Armies of the Hellenistic States 323 BC - AD 30 by Esposito Gabriele;

Author:Esposito, Gabriele;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY/Europe/Greece
ISBN: 9781526746849
Publisher: Casemate Publishers & Book Distributors, LLC

Panoply of a phalangist. (Photo and copyright by Hetairoi)

It is very interesting to note, however, that the thureophoroi did not represent the last stage in the long evolution of the Greek/Anatolian mercenaries’ equipment. When the Romans started to fight against the Hellenistic states, particularly after their first victory over Macedonia in 197 BC, the Hellenistic commanders started to understand that the traditional phalanx was no match for the Roman legion. While the phalanx could operate effectively only on vast, flat terrains, the Roman legionaries could fight in every possible environment thanks to their great flexibility and adaptability. In addition, the personal equipment of the Roman legionaries was something totally new to the Hellenistic military world: each single legionary could be employed either as a light infantry skirmisher or heavy infantryman. Roman soldiers carried heavy javelins (pila) which enabled them to harass the enemy as light infantrymen; but they also had large oval shields and short swords (the scutum and gladius) that were perfect for hand-to-hand fighting in close formation. Finally, they wore armour made of chainmail: this, despite being quite heavy, was flexible enough to permit very rapid movements and gave a superior level of personal protection to each soldier (Roman chainmail – lorica hamata – was far superior to any kind of Hellenistic infantry armour). As the battles of the First Macedonian War clearly showed, the Roman legions were easily able to swarm around the flanks of a phalanx. This type of manoeuvre, which had never been realized before by any enemy facing the Hellenistic states, caused the quick disintegration of every phalanx. Since the early days of Philip and Alexander, it had been clear to Macedonian military commanders that the greatest weakness of the phalanxes was their exposed flanks: this was the main reason behind the creation of the Hypaspists. Now, since the latter had disappeared from Hellenistic military forces, the commanders of the various Hellenistic armies started to reform their troops to create a new category of soldiers that could protect the flanks of the phalanx and fight against the Roman legionaries on almost equal terms. To achieve this ambitious objective, the military leaders started to transform the thureophoroi into a Hellenistic version of the Roman legionaries. These new soldiers became known as thorakitai (‘cuirassed soldiers’) because they were equipped with chainmail armour like their Roman opponents. We could say that the thorakitai were thureophoroi with armour: the addition of chainmail transformed them into heavy infantrymen, who already carried the same kind of oval shield used by the Romans (who had copied it from the Celts like the thureophoroi). Deployed on the flanks of the phalanx, the thorakitai were sufficiently flexible and well equipped to confront the Roman legionaries either in skirmish order or hand-to-hand combat. Unfortunately for the Hellenistic states, however, the reform of the thorakitai remained quite limited from a numerical point of view: the ‘regular’ armies of the various states continued to be made up of traditional phalangists and the new equipment of the thorakitai was adopted on a significant scale only by mercenary forces.

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