Any actual proof of Lambda on Aspis?

[Prowler0508]

I don't see how thinking of reasons Spartans could have adopted or invented a practice connects them to that practice in any way.

Xenophon isn't specific enough as to how many of those shields had sigma upon them (I overlooked Giannis' point about very few being enough for recognition, but I find it a good one), what size they were, and did the letter stand alone or was it only a part of a device, as seen in coins.

I didn't get the impression that Xenophon described uniformity - a completely new fashion or agreement of uniform writing capital letters on shields that suddenly replaced an age old custom, which no historian bothered to note, including him. It would, even by his time, be fairly new, and change radical enough it would be worth noting. What is more, if we are to believe Eupolis and Theopompus really said what Photius said they did, and that it wasn't an Athenian joke, they neither express the unusualness of by then certainly new and revolutionary change in shield decoration. Even centuries later, Pausanias, for example., suspicious for his detailed accounts, never mentioned such radical change, even though he talked about shield devices quite a few times (all of them being quite typical).

So, it makes me think Xenophon described nothing more than an usual presence of letters on shields, in some shape or form. By Sikyonians.

Even if you argue them being recognized by Argives proves some sort of widespred practice, that again doesn't necessarily mean Spartans followed it as well, unless you want to argue a Panhellenic phenomenon, which I don't think is reasonable way to go.

Following the logics of letters upon state provided items like coins, and parallel with athletic shields with letter devices (being state provided), we can also conclude such letter symbols may have appeared in some form only on state provided shields, which doesn't mean simply uniform shields for the whole army, and for every Greek state.

Anyhow, our reasoning alone can never stand as a fact. Making something appear logical doesn't mean that logics were followed in real life. I am sure we would reject many ancient practices and equipment based on reasons we can think against them, hadn't they been already found.

Judging by the complete lack of contemporary evidence, even non contemporary evidence, except the problematic medieval reference to a quote of a quote (and it's comedic context), L should be transfered to from a ''fact'' (and we can agree it is already established as a fact, even outside pop culture) group to an ''unlikely possibility'' group.