The Sciritae or Skiritai or Skioreitai or Skioritai (

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: ) were a people subject to

Sparta Sparta ( Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, ''Spártā''; Attic Greek: Σπάρτη, ''Spártē'') was a prominent city-state in Laconia, in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (, ), while the name Sparta referre ...

, whose status is comparable to that of the

Perioeci The Perioeci or Perioikoi (, ) were the second-tier citizens of the '' polis'' of Sparta until 200 BC. They lived in several dozen cities within Spartan territories (mostly Laconia and Messenia), which were dependent on Sparta. The ''perioeci' ...

. Deriving their name from the town of Skiritis, a mountainous region located in northern Laconia on the border with Arcadia, between the

Oenus Oenus was a legendary king of the Britons as accounted by Geoffrey of Monmouth. He was preceded by Cap and succeeded by Sisillius III Sisillius III () was a legendary king of the Britons as accounted by Geoffrey of Monmouth. He was preceded ...

and the

Eurotas In Greek mythology, Eurotas (; Ancient Greek: Εὐρώτας) was a king of Laconia. Family Eurotas was the son of King Myles of Laconia and grandson of Lelex, eponymous ancestor of the Leleges. The '' Bibliotheca'' gave a slight variant of th ...

rivers. According to Stephanus of Byzantium and

Hesychius of Alexandria Hesychius of Alexandria ( grc, Ἡσύχιος ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς, Hēsýchios ho Alexandreús, lit=Hesychios the Alexandrian) was a Greek grammarian who, probably in the 5th or 6th century AD,E. Dickey, Ancient Greek Scholarship (2007 ...

, the Sciritae were of Arcadian origin. Their way of life was essentially rural: they mostly lived in villages, of which the biggest were Oion and Caryai. Their territory was inhospitable, but was of strategic importance for Sparta since it controlled the road to

Tegea Tegea (; el, Τεγέα) was a settlement in ancient Arcadia, and it is also a former municipality in Arcadia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the Tripoli municipality, of which it is a municipal un ...

, which explains why it rapidly fell in Spartan hands. Their status was similar to that of the Perioeci, but

Xenophon Xenophon of Athens (; grc, Ξενοφῶν ; – probably 355 or 354 BC) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian, born in Athens. At the age of 30, Xenophon was elected commander of one of the biggest Greek mercenary armies o ...

distinguished between them writing: "To meet the case of a hostile approach at night, he assigned the duty of acting as sentries outside the lines to the Sciritae. In these days the duty is shared by foreigners, if any happen to be present in the camp."Xenophon, Constitution of the Lacedaimonians 12.3
/ref> In war the Sciritae formed an

elite corps In political and sociological theory, the elite (french: élite, from la, eligere, to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. D ...

light infantry Light infantry refers to certain types of lightly equipped infantry throughout history. They have a more mobile or fluid function than other types of infantry, such as heavy infantry or line infantry. Historically, light infantry often fought ...

, a ''lochos'' (

battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions a ...

) of about 600 men, which were used as a complement to the civic army. According to

Thucydides Thucydides (; grc, , }; BC) was an Athenian historian and general. His '' History of the Peloponnesian War'' recounts the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of " scienti ...

v. 67
, they fought on the extreme-left wing in the battle-line, the most threatening position for the hoplite

phalanx The phalanx ( grc, φάλαγξ; plural phalanxes or phalanges, , ) was a rectangular mass military formation, usually composed entirely of heavy infantry armed with spears, pikes, sarissas, or similar pole weapons. The term is particularly ...

: "In this battle the left wing was composed of the Sciritae, who in a Lacedaemonian army have always that post to themselves alone". At night, they were placed as sentinels ahead of the army (

, ''Constitution of the Spartans'', xii. 3) and acted as scouts to open the way for the king, whom they only could precede. According to Suda, they were six hundred men and during the battle they were the first to engage and the last to withdraw. In the ''

Cyropaedia The ''Cyropaedia'', sometimes spelled ''Cyropedia'', is a partly fictional biography of Cyrus the Great, the founder of Persia's Achaemenid Empire. It was written around 370 BC by Xenophon, the Athenian-born soldier, historian, and student of Soc ...

'' (IV, 2), Xenophon compares them to the

Hyrcania Hyrcania () ( el, ''Hyrkania'', Old Persian: 𐎺𐎼𐎣𐎠𐎴 ''Varkâna'',Lendering (1996) Middle Persian: 𐭢𐭥𐭫𐭢𐭠𐭭 ''Gurgān'', Akkadian: ''Urqananu'') is a historical region composed of the land south-east of the Caspian ...

n cavalry, used by the Assyrians as rear-guard.

References

* Edmond Lévy ''Sparte : histoire politique et sociale jusqu’à la conquête romaine, Seuil, coll. « Points Histoire »'',

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, 2003 *{{in lang, ru}
А. Зайков. ''Скириты и вопрос о лакедемонском гражданстве''
/ ''Skiritai and the question of Lakedaimonian citizenship'' (with English summary). Published in: Issedon - ΙΣΣΕΔΩΝ: Almanac of Ancient History and Culture. Ekaterinburg: The Ural State University Press, 2007. Vol. 4. P. 26-58.

External links

Information Gathering in Classical Greece
by Frank Santini Russell (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999)

Social classes of Sparta Military units and formations of ancient Greece Ancient Greek titles Combat occupations Military units and formations of ancient Greece

See also

References

External links