Alexander\'s Elite Illustration

[MeinPanzer]

Ruben,
Yes, the crescent pelta is debatable. I can't imagine light troops using a heavy aspides shield..!

Thongs/slings were used even up until Roman times. I know Livy writes about javelin thongs during the Macedonian wars (ca. 200 BC).

Thanks for the interest..!

Johnny

I stand corrected on the javelin thongs. However, there is absolutely no evidence that the crescent pelta was used in Alexander's time while there is some evidence of the use of the aspides shield (though probably smaller than the 90cm hoplite variety).

[Johnny Shumate]

Ruben,
Do you have any pics/illustrations of the shield..? I haven't found any good visuals concerning Alexander's light troops. Anything on slingers and archers..?

Thanks,

Johnny

[MeinPanzer]

Hi,

None from Alexander's time, no. Images of light troops are notoriously rare. We do however have mentions of bronze peltai being used, so I highly doubt those were crescent-shaped.

Thanks,
Ruben

[Et tu brute]

Johnny, can you tell me what materials you use for your illustrations?

[Zenodoros]

Extremely impressive, you have a great knowledge of lights and shades that I haven't mastered yet, as well as anatomical research.

Would be most excellent to see some accurate Persian wars and Archaic era pictures... catch my drift?

[Johnny Shumate]

Dave,
I mostly work from photoghraphs and then render the illustratrations in Photoshop CS2.
Johnny

[Et tu brute]

Wow, that must take one hell of alot of skill, i've always found photoshop hard. When I do my art I prefer just to use pencil and watercolours.

[Ioannis]

I was wondering if somebody could help me (i.e. making) with a reconstruction of an Early Iron Age soldier. Those interested, please IM me.

Cheers,
Ioannis

[Anonymous]

I stand corrected on the javelin thongs. However, there is absolutely no evidence that the crescent pelta was used in Alexander's time while there is some evidence of the use of the aspides shield (though probably smaller than the 90cm hoplite variety).

I think you're right about the crescent-shaped pelta going out of fashion. The later ones seem to have been round. Most of us are accustomed to referring to the large Hoplite shield as an aspis, and these seem to be in the range 84-100cm in diameter; if a shield is smaller than 84 cm, it's not regarded as an aspis.

Do you know when the Thureos came into fashion?

[MeinPanzer]

I think you're right about the crescent-shaped pelta going out of fashion. The later ones seem to have been round. Most of us are accustomed to referring to the large Hoplite shield as an aspis, and these seem to be in the range 84-100cm in diameter; if a shield is smaller than 84 cm, it's not regarded as an aspis.

Well, rather unfortunately, there's no 'official' terminology for many items of equipment from the ancient world. Aspis just means shield, after all, but it's come to mean the round shield with an offset rim. I should've been more specific and said "Argive shield" which is usually the specific name for that. Though neither of those are necessarily unique to one "size" because, as you said, the sizes fluctuate.

Do you know when the Thureos came into fashion?

Yes, and this is part of a large research project I'm working on. The thureos was introduced in northern Italy by the Etruscans in around the 8th or 7th C. BC. It was from there adopted by the Gallic peoples from the north who had contact with them and who used it quite a bit. It seems to have stayed relatively popular among the north Italian peoples, but the Argive shield became popular along with hoplite-style warfare and the thureos seems to have been largely dropped.

At a later time, in perhaps the late 5th C. BC (the evidence is really kind of muddled and hard to interpret), the northern Italian peoples began to use the thureos again, alongside the Celts. At this period, it was being used by the Celtic peoples, some Italian peoples, and other "fringe" peoples like the Illyrians who lived along the Dalmatian coast.

In the 4th C. BC, the thureos really flourished in Italy. It was being used by the Etruscans, Samnites, and some other groups, and was taken up by the Romans after their conflict with the Samnites. While we have some evidence of thureos-like shields being used by Thracians (i.e. those oval, non-ribbed bronze shields being carried on the Kazanluk paintings and the remains of a bronze shield found fairly recently that is of almost the exact same form), in the 3rd C. BC the thureos had still not spread eastwards farther than the Dalmatian coast (note that I'm not aware when it spread to the Iberians as I know very little about ancient Spanish armies). So, Alexander's armies would not have used the thureos.

The thureos was introduced eastwards by the Galatian invasion of 279 BC. It was only after this point in time that we see the thureos come into use in the east. The Galatians, of course, went through Greece and Macedonia and Thrace and ended up in central Phrygia. It is only after this point that we see Galatian mercenaries being employed in Hellenistic armies.

It appears to have entered use within about a decade of the Galatians' entrance. For instance, we have coins from Ptolemy II, who ruled until 246 BC, which bear the thureos as a royal symbol. That means that within about 40 years of the Galatians invading Asia Minor, the thureos had spread as far afield as Egypt. After this, the thureos is picked up as the main "light" armament of troops throughout the Hellenistic kingdoms, and we have examples of its use in the Bosporus, northern Africa, Iran, Armenia, Bactria, northern India, and even Parthia.

Sorry if that was a bit too long .

[Johnny Shumate]

Could Alex's light troops used the same type of shield that the sarissa armed phalangites carried..? It's a smaller version of the heavy hoplite shield scaled down for lightness and ease of movement....
Johnny

[hoplite14gr]

Thracian troops in Alex's army still used cresent type shields.
Most potery of the time shows ekdromoi or "heroicaly naked" hoplites.
Though round light shields cannot be excluded so the cresent shape ones cannot be excluded. The term "thyreophoroi" appears in late Hellenistic era troops.
Only Hypaspists and pikemen were equiped with funds from the royal treasury and some uniformity is expected from them.

Kind regards

[MeinPanzer]

Thracian troops in Alex's army still used cresent type shields.

What source do you have for this? The only contemporary image of Thracian soldiers that I know of is the Kazanluk tomb which doesn't show crescent type shields in use.

Most potery of the time shows ekdromoi or "heroicaly naked" hoplites.

This pottery predates Alexander's time, and heroic nudity is in no way representative of how soldiers actually fought.

Though round light shields cannot be excluded so the cresent shape ones cannot be excluded.

There is evidence for round shields being used but none for crescent shields.

The term "thyreophoroi" appears in late Hellenistic era troops.

Yes... I don't think anyone was saying it wasn't?

Only Hypaspists and pikemen were equiped with funds from the royal treasury and some uniformity is expected from them.

Actually, no uniformity is known or expected from them. Just because some of their equipment would have been provided by the royal treasury, doesn't mean that they were uniformly equipped or dressed. After all, the ancient writers found it notable enough to mention that Alexander equipped his cavalry with uniform yellow and purple cloaks.

Could Alex's light troops used the same type of shield that the sarissa armed phalangites carried..? It's a smaller version of the heavy hoplite shield scaled down for lightness and ease of movement....

Could have, but I don't know any evidence for it. I doubt they did, though, as that type of shield was used by phalangites because they needed to be able to hold the sarissa (which wasn't possible with an offset rim on the shield). However, you have to understand that in our only (admittedly, later Hellenistic) visual sources showing phalangites in action, their shields are still very large, and only rimless.

[Johnny Shumate]

So the light troops would have used either a round wicker pelta or a bronze one..?
Thanks,
Johnny

[MeinPanzer]

So the light troops would have used either a round wicker pelta or a bronze one..?
Thanks,
Johnny

Well, it depends. Cretan archers carried bronze peltai, other archers did not. Other psiloi, like the Agrianians, might have carried shields, but odds are that they didn't. My guess is that if they did carry shields, they would be similar bronze peltai, which we hear of javelineers carrying later on. They could also carry wicker peltai, which seems very likely as there is some indication that other of Alexander's troops carried wicker shields and psiloi, being the cheapest-armed of troops, would have used such cheap equipment.[/i]