Lipostration was a military offense which was prosecuted by a graphe lipostratiou (Pollux 6.151, 8.40; schol. Thuc. 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 scholium to Aristophanes, Knights 226 which reports that on some occasion Kleon accused the cavalry of lipostration. (For discussion of the scholium 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 Hdt. 5.27.2, Hesychius s.v. lipostrati/h, Lex. Seg. 276.33, and schol. Thuc. 1.99.1. See further Hamel (below).