The Assyrian monuments likewise exhibit specimens of heavj'-armed soldiers e(|inp- ped with shield and spear. Ancient Assyrian Spear- See Spearman. man.
SPEAR, Holy, a lance with a serpent twined about it, carrying a lantern for the new fire on Easter-eve.
Spear, Eli.jah, a minister of the INIethodist Epis- copal Cliurch, was born at Hartford, Vt., in 1795. He was converted and commenced preaching in 1814, and entered the travelling ministry in 1819. He received the ordination of deacon June 24, 1821, and that of elder June 15, 1823. In 1827 he was returned as superannu- ated, and sustained that relation most of the time until his death, in Pomfret, Vt.. Dec. 27, 1863. See Minutes of Annual Conferences, 1864, p. 110.
Spearman is the rendering in the A. V. of one Heb. and one Greek word.
1. T\'i'p, kaneh, a reed (as often rendered) in the phrase nip r^TI, chaydth Icaneh, reed-beast (A. V. improperly " company of the spearmen''}, i. e. the crocodile (q. v.), as a symbol of Egypt.
2. HilioXal^oQ,' dexiolabos. This is the Greek word which, in the plural, is rendered "spearmen" in the A. V. of Acts xxiii. 23. As it does not occur in the clas- sical writers, and only this once in the Scriptures, it is
Heads of Small Ancient E^'vptiau Javelins. (Alnwick Museum aud Thebes.)
IX.— M M M
SPEARMAN
914
SPEARMAN
uncertain wliat kind of soldiers is denoted by it. It Btriclly sifjnifu'S one who covers or guards the right side of any one. Ilenee it Jias heen conjectured that, in the alxive |iiissat;e, ii denotes olHcers who performed the ttaine finictions in the cainf) as lictors did in tlie city — Ix'iiii; n|i|>iiinled to appreht'nil tiialcfa<^lors, and to guard criiniiials wlien h-d to execution, and called CfXto^iijioi from takiiif^ tlie right hand of the prisoner, who was iHiund to the left hand of the guard. This explanation it, however, deduced entindy from the etymology of the wiird. and is open to the olijeclion arising from tlie im- pr>il>al>ilily that sucli a luimhcr of military lictors woidd lif on duty with the forces of the triltune, as that two hundred of them at a time could lie ready to depart with <Hic priHoiier. It seems prefcralilc, therefore, to under- ■tancl the word as denoting the guard of the tribune. Nor i* this contrnry to the etymology, since guarding the rl'j/ii fide may be taken liguralively to mean guard-
ing the whole person. Xor is it strange that these choice troops should be employed on this duty, since the service was iin|)ortant and delicate. 'Ihe guarding of prisoners to l)e tried before C;vsar was ol'uii. nt Ki-nie, committed to the ])r;etorians. — Kitto. C>ur translators followed the lnucedrii of the Vulg., and it seems proba- ble that their rendering approximates most nearly to the true meaning. The reading of the Cod. Ah x. is OftiofSiiXoiif,'! which is literally followed by the ^e^hito- Syriac where the word is translated "darters wiih tlie right hand." Lachmann adopts this reading, which aji- pears also to have been that of the Arabic in "\\"alton's Polyglot. Two hundred of these soldiers formed part of the escort which accompanied Paul in the night march from Jerusalem to Ciesarea. They are clearly distin- guished both from the OTpariiLTai, or heavy-armed le- gionaries, who only went as far as Antipatris,and frcm the (TTTrttc, or cavalry, who continued the journey toCa'sarea. As nothing is said of the return of these troops to Je- rusalem after their arrival at Antipatris, we may iidVr that they accompanied the cavalry to C»sarea, and this strengthens the supposition that they were irregular light-armed troops; so lightly armed, indeed, as to be able to keep pace on the march with mounted soldiers. ]Meyer (^Kommeutar, 2d ed. ii, 3. 404) conjectures that they were a particular kind of light-armed troops (called by the Romans Vdites or ii'orwrn'), probably either jav- elin-men or slingers. In a iiassage quoted by the em- l)eror Constantine Porjihyrogenitus {T/itm. i, ]) from John of Philadelphia they are distinguished both from the archers and from the peltasts, or targeteers, and with these are described as forming a body of light-armed troops, which, in the 10th century, were under the com- mand of an otficer called a tvrvutrvh. (irotius, however, was t)f opinion that at this late period the term ha<l merely been adopted from the narrative in the Acts, and that the usage in the lOtli century is no safe guide to its true meaning. Others regard them as body- guards of the governor. In Suidas and the Ktymvlo; i- cinn Mai/ntnii, TrapafiiXo^ is given as the ecjuivalent of ^t^ioXa/iof. 'J'he word occurs again in one of the By- zantine historians, Theophylactus Simocatta (iv, 1), and is used by him of soldiers w ho were employed on skir- mishing duty. — Smith. Inasmuch, however, as they were evidently a kind of light-armed lioman troo)\s, and hence, of course, bore the spear ( Inisia, tyxof), it is proper here to give, by way of sup))lement to the pre- ceding article, some account of this w eapon among clas- sical nations of the time.
The spear is delined by Homer, li'pv ^fiX)f»;ffc, "a pole fitted with bronze." The bronze, for whiih ircu was afterwards substituted, was indispensable to form the point {ai\}ii), (iKiOKi), Homer; Xoyx'/' Xenophon ; acies, cuspis, s-piculinn) of the spear. Each of these two essential parts is often put for the whole, so that a spear is called Sopv and copc'iTiov, n/;\/u';, and X('>y\7i. Even the more especial term /.ttXict, meaning an ash-tree, is used in the same maimer, because the pole e)f the spejir was often the stem of a young ash, strijijied of its bark and iiolished. 'I'he bottom of the spear was often en- ch)sed in a pointed cap of bronze, called by the Ionic writers aavpion'ip, and oiipUi\oc, and in Attic or com- mon (Jreek arvpaK. I?y Ibrcing this into the ground the spear was lixed erect. Under the general terms /i(im/(i imd tyxorwvTQ included various kinds of missiles, of which th(^ principal were as follows: J.dnct'ti (\6y\i^), the lance, a comjiaralively slender S])ear commonly nsid by the (Jreeks. J'iliim (lirrrtot;), the javelin, much thick ■ er and stronger than the (irecian lance. Its shaft was partly sipiare, and five and a half feet long. The head, nine inches long, was of iron. It was used either to throw or to thrust with ; it was |>ecnliar to the Pomans. and gave the name nf /nldiii to the division of the army by wlii( h it was adopted. \'eni or »•(/■(//(//;(, a spit, used by the light infantry of the ponian army. It was ado|)ted by them from the Samnites and the Yolsci. Its shaft was thr( e and a half feet long, its |)oint live inches. Besides the