Macedonian Phalanx Illustration

[Zenodoros]

Amazing! So much great detail, both artistic and historical.

How long did it take? It would be great to perhaps see a 'step by step' of your next piece, to get an idea of how it's done.

[Hoplitesmores]

Any chance you ll be making a phallanx of the battle of pnyka to compare the two on how heavily the normal phallnx were and how scan the later phalanx was. No armor no helmets on swords.Just sarissa dagger and hats with a wicker shield.

[Ioannis]

Fantastic artwork!

[Tarbicus]

That's so cool. Laudes.

[MeinPanzer]

Any chance you ll be making a phallanx of the battle of pnyka to compare the two on how heavily the normal phallnx were and how scan the later phalanx was. No armor no helmets on swords.Just sarissa dagger and hats with a wicker shield.

I don't know where you got the idea from that phalangites fighting at Pydna used wicker shields or no helmets or swords, or that they even wore hats or daggers. The Amphipolis code is pretty clear on a lot of those things.

[spyros]

Great ilustration

[Anonymous]

I certainly enjoyed it.

[Muzzaguchi]

Absolutely gorgeous!

Cheers

Murray

[Jeroen Pelgrom]

hock:

[hoplite14gr]

Bythinians were among the last kingdoms to maintain pike troops, up to the time of Julious Ceasar. Chances are that Farnakes household troops would be more uniformed than others-again depending on numbers and material availability.

Alexander's army acquired rich spoils after Issos-cloth and clothing included. Unless some regulation that we do not know of was enforced chances are that your average pike-man might be wearing a Phoinician(?) or Persian(?) chiton or assorted cloaks from there coutures. The average Greek chiton could also be constructed from cloth with "foreign" patterns.

Long sleeves were not unknown to Greek, they are not just depicted in art as frequently.

Hellenistic period was a time of endless civil wars. Troops might have been affected by attrition and supply/production limitations.
Poorly armed pikemen in the rear ranks are a valid speculation.

Kind regards.

[MeinPanzer]

Bythinians were among the last kingdoms to maintain pike troops, up to the time of Julious Ceasar. Chances are that Farnakes household troops would be more uniformed than others-again depending on numbers and material availability.

What's your primary source for this?

Alexander's army acquired rich spoils after Issos-cloth and clothing included. Unless some regulation that we do not know of was enforced chances are that your average pike-man might be wearing a Phoinician(?) or Persian(?) chiton or assorted cloaks from there coutures. The average Greek chiton could also be constructed from cloth with "foreign" patterns.

I don't doubt that some material was appropriated by Alexander's troops, but considering much of the contempt of the common Macedonian for Persian fashion and affectations (Alexander's wearing of Persian robes and the reaction to it), I kind of doubt that it was widespread. The only item of costume that I know was adopted from the Persians was the long-sleeved, double-belted tunic by the cavalry, which persisted until, at the latest, the very early 3rd century BC.

Hellenistic period was a time of endless civil wars. Troops might have been affected by attrition and supply/production limitations.
Poorly armed pikemen in the rear ranks are a valid speculation.

Could be, but we really don't have any idea of who wore what within the phalanx, unfortunately.

[Sean Manning]

Very nice, Johny! I like the diversity of gear and the fact that the phalanx isn't in perfect order.

There are a number of sources on Pontic armies in the first century BC, probably including Appian and Plutarch (I haven't read much on Mithridates' army though). They seem to have been of mixed pattern, with Hellenistic, Persian, Anatolian, and (towards the end) Roman influences.

Regarding the dress of pikemen, don't some of our ancient sources on Alexander mention his men adopting foreign clothes en masse somewhere in Bactria, Sogodia, or India? In any case, I expect that men would have adopted foreign garments piecemeal as ones in the Greek style became harder to find, so there was probably also gradual change over his campaign. I doubt Alexander's men could have gotten an adequate supply of clothing and shoes from Greece after they crossed the Euphrates, and most of their camp followers were barbaroi. In Hellenistic times, I expect most regular pikemen would have dressed in Hellenic styles.

[MeinPanzer]

There are a number of sources on Pontic armies in the first century BC, probably including Appian and Plutarch (I haven't read much on Mithridates' army though). They seem to have been of mixed pattern, with Hellenistic, Persian, Anatolian, and (towards the end) Roman influences.

Appian's Mithridatic Wars is the best for, well, the Mithridatic wars, while Polybius has some good coverage of the fighting of the minor kingdoms in Asia Minor from the 2nd century BC onwards.

The reason I asked Stefanos for a source on the Bithynians is that I'm just finishing up an article on the Bithynian army in the Hellenistic period which will hopefully be published in Slingshot soon and from my research, I've seen absolutely no evidence whatsoever for Bithynians ever using pikemen or operating in a phalanx, so I'd be really curious to see what evidence he is drawing from.

Regarding the dress of pikemen, don't some of our ancient sources on Alexander mention his men adopting foreign clothes en masse somewhere in Bactria, Sogodia, or India? In any case, I expect that men would have adopted foreign garments piecemeal as ones in the Greek style became harder to find, so there was probably also gradual change over his campaign. I doubt Alexander's men could have gotten an adequate supply of clothing and shoes from Greece after they crossed the Euphrates, and most of their camp followers were barbaroi. In Hellenistic times, I expect most regular pikemen would have dressed in Hellenic styles.

I don't see why it would be hard for Greeks to easily modify eastern clothing to fit a more Greek style. It's not hard, for instance, to change a typical long-sleeved Persian tunic into a chiton. They probably used eastern material but kept Greek cuts of clothing.

[drsrob]

Very nice, Johny! I like the diversity of gear and the fact that the phalanx isn't in perfect order.

There are a number of sources on Pontic armies in the first century BC, probably including Appian and Plutarch (I haven't read much on Mithridates' army though). They seem to have been of mixed pattern, with Hellenistic, Persian, Anatolian, and (towards the end) Roman influences.

Regarding the dress of pikemen, don't some of our ancient sources on Alexander mention his men adopting foreign clothes en masse somewhere in Bactria, Sogodia, or India? In any case, I expect that men would have adopted foreign garments piecemeal as ones in the Greek style became harder to find, so there was probably also gradual change over his campaign. I doubt Alexander's men could have gotten an adequate supply of clothing and shoes from Greece after they crossed the Euphrates, and most of their camp followers were barbaroi. In Hellenistic times, I expect most regular pikemen would have dressed in Hellenic styles.

Well, they say that Alexander re-equipped his pike-men with so-called half-armour at the Indus. The old sets were burned.
This suggest not variety, but rather uniformity.
The sources say that the half-armour covered the front and not the back. I find that unlikely. I suspect that it actually was an armour of the Type Alexander wears on the Alexander mosaic. Looking at the reconstrocked armour of the Alexander Sarcophagus (Nick Secunda, The Armies of Alexander the Great, Osprey), I noticed that you could interpret the 'light purple' of the armour as iron ant the light yellow as linen.
Doing that you'll see that all but one of the pike-men wear armour like that of Alexander. The odd one out then wears a fully iron cuirass (like that of Philip II, making him probably an officer.

[Sean Manning]

Regarding the dress of pikemen, don't some of our ancient sources on Alexander mention his men adopting foreign clothes en masse somewhere in Bactria, Sogodia, or India? In any case, I expect that men would have adopted foreign garments piecemeal as ones in the Greek style became harder to find, so there was probably also gradual change over his campaign. I doubt Alexander's men could have gotten an adequate supply of clothing and shoes from Greece after they crossed the Euphrates, and most of their camp followers were barbaroi. In Hellenistic times, I expect most regular pikemen would have dressed in Hellenic styles.

I don't see why it would be hard for Greeks to easily modify eastern clothing to fit a more Greek style. It's not hard, for instance, to change a typical long-sleeved Persian tunic into a chiton. They probably used eastern material but kept Greek cuts of clothing.

Very possible. However, wasn't tailoring women's work like weaving? If so, I expect there would have been growing problems between troops and camp followers ("You're not in Greece now and I don't know these foreign styles! That's a nice, stylish tunic and you want me to spoil it.").

Good luck on the Bithynia article. I don't get Slingshot, but will consider subscribing once I start work this summer.

Where was Bithynia, by the way? Just east of the kingdom of Pergamon on the north Black Sea coast?