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The existence of a Pitanate λόχος is totally denied by Thucydides, i. 20 (cf. vi. 57. 5 n.), who is echoed by Hesychius (s. v. Πιτανάτης Πιτανάτης λόχος αὐτοσχεδιάζεται, οὐκ ὢν ταῖς ἀληθείαις. Nevertheless Caracalla, in forming a number of young Spartans into a λόχος Πιτανάτης, believed himself to be imitating ancient usage (Herodian, iv. 8). There is a good deal of evidence for the view that the earliest λόχοι at Sparta were local corps, probably five in number (cf. Gilbert, G. C. A. p. 68 f.). Schol. Arist. Lysist. 454 λόχοι γὰρ οὐκ εἰσι τέτταρες ἐν Λακεδαιμονίᾳ ἀλλὰ πέντε, Ἑδῶλος Σίνις Ἀρίμας Πλοὰς Μεσσοάγης; cf. schol. Thuc. iv. 8 and Hesychius, who cites Aristotle as the authority for five λόχοι. H.'s 5,000 Spartiates (cf. 10. 4) perhaps represents a corps of 1,000 from each Spartan village. We may explain the direct contradiction in Thucydides by supposing that H. has made a mistake as to the name of the λόχος, since Pitana, though an important suburb (cf. iii. 55. 2), was not, according to the scholiasts, one of the ‘quarters’ after which the λόχοι were called, or less probably by the fact that the organization of the Spartan army, which was kept a secret (Thuc. v. 68), had been changed before Thucydides wrote, probably at the time of the Helot revolt (circ. 464 B. C.), so that a denial true for his own day might be false for the time of the Persian war.

ξείνους: cf. ch. 11. 2 n.

οὐ παραγενόμενος. This looks like a hypothesis invented to explain absence of opposition earlier, but Amompharetus may have been on outpost duty with his regiment.

Εὐρυάναξ: cf. ch. 10. 3 n., 55. 1.

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