L(e)ipostration was a military offense under Athenian law prosecuted by a graphe lipostratiou (Pollux 6.151, 8.40; scholion to Thucydides 6.91.7). The clause to\ mh\ e)qe/lein strateu/esqai is ambiguous, since it could refer either to the offense of desertion or to the refusal of a soldier to appear for military service. The latter half of the entry in the Suda clearly suggests that lipostration was desertion, and this is also the most likely conclusion to be drawn from a scholion to Aristophanes, Knights 226, which reports that on some occasion Kleon (kappa 1731) accused the cavalry of lipostration. (For discussion of the scholion see Spence [1993], pp. 213-214, and Fornara [1973], p. 24.) That Thucydides' reference to lipostration at 1.99.1 (cf. 6.76.3) referred rather to a refusal to muster has been suggested, however, by Dover (1965), p. 81, and in Gomme, Andrewes, and Dover (1970), p. 350.
In addition to the primary sources mentioned above, see also: Herodotus 5.27.2; Hesychius lambda 1104 (s.v. lipostrati/h); Lexica Segueriana 276.33; and a scholion to Thucydides 1.99.1. See further Hamel (below).