The Ekdromoi

During the battle of Lechaeum the hoplites aged between twenty and thirty were ordered to chase off the attacks being made by the peltasts of Iphicrates (Hellenica 4.5.15). These men were clearly operating as ekdromoi – a term first used by Thucydides of Brasidas’ tactic in 423 BC (4.125.3). Brasidas’ selected “The youngest men of his soldiers he appointed to run out upon the enemy when they charged the army anywhere” and, it seems this tactic was adopted in Agesilaus’ army too. Xenophon does not use the term ekdromoi, however. Xenophon describes the same tactic used by Pausanias in 403 BC in the Piraeus (Hellenica 2.4.32) where “he ordered the cavalry to charge upon them at full speed, and the infantrymen within ten years of military age to follow the…

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Ancient Warfare (Digital) - 1 Issue, AW XVIII.1

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