Between honour and tactics. The deployment for the “hoplite” battle

Abstract

Scholarship has taken for granted the pre-eminence of the right side in the array according to a long-standing reading the debate before the Plataea’s battle (Hdt., IX 26-27). In this essay, we will review the positions among scholars and the same Herodotean chapters to suggest an alternative explanation. Then, reading some battle of the 5th and 4th centuries, we will advance an interpretation of the deployment process that is workable with cultural settings and tactics.