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Short description

These Akarnanians slingers, deadly precise, are an excellent asset for skirmishing and harassing the enemy.

Description

The sling was a prominent weapon in Hellenistic ranged warfare, most deadly in the hands of those who had been trained in its usage since childhood. These kinds of expert slingers were in high demand, and often recruited in locations where the sling was a part of day-to-day life. One of these was Akarnania, a koinon neighbouring Eperios and Aitolia, whose inhabitants lived in shepherding communities and used slings and stones to protect their herds from predators. Their skill made them popular among Hellenic generals, who were always in need of good skirmishers, such as Pyrrhos of Epeiros (319/18 – 272 BC) or the Athenian general Demosthenes (d. 413 BC) (Griffith, The Mercenaries of the Hellenistic World (1935), p. 245; Sekunda, The Army of Pyrrhus of Epirus (2019), p. 41; Thuk. VII, 31, 5).

In battle, these slingers carry a small pelte shield displaying symbols important to Akarnania, and wear Kausia hats, without any additional armour or form of protection. Besides their slings, their only weapon is a small dagger, which is why they should stay away from close combat with heavy infantry and especially cavalry.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The Akarnanian people lived in three different environments: the maritime poleis on the shores of the Ionian Sea, such as Oiniadai; the thriving poleis in the inland valleys, especially Stratos, which was one the most important Akarnanian cities, owning the fertile plains on the western short of the Acheloos; and finally, the mountainous inland region, defined by scattered, unwalled villages. These different environments also produced different kinds of combatants within the Akarnanian koinon. While the poleis in the lower plains functioned in a similar way to those of other Greeks, protected by their citizen forces of hoplites, most Akarnanian inhabitants lived in the mountains herding cattle and sheep, thus developing a combat style focused on quick action, skirmishing, and harassment. Though they were, overall, perceived as Greek, their custom of wearing arms that survived well into the 5th century BC was seen as barbaric by ‘proper’ Greek authors such as Thoukydides (I, 5, 3). After the Roman conquest and by the time of Strabo’s writing, the lands of Akarnania, as well as neighbouring Aitolia, were desolate, though most suitable for horse-breeding, even to the same high level attained in Thessaly (Strab. VIII, 8, 1).

Whereas Aitolia was better known for its Peltasts, who mainly used the javelin, Thoukydides describes the Akarnanian style of warfare as being centred around long-distance harassment with slings and bullets. During the Peloponnesian War (431 – 404 BC), an army made up of Peloponnesians, Ambrakiotes, and various Epirote tribes, marched towards Stratos in Akarnania, which was allied to the Athenians. The impatient Chaonians, wanting to take the polis by storm, ran into an Akarnanian ambush, and were quickly routed. The rest of the Peloponnesian army was perplexed by the Chaonians fleeing towards them, stopped their march, and were consequently harassed by the Akarnanian slingers from afar, forcing them to retreat (Thuk. II, 81, 3-8). This great performance of the Akarnanians most likely impressed the Athenians, who themselves later had a devastating confrontation with a skirmishing force in Aitolia (Thuk. III. 98) and prepared their Sicilian expedition accordingly by including plenty of ranged forces; first Rhodian slingers (Thuk. VI. 43), later reinforcing this initial expedition force with additional slingers and peltasts from Akarnania (Thuk. VII, 31, 5).

The main weaknesses of Akarnania were the easily accessible fertile plains and its lack of a determined heavy infantry force. After the Peloponnesian War, the Spartans under Agesilaos supported the Achaians against Akarnanian incursions and marched into Akarnania, devasting the land. At the start of this campaign, the Akarnanians managed to save themselves in their fortified towns and drove off their cattle, but they underestimated the Spartan marching-speed and came out of safety too soon. Suddenly making a lot of progress in one day, Agesilaos caught many herds of Akarnanian cattle, droves of horses, and a large number of unprepared Akarnanians, turning them into slaves (Xen. Hell. IV, 6, 4-6). On his way back, Agesilaos suffered heavy casualties against Akarnanian slingers, who hurled stones at his army from the mountain ridges surrounding the plain. Under increasing losses, a determined charge of his infantry and cavalry up a more accessible part of the mountains, however, immediately routed the Akarnanian hoplites, who were supposed to hold the summit, and in the process killed many of them (Xen. Hell. IV, 6, 7-12). Though he never managed to take a city, the devastation of the land and the losses of this battle quickly forced the Akarnanians into a peace treaty with the Achaians, after Agesilaos threatened to return to Akarnania the year after.

While Akarnania continuously suffered from Epirote and Aitolian attacks (both powers even partitioned the Akarnanian territory between them at some point (Hammond, Epirus (1998), p. 589; Mackil, Creating a Common Polity (2013), p. 105)), their slingers still remained a popular skirmisher unit, probably even being employed among the slingers of Pyrrhos’ army (Sekunda (2019), p. 41; 45).