Xiphos
ZIF-os
Attested elsewhere in ancient sourcesThe short straight sword carried on a hoplite's hip, drawn when the spear was gone. The Spartan version was shorter than most, and remarked on for it.
Plutarch preserves the exchange in the sayings of the Spartans: asked why their swords were so short, a Spartan king answered that they fight close to the enemy.
It is the second weapon, not the first. A man reaching for it has already lost the spear, which means the line has already broken.
Sources
- Plut. Apophth. Lac. (Agis)
- Xen. Lac. 11
References are to the standard divisions of the ancient texts, not to any one edition.
Acenes of Sparta: The Dragon Slayer
A dragon is the reason the 300 died. Leonidas used the magic of the gods to bind Kalaxes beneath Taygetus, and the price was his life and his men's. Sixty-two years later a seven-year-old of the agoge falls into the dragon's crypt and inherits the unpaid balance.
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