 3.4. Matrimony slighted: Joseph. Ap. 2.273. See Stavros
Perentidis, “Réflexions sur la polyandrie à Sparte dans l’antiquité,” RD 75:1 (1997): 7–31, and “Sur
la polyandrie, la parenté, et la définition du mariage à Sparte,” in Parenté et société dans le monde
grec de l’Antiquité à l’âge moderne, ed. Alain Bresson et al. (Paris: Diffusion du Boccard, 2006),
131–52. Note Ludwig Ziehen, “Das spartanische Bevölkerungsproblem,” Hermes 68 (1933): 218–
37, who suspects that polyandry was a reaction to the sexual imbalance produced at Lacedaemon