Sciritae
group · 2 works · 2 mentions · 4 anchored passages
the Sciritae
in the texts
History of the Peloponnesian War
A distinct body of Lacedaemonian troops that traditionally held the extreme left wing of the Spartan battle line, broken by the Mantineans at the start of the battle of Mantinea.
Agis therefore, being afraid that their left might be surrounded, and thinking that the Mantineans were extending too far beyond it, gave orders for the Sciritae and Brasidean soldiers to advance from their position with a part of their number, and equalize their line to that of the Mantineans;
For when they had come to close quarters with their opponents, though the right wing of the Mantineans broke their Sciritan and Brasidean corps, and the Mantineans and their allies, with the thousand picked men of the Argives, rushing in through the open and unclosed part of the line, cut up the Lacedaemonians, having surrounded and broken them, and drove them to the baggage waggons, and killed so …
And so, on that occasion, the Mantineans reached with their wing far beyond the Sciritae, and the Lacedaemonians and Tegeans farther still beyond the Athenians, inasmuch as their army was larger than theirs.
Cyropaedia
Troop group used as a comparative example for dangerous rear-guard service.
For this reason the Assyrians used to employ them as the Spartans do the Sciritae, sparing them neither in hardships nor in dangers.