In my earlier post 'The poor defeating the rich' Tylluan and Usksider have raised an interesting question. The wealthy men of society became hoplite soldiers fighting from horseback with either sword or lance. They believed that hand-to-hand fighting was the only method of warfare that was moral and dignified.

It would seem to be true that as Tylluan and Usksider pointed out, the wealthy hoplites disapproved of the poor classes for wounding and killing them with a bow and arrow, a weapon that did not allow the hoplites to fight the enemy hand-to-hand.

A passage in Herodotus mentions that the Spartan Kallikrates was shot in the side by an arrow at the battle of Plataea and died complaining that he had not struck a blow or done a deed to match his eagerness.

The added detail that Kallikrates was ‘sitting in his rank’ at the time suggests the Spartans sat on the ground to avoid the arrow-storm, presumably crouching under their shields. This may account for the reason why the Greeks always had an ambivalent attiude towards the bow, even though it was such an effective weapon.