Note 807 — Chapter VIII · CONQUESTS OF SPARTA TOWARDS ARCADIA AND ARGOLIS.

Meursius, Dr. Arnold, and Rachetti (Della Milizia dei Grechi Antichi, Milan, 1807, p. 166) all think that lochus and mora were different names for the same division; but if this is to be reconciled with the statement of Xenophon in Repub. Lac. c. 11, we must suppose an actual change of nomenclature after the Peloponnesian war, which appears to be Dr. Arnold’s opinion,—yet it is not easy to account for.

There is one point in Dr. Thirlwall’s Appendix which is of some importance, and in which I cannot but dissent from his opinion. He says, after stating the nomenclature and classification of the Spartan military force as given by Xenophon, “Xenophon speaks only of Spartans, as appears by the epithet πολιτικῶν,” p. 521: the words of Xenophon are, Ἑκάστη δὲ τῶν πολιτικῶν μορῶν ἔχει πολέμαρχον ἕνα, etc. (Rep. Lac. 11.)

It appears to me that Xenophon is here speaking of the aggregate Lacedæmonian heavy-armed force, including both Spartans and Periœki,—not of Spartans alone. The word πολιτικῶν does not mean Spartans as distinguished from Periœki, but Lacedæmonians as distinguished from allies. Thus, when Agesilaus returns home from the blockade of Phlius, Xenophon tells us that ταῦτα ποιήσας τοὺς μὲν συμμάχους ἀφῆκε, τὸ δὲ πολιτικὸν οἴκαδε ἀπήγαγε (Hellen. v. 3, 25).

O. Müller, also, thinks that the whole number of five thousand seven hundred and forty men, who fought at the first battle of Mantineia, in the thirteenth year of the Peloponnesian war, were furnished by the city of Sparta itself (Hist. of Dorians, iii. 12, 2): and to prove this, he refers to the very passage just cited from the Hellenica of Xenophon, which, as far as it proves anything, proves the contrary of his position. He gives no other evidence to support it, and I think it in the highest degree improbable. I have already remarked that he understands the expression πολιτικὴ χώρα (in Polybius, vi. 45) to mean the district of Sparta itself as contradistinguished from Laconia,—a construction which seems to me not warranted by the passage in Polybius.