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IAN OLIVER

University of Colorado Boulder

A Spartan officer whom Herodotus names as commander (lochagos) of the Pitanate division (lochos). Amompharetus initially refused to follow PAUSANIAS’ orders to retreat at PLATAEA in 479 BCE (9.53–57) and was one of four honored Spartans buried in a special tomb at the site of the battle (9.85.2; cf. 9.71.2). The exact status of these men remains a mystery: the MANUSCRIPTS read “priests” (irees, accus. ireas), but many scholars have found this unlikely, nor is there any indication in the main narrative of Amompharetus’ actions that he was a priest (Wilson 2015, 186–88). An eighteenth‐century editor’s emendation to the rare term (e)irenes—which designated an age‐group at SPARTA, perhaps men between the ages of 20 and 29—was challenged in the late twentieth century but recently defended (Makres 2009). Still, the lochos was a large unit unlikely to be trusted to an (e)iren, and the reason for the division of the Spartan dead into three tombs—these four men, the rest of the Spartiates, and the HELOTS—remains unclear (see Flower and Marincola 2002, 255–56).

Since Spartans rarely disobeyed their commanders, and those who did were punished severely and certainly not buried with HONOR like Amompharetus (Lendon 2005, 71–72), the historicity of Amompharetus’ refusal to retreat has also been questioned. Explanations include: i) Herodotus has mistaken Amompharetus’ role as rearguard (Lazenby 1993, 236–37); ii) the Spartan value of holding one’s ground outweighed obedience in this instance (Lendon 2005, 77); iii) Herodotus contrived this passage to emphasize Amompharetus’ heroic cast (Flower and Marincola 2002, 201).

SEE ALSO: Aristodemus the Spartan; Armies; Burial Customs; Pitane (Sparta)