dis2@houxm.UUCP (A.NESTOR) (12/15/83)
Re:the phalanx Laura Creighton correctly points out that the phalanx was developed by Alexander the Great (think of all the "was he? wasn't he?"speculation about him!) and cannot therefore be applied to the Spartans or any other Greek army before Alexander or his father, Philip. The phrase should have been "Spartan hoplites". A hoplite was a "citzen soldier" who armed and trained himself and went to battle at his own expense to fight for the common good. Consequently hoplites never fought in for- mations but simply side by side in lines. The Spartans were also suspect because the state supervised the training of its hoplites. The phalanx became possible only with a professional, trained army, something which did not exist in Greece until after the Pelopenessian War. In the Republic, Plato ( another one?) was the first to advocate a military class, which his contemporaries regarded as something un- Greek and more suited to the barbaroi. The treachery of Alicibiades (The Fair!!??), a semi-professional soldier, and his faction was one reason for the condemnation of Socrates(????). Note that Alexander and Philip were Macendonians and thus barbaroi. Their defeat of the Athenians is regarded as the final end of the "Golden Age" of Greece. Re:Creighton The name, Creighton , is from the Scotch Crichton (i.e Creek Town). The spelling as Creighton is an English adaptation. The British stiil pronounce it as "criitton" (the terminal has no diacritical marks) ,while the Americans pronounce it as "craation". There are also the labialised variants, "cliiton" and "claation". Thus one sees Creigh- ton, Crichton, Crayton, Clayton. I have been called all four (and many other things!!). I have never seen Cliton or Cleiton, but these are at least possible. I have often wondered about the orgins of the name of Creighton University in Omaha. Creighton Clarke
laura@utcsstat.UUCP (Laura Creighton) (12/18/83)
Whoops. I said that Philip of Macedon invented the phalanx. Alexander used it, however. Philip is Alexander's dad. He organised the Macedonian barbarians into a fighting force that was able to capture Greek. This was a tough thing. My Creightons are (probably, my grandfather couldn't get it really traced as accurately as he wanted) supposed to be Crichtons. They were Scotch barbarians who were having a fine enough time of it until the English introduced taxation, which they weren't so fond of. The English needed to have a name to tax, and so they called the Crichtons Creightons (something which they could pronounce). My ancestors were in no position to dispute the matter, seeing as *writing* was a new-fangled thing which real barbarians didn't need to know anything about. They tried to end the whole issue by declaring war on the English, were soundly beaten and executed -- except for the escapees which migrated to Ireland. laura creighton utzoo!utcsstat!laura