Among the Spartans, the honorary title of Hippeis, or Knights,
was given to the members of a chosen body of three hundred
young men, the flower of the Spartan youth, who had not
reached thirty years of age. "Their three leaders were called
Hippagretæ, although in war they served not as cavalry but as
hoplites. The name may possibly have survived from times in
which they actually served on horseback." At Athens the term
Hippeis was applied to the second of the four property classes
into which Solon divided the population,—their property
obliging them to serve as cavalry.
_G. Schömann,
Antiquity of Greece, The State,
part 3, chapters 1 and 3._
See, also, ATHENS: B. C. 594.
HIPPIS, Battle of the,
Fought, A. D. 550, in what was known as the Lazic War, between
the Persians on one side and the Romans and the Lazi on the
other. The latter were the victors.
_G. Rawlinson,
Seventh Great Oriental Monarchy,
chapter 20._
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