Bret Devereaux

Yeah, I do believe it was a collateral duty. But to be selected for it implies some confidence - not just in age and fitness, but the ability to operate independently without impact to cohesion.

I note the guys don't have a drill for running back to the lines. Couldn't they fall back on an officer-- "On me, lads") and retreat at the double, rather than madly trying to outrun the peltasts who are dashing on their unshielded side and unleashing broadsides of javelins ?

I wouldn’t bet on it. In my experience, with the helmet on and trying to keep one eye on incoming missiles, if you don’t have a plan, you’re going to step on everyone. And that’s in a non-lethal re-enactment with lower adrenaline. Maybe a countermarch where you return 1/2

2/2 rear rank and the epistates becomes the promachos after you take off running on a prearranged signal? Xenophon describes the countermarch, so we know that’s already a thing.

I doubt we should picture the outrunning as a drill. It's just running after individual peltasts, and then turning and running back. The outrunners would probably have scattered, making orderly withdrawal impossible for sheer distance.

Why do you doubt it was a drill? Wouldn’t it make better sense to have some kind of plan in place for rapidity/fluidity of action? And we know from Xenophon that rudimentary and basic drill was already in place.

By definition these guys would be working in irregular ground against a skittish cloud of assailants. How would you drill for that? It'd be like planning your dice rolls.

It strikes me also as a more improvised thing. The equipment isn't ideal for the role. Cf. the legion's velites integrated screening force, which not only used javelins, but used a different *type* of javelin from the heavy infantry; hasta velitaris seems to be much lighter.