Ischola'us
or I'SCHOLAS (
Ἰσχόλαος,
Ἰσχόλας), a Spartan, who, when the Peloponnesus was invaded by the Thebans and their allies in B. C. 36(9, was stationed at the village of Ium or Oium, in the district of Sciritis, with a body of
νεοδαμώδεις and about 400 Tegean exiles.
By occupying the pass of the Sciritis, he might, according to Xenophon, have succeeded in repelling the Arcadians, by whom the invasion was made in that quarter: but he chose rather to make his stand in the village, where he was surrounded and slain, with almost all his men. Diodorus, who lauds his valour somewhat rhetorically, and compares him with Leonidas at Thermopylae, tells us that, when he saw that the number of the Arcadians rendered resistance hopeless, he disdained to leave his post,but sent away the young soldiers of his force to Sparta to serve her in her impending danger, while he himself and the older men remained behind, and died fighting bravely. (
Xen. Hell. 6.5. §§ 24-26;
Diod. 15.64; comp.
Plut. Pel. 24,
Ages. 31.)
This is probably the same Ischolaus who is mentioned by Polyaenus (
2.22).
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