Hypaspists

Hearing this, Onesilus said to his hypaspist, a Carian of great renown in war and a valiant man ...[2]A similar usage occurs in Euripides's play Rhesus[3] and another in his Phoenissae.[4][clarification needed] A hypaspist would differ from a skeuophoros in most cases because the "shield bearer" is a free warrior and the "baggage carrier" was probably usually a slave.The protection/remedy for this vulnerability was the Hypaspists, who were able to conduct maneuvers and use tactics, which, owing to their hoplite panoply of weapons and armor, would have been impossible (or at least much less effective) if performed by the phalangites.All the references to a unit called "Hypaspists" are much later than the period of Philip, and modern historians have to assume[citation needed] that later sources, like Diodorus Siculus[7] (1st century BC) and Arrian,[8] had access to earlier records.Arrian's phrase tous kouphotatous te kai ama euoplotatous[9]) has frequently been rendered as 'lightest armed', although Brunt [10] concedes it is more properly translated as 'nimblest' or 'most agile'.