Arrian\'s \"Ektaxis kat\' Alanon\" transl issue

[Macedon]

I am not sure regarding the probability of the word actually having been "peltastae".

You may be interested in the theory of Maurizio Colombo, in Historia 60.2 (2011) -- which I have just noticed! -- that the correct reading is ὁπλῖται. Regarding Müller's θυρεαφόροι, he makes the same point as me (namely, that there is no palaeographic logic to such a corruption). However, he believes that Müller's version better captures the sense of the passage -- some kind of heavy infantry -- than Hercher's πελτασταί, while noting (as I did, above) that Hercher's makes better palaeographic sense.

Colombo argues that the legionary and auxiliary infantry are routinely called ὁπλῖται in Arrian and other sources, and that the term is used here to designate "legionaries armed with the pilum". (He thinks that it makes sense palaeographically, too, if the original had been written in uncials.)

Exactly my thinking... thx. I wasn't aware of M. Colombo's theory! Darn he got me there by a year it seems...