Spartan Royal Guard

[spartan]

Does any one have any information on how the Royal Guard was selected?

[hoplite14gr]

Well there was no guard as we understan it, in the sence of Pretorians or the English Houshold Troops.

There were Three Hippagretae selecting the 300 best hoplites out of the Homioi. The Spartan King would have them at his disposal at any time as Leonidas did but they were not his guards.

Frpm Plutrachs morals we hear of the Spartan who refused to sell a fight because if he was an Olympic champion he would have the privledge to fight at the king's side. The king had two bodyguards in battle that they were eithe Olympic champions od Pythian Champions.

Probably Ephors commanding detachments might be given a similar privilege.

Kind regards

[spartan]

Out of interest what is your source?

I have not really read much on the Spartans for several years, would you be kind enough to draw up a introductory reading list?

[Paullus Scipio]

Stefanos wrote:

The king had two bodyguards in battle that they were eithe Olympic champions od Pythian Champions

...is there any other reference for this, other than the anecdote you refer to, since most commentators seem to agree that the hero of it would simply be sufficiently prominent as to be chosen for the Hippeis, rather than literally 'beside the King'. What would happen if there were more than two Olympic/Pythian/Other Games Champions in Sparta at the time ? Would an Olympic champion necessarily make a good bodyguard ?

Also we are specifically told that the 300 who went with Leonidas were not the Hippeis. The [i]Ephors[/i] chose three Hippagretae "from men in their prime", who then chose 100 men each, who by implication were young men under 29 i.e. unmarried.
Herodotus reports that Leonidas "appointed/assigned" his men from those who had sons i.e. married and over 30, rather than took the Hippeis.

We often hear ( e.g. Sphacteria) of Spartan select forces of around 300, which was most probably done by selecting one enomotia of 25 or more from each of the 12 lochoi. (the tradition of "men with sons" sounds suspiciously like hindsight, that Leonidas knew they were a 'suicide squad', which seems unlikely ( see Herodotus 7.206 ).
Leonidas was himself over 60 at the time, and if he selected one enomotia from each lochoi consisting of age groups 30-54, this gives us 300.

However it was done, it seems Leonidas' men were the older 'men in their prime', or at least a specially chosen group for the mission, and not the younger Hippeis, who presumably stayed in Sparta with the other King....
Also, surely the Hippeis were a 'Royal Bodyguard' in the sense that they were almost certainly a separate unit, and in any case definitely fought around the King in battle?

[PMBardunias]

Would an Olympic champion necessarily make a good bodyguard ?

Which flank of Agiselaos did Kyniska guard?

[hoplite14gr]

Chariot racing prize could be won by representative.
Someone raced for Kyniska and probaly got his position near the king.

Similar case with Philip II whose chariot won in Olympia but he was on campaign.

In a society were all were http://trained good warriors selecting the Game Champions was a good way not disappoint the majority and the final choice was privilege of the king. There are limited info on this institution. It was proble that the king could rotate his "parastatae" and politics might be a cause.

Kind regards

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

It would make more sense to me if the hippeis were not a stable unit and if the Hipagretai had more work to do,meaning each one would have to find 100 soldiers every time the king would be on campaign. This would make the 300 chosen for Thermopylae the actual hippeis.
After all we haven't heard anything of the hippeis when not on campaighn. Nor have we heard that they have supported the king in Sparta for example.
Khairete
Giannis

[PMBardunias]

Chariot racing prize could be won by representative.
Someone raced for Kyniska and probaly got his position near the king.

I seriously doubt this. The whole point of Kyniska running her chariot is that it is the horses, not the driver who is important.

[hoplite14gr]

The only woman who managed to gain entry near the stadium during the Olympic games was Kalipateira. So Kyniska is out of the question.

Kind regards

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

I think nobody stated that Kynisca was on the chariot. Rather that the chariot driver was not considered a champion,and wan not treated like one.