Having thus increased the efficiency of "the hands of the army," to use his own metaphor ( Plut. This he effected by substituting a small target for the heavy shield, adopting a longer s word and spear, and replacing the old coat of mail by a linen corslet, while he also made his soldiers wear light shoes called afterwards, from his name, Ἰφικρατίδες. The system now adopted by the belligerent parties of mutual annoyance, by inroads on each other's territories, seems to have directed the attention of Iphicrates to an important improvement in military tactics - the formation of a body of targeteers ( πελτασταί) possessing, to a certain extent, the advantages of heavy and light-armed forces. 393 we find him general of a force of mercenaries in the Athenian service at Corinth and in this capacity he took part in the battle of Lechaeum, wherein the Lacedaemonian commander, Praxitas, having been admitted within the long walls of Corinth, defeated the Corinthian, Boeotian, Argive, and Athenian troops. It was from this exploit, if we may believe Justin, that the Athenians gave him the command of the forces which they sent to the aid of the Boeotians after the battle of Coroneia, when he was only 25 years old. 394) and bringing off the captain to his own trireme. He first brought himself into notice by gallantly boarding a ship of the enemy (perhaps at the battle of Cnidus, B. ( Ἰφικράτης), the famous Athenian general, was the son of a shoemaker, whose name seems to have been Timotheus.
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