Killer of Men - Christian Cameron [3]
Pais A child.
Palaestra The exercise sands of the gymnasium.
Pankration The military martial art of the ancient Greeks – an unarmed combat system that bears more than a passing resemblance to modern MMA techniques, with a series of carefully structured blows and domination holds that is, by modern standards, very advanced. Also the basis of the Greek sword and spear-based martial arts. Kicking, punching, wrestling, grappling, on the ground and standing, were all permitted.
Peplos A short over-fold of cloth that women could wear as a hood or to cover the breasts.
Phalanx The full military potential of a town; the actual, formed body of men before a battle (all of the smaller groups formed together made a phalanx). In this period, it would be a mistake to imagine a carefully drilled military machine.
Phylarch A file leader – an officer commanding the four to sixteen men standing behind him in the phalanx.
Polemarch The war leader.
Polis The city. The basis of all Greek political thought and expression, the government that was held to be more important – a higher god – than any individual or even family. To this day, when we talk about politics, we’re talking about the ‘things of our city’.
Porne A prostitute.
Porpax The bronze or leather band that encloses the forearm on a Greek aspis.
Psiloi Light infantryman – usually slaves or adolescent freemen who, in this period, were not organised and seldom had any weapon beyond some rocks to throw.
Pyrrhiche The ‘War Dance’. A line dance in armour done by all of the warriors, often very complex. There’s reason to believe that the Pyrrhiche was the method by which the young were trained in basic martial arts and by which ‘drill’ was inculcated.
Pyxis A box, often circular, turned from wood or made of metal.
Rhapsode A master-poet, often a performer who told epic works like the Iliad from memory.
Satrap A Persian ruler of a province of the Persian Empire.
Skeuophoros Literally a ‘shield carrier’, unlike the hypaspist, this is a slave or freed man who does camp work and carried the armour and baggage.
Sparabara The large wicker shield of the Persian and Mede elite infantry. Also the name of those soldiers.
Spolas Another name for a leather corslet, often used for the lion skin of Herakles.
Stade A measure of distance. An Athenian stade is about 185 meters.
Strategos In Athens, the commander of one of the ten military tribes. Elsewhere, any senior Greek officer – sometimes the commanding General.
Synaspismos The closest order that hoplites could form – so close that the shields overlap, hence ‘shield on shield’.
Taxis Any group but, in military terms, a company; I use it for sixty to three hundred men.
Thetes The lowest free class – citizens with limited rights.
Thorax See corslet.
Thugater Daughter. Look at the word carefully and you’ll see the ‘daughter’ in it …
Triakonter A small rowed galley of thirty oars.
Trierarch The captain of a ship – sometimes just the owner or builder, sometimes the fighting captain.
Zone A belt, often just rope or finely wrought cord, but could be a heavy bronze kidney belt for war.
General Note on Names and Personages
This series is set in the very dawn of the so-called Classical Era, often measured from the Battle of Marathon (490 BC). Some, if not most, of the famous names of this era are characters in this series – and that’s not happenstance. Athens of this period is as magical, in many ways, as Tolkien’s Gondor, and even the quickest list of artists, poets, and soldiers of this era reads like a ‘who’s who’ of Western Civilization. Nor is the author tossing them together by happenstance – these people were almost all aristocrats, men (and women) who knew each other well – and might be adversaries or friends in need. Names in bold are historical characters – yes, even Arimnestos – and you can get a glimpse into their lives by looking at Wikipedia or Britannia online. For more in-depth information, I recommend Plutarch and Herodotus, to whom I owe a great