SPARTAN SCIRITAE

Sciritae picture supplied by Jim Carrozza

The Sciritae or Skiritai were a people subject to Sparta, whose status was equal to that of the Perioeci.  They lived in Skiritis, a mountainous region located in northern Laconia on the border with Arcadia, between the Oenus and the Eurotas rivers.

According to the 6th century BC geographologist Stephanus of Byzantium and the 5th century BC grammarian and lexicographer Hesychius of Alexandria, the Sciritae were of Arcadian origin. Their way of life was essentially rural: they mostly lived in villages, of which the biggest were Oion and Caryai. Their territory was inhospitable, but was of strategic importance for Sparta since it controlled the road to Tegea which explains why it rapidly fell in Spartan hands.

In war, the Sciritae formed an elite corps of light troops, a loche  ( Lochos Skirites) of about 600 men, which were used as a complement to the main army. According to Thucydides (v. 67), they fought on the extreme-left wing in the battle-line, the most threatening position for the opposing hoplite phalanx:  "In this battle the left wing was composed of the Sciritae, who in a Lacedaemonian army have always that post to themselves alone".

At night, they were placed as sentinels ahead of the army and, according to Xenophon in his  Constitution of the Spartans, xii. 3  “acted as scouts to open the way for the king, whom they only could precede”.

In the Cyropaedia  (IV, 2), Xenophon compares them to the Hyrcanian cavalry, used by the Assyrians as rear-guard.

It is not known when Sciritae were first used in the Spartan army. The earliest mention of them is by Thucydides referring to them in his own time at the battle of Mantinea in 418 BC.

It is also not known how they would have been armed and equipped as information given by Thucydides, Xenophon & Eupolis is patchy and conflicting. However, all the various classical literary and relief sources suggest a natural progression of arms, equipment and utilisation of these specialist troops.

To begin with it appears that Sciritae were always positioned on the left of the Spartan line were they faced the unshielded right flank of the opposing phalanx. It seems very unlikely that Perioeci class troops, fighting as hoplites, would be allocated a position where they could (presumably) overlap an opposing phalanx line and gain a significant advantage, thus robbing the full Spartiatae in the centre of the glory of victory. Missile-armed troops though, were different. They were not considered crucial to the outcome of a battle and were rarely referred to as being part of an army where only the numbers of hoplites (or shields) were counted. Furthermore there are numerous accounts of hoplite battles where depth is sacrificed to match the length of the opposing phalanx line. It would therefore suggest that Sciritae were not armed and equipped as hoplites otherwise their positioning would always have been negated by opposing forces.

This theory is further strengthened by the relief on a 6th century BC pithos found at Sparta, which depicts a foot-soldier, with metal helmet and sword, fighting among the armoured hoplites, but wearing an animal skin instead of breastplate and shield. Furthermore he is seen using a large stone as a missile weapon. Another fragment of an Athenian relief honouring the dead lost in a year in the late 5th or early 4th century BC  shows a fallen Athenian hoplite and, behind him, a figure of a light infantryman dressed in a tunic, with pilos helmet and an animal skin wrapped around his left shoulder as both a cloak and shield. His left hand is clasped as if holding a javalin and he has a short sword in his right hand.

Both Thucydides & Xenophon refer to Sciritae as being more mobile or faster-moving than the main Spartan army. Similarly, coming from a mountainous region, living in villages, not towns or cities, their historic and natural way of fighting would have been tribal in nature as individual skirmishers, not hoplites.

Furthermore, Thucydides describing the Spartan army at Mantinae writes “seven lochoi fought exclusive of the Sciritae, of whom there were six hundred………….they were drawn up not all alike, but according to the wishes of individual Lochagoi, though an average of eight deep……………..the Sciritae were not drawn up in the same depth as the rest”.

Again this account by Thucydides, speaking of hoplite lochoi being “exclusive of the Sciritae”, and “ the sciritae were not drawn up in the same depth as the rest” further suggests that the Sciritae were not fighting as hoplites. Xenophon in Hellenica V iv 52 mentions that Sciritae were used to advance in front of the rest of the hoplite army or to harry the enemy’s retreat.

So we can reasonably deduce that Sciritae were used as scouts, skirmishers, foragers, and in battle, as light missile-armed troops to harass the opposing right-flank of a phalanx line.

It must be remembered that Greek hoplites fought in closely packed formations, their aspis koile (“hollow shield”) held on the left arm in front of them half-protecting the man on their left, their dory (thrusting spear) held in their right hand raised above the head. Thus the right side of an individual was exposed, resulting in hoplite armies drifting to the right to gain the protection of the left-side of the shield of the warrior to their right. The file on the extreme right of a phalanx army, having no warrior to their right in whose shield to seek protection, would have been vulnerable to attack from their right. It is because of this that the position of honour given to the best units was on this vulnerable right flank.

Imagine then yourself, in the outside right file, on the right flank of a hoplite force trying to maintain your courage as you face a Spartan phalanx ahead, suddenly assailed by fast-moving missile troops on your unprotected right side. The demoralising effect is obvious.

We can assume that Sciritae fought in this way until sometime around the Peloponnesian War when their use seems to have changed to a more hoplite role. There could be many reasons for this: hoplite man-power shortages within Sparta; faster moving and better armed/equipped troop types (peltests & cavalry) amongst the Athenians and their allies or possible something of a dual role for the Sciritae combining a lightly-armoured hoplite with the flexibility of skirmishers, almost a peltest troop type.

What is reasonable sure though, is their role changed again in the 4th century BC  when they reverted to a skirmish role and were often used in conjunction with Spartan cavalry, either riding double with the cavalryman, or holding on to saddle or harness with feet in saddle-loops. In this way missile-armed skirmishers and cavalry could be deployed rapidly and each support the other. Sciritae and cavalry were used in this way at the battle of Tanagra in 377 BC. Phillip of Macedon was later to copy this tactic when he re-organised the Macedonian army in and his son Alexander used the same combined unit to great effect at  Gaugamela in 331 BC

Sciritis became independent after the battle of Leuctra in 371 BC. From that point the Spartans had to rely on mercenary peltests to perform the tasks previously done by the Sciritae. The Sciritae themselves remained loyal allies but only accompanied the Spartan army when it engaged in long campaigns.

Author: Steve Senior
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