<P> According to Xenophon, the army was mobilized by the ephors, and after a series of religious ceremonies and sacrifices, the army assembled and set out . The army proceeded led by the king, with the skiritai and cavalry detachments acting as an advance guard and scouting parties . The necessary provisions (barley, cheese, onions and salted meat) were carried along with the army, and each Spartan was accompanied by a helot manservant . Each mora marched and camped separately, with its own baggage train . Sacrifice was given every morning and before battle by the king and the officers; if the omens were not favourable, a pious leader might refuse to march or to engage the enemy . The only people who could have a gravestone were women who died in child birth and warriors who died in battle; both were considered lives given for the state . </P> <P> The Spartans used the same typical hoplite equipment as the other Greek neighbors; the only distinctive Spartan features were the crimson tunic (chitōn) and cloak (himation), and long hair, which the Spartans retained to a far later date than most Greeks . To the Spartans, long hair retained its older Archaic meaning as the symbol of a free man; to the other Greeks, by the 5th century, its peculiar association with the Spartans had come to signify pro-Spartan sympathies . </P> <P> The letter lambda (Λ), standing for Laconia or Lacedaemon, which was painted on the Spartans' shields, was first adopted in the 420s BC, and quickly became a widely known Spartan symbol . Military families passed on their shields to each generation as family heirlooms . The technical evolution and design of Spartan shields evolved from bashing and shield wall tactics, and were of such great importance in the Spartan army that while losing a sword and a spear was an exception, to lose a shield was a sign of disgrace . Not only does it protect the user, but it also protects the whole phalanx formation . To come home without the shield was the mark of a deserter; rhipsaspia or "dropping the shield", was a synonym for desertion in the field . Mothers bidding farewell to their sons would encourage them to come back with their shields, often saying goodbyes like "Son, either with this or on this" (Ἢ τὰν ἢ ἐπὶ τᾶς). </P> <P> Spartan hoplites were often depicted bearing a transverse horsehair crest on their helmet, which was possibly used to identify officers . In the Archaic period, Spartans were armored with flanged bronze cuirasses, leg greaves, and a helmet, often of the Corinthian type . It is often disputed which torso armor the Spartans wore during the Persian Wars, though it seems likely they either continued to wear bronze cuirasses of a more sculptured type, or instead had adopted the linothōrax . During the later 5th century BC, when warfare had become more flexible and full - scale phalanx confrontations became rarer, the Greeks abandoned most forms of body armor . The Lacedaemonians also adopted a new tunic, the exōmis, which could be arranged so that it left the right arm and shoulder uncovered and free for action in combat . </P>

What does the symbol on spartan shields mean