Unit Browser for RTR: Imperium Surrectum

Short description

Aitolian Peltasts are among the most popular light infantry units in Greece. They are an excellent choice for first engagements with the enemy and able to support the cavalry in flanking manoeuvres.

Description

The Aitolian Peltasts are among the best known and most feared skirmishers of Classical and Hellenistic Greece. Their skill on the battlefield made them popular as mercenaries among the various poleis and kingdoms. Though they were seen as a somewhat “backwards” people in the Classical Era, these Aitolians were nonetheless extremely capable of routing even the most determined invasion force through a mix of hit-and-run tactics and the rough mountainous terrain of their home region. As poorly armed shepherds, these peltasts wear no protection besides the Kausia, Konos, and Pilos helmets some are able to afford, and the typical crescent-shaped light (wicker) shield they are named after: the "pelte". Their principal weapon is the javelin. They are armed with a bundle of these, which are thrown with great force and accuracy, aided by a javelin thong. The thong was fixed onto the javelin with a temporary hitch knot, and formed a loop which was hooked around the index finger; it fell off the javelin when it was thrown and was retained in the hand. The peltasts are also equipped with machairas, as secondary weapons, for use in close combat.

Peltasts are best used either in a skirmishing role, going ahead of the main force and weakening the resolve of the enemy, or in flanking manoeuvres, throwing javelins at the sides and back of the enemy to break their morale.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

In Classical Greece, the Aitolians, though Greek, were often seen as a backwards and barbaric peoples by other Greeks. In the 5th century BC, Aitolia was still sparsely settled, its landscape defined by open villages and a few fortifications as places for retreat. Most of its inhabitants practiced livestock herding or piracy, which had initially led to the practice of carrying arms (Thuc. I, 5 , 2f). During the Peloponnesian War, the Messenians persuaded Demosthenes to attack the Aitolians, due to their unprotected scattered villages and their light armour, which supposedly made them easy to conquer (Thuc. III, 94, 3f). This plan failed, however, as the Athenians underestimated the Aitolians, whose peltasts, practicing hit-and-run tactics, evaded the heavily equipped Athenian hoplites and utterly defeated Athens at Aigition in 427 BC (Thuc. III, 98, 1-4). The success of the Aitolian peltasts subsequently resulted in the Athenians deploying peltasts of their own.

Aitolian peltasts were famed across the Hellenic world. Aitolian mercenaries are attested in army of Demetrios Poliorketes (Polyain. IV, 9, 2), Aitolian pirates with Antigonos Gonatas and Philip V, and cavalry and infantry with Pyrrhos (Griffith, The Mercenaries of the Hellenistic World (1935), p. 245; Dion. Hal. XX, 1, 2). The Hauniensus Papyrus 6.18 attests a naval alliance between Ptolemies and Aitolians, as well, but many Aitolians fought in Egypt anyway under an officer called Skopas (Liv. XXXI, 43, 5-7, based on Polybios, mentions 6,000 young Aitolians brought to Egypt by Skopas). Griffith estimates the possible manpower of the Aitolian League to around 20,000 men at most, though most of the time, such a large force was not needed to protect their mountainous, easily defendable homeland. This allowed most of their fighting men to serve as mercenaries or pirates, which made Aitolia as a nursery of pirates “second only to Crete itself” (Griffith (1935), p. 81).

The Aitolian peltasts, like many other units across the Greek world, get their name from the type of shield they carried. The so-called “pelte”, though it could be round, is in this case crescent-shaped, as suggested by various examples of contemporary art (Connolly, ‘Greece and Rome’ (2006), p. 48). According to Aristotle, the pelte was covered in goat- or sheepskin and was rimless (Aristot. Fr 498 Rose), provided by the animals the Aitolians were herding in their mountains.

The equipment and fighting style of the Peltasts originated in Thrace. They first appear in Greece on vases of the late 6th century (e.g., Attic Cup Universität Leipzig 48.159), but it was only during the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) that peltasts became a regular feature on Greek battlefields. The Aitolian victory at Aigition, among other examples, demonstrated the superior mobility and flexibility of light troops, and by the fourth century BC Peltasts had become the characteristic mercenary infantry of Greek armies. While the hoplite as mercenary was in great demand especially by foreign paymasters overseas, in Greece itself specialist troops like peltasts were highly sought after by the city-states. Especially Aitolia, along with Achaia and Akarnania, was renowned for their peltasts; men who were skilled with the javelin from boyhood.

The success of the peltasts carried on into Hellenistic times, where even parts of the main infantry line took up a hybrid role, in form of the Thureophoroi, or Celtic, Illyrian, and Thracian mercenaries, who could both skirmish and engage in close combat. Despite this development, the Aitolians still stood out with their expertise in skirmishing. During the Celtic invasion of Greece 280/279 BC, a Greek alliance gathered together to stop the Gallic host of Brennus at Thermopylai. In an attempt to dislodge the Aitolians from the main force of the Greeks, Brennus sent 40,000 infantry and 800 cavalry to Kallia, to raze it to the ground. The Aitolians pursued them and at the same time raised a home levy of men above fighting age, and women, determined to expel the pillaging Gauls. The latter, on their way back to the main host, were then attacked by Achaian hoplites from Patrai and the Aitolian forces. The hoplites failed in their frontal attack on the desperate Gauls, but the Aitolian peltasts were more effective, retreating when pursued by the Gauls and returning when the Gauls tried to re-join their army. After the death of Brennus, the Gauls continued to be harassed by Aitolian peltasts with great effect (Paus. X, 22, 2-6; 23, 12-13). In honour of their victory over the Gauls, the Aitolians erected several statues of their generals, and images of Artemis, Athena, and two of Apollo, as well as a statue of an armed woman representing Aitolia (Paus.X, 15, 2; 18, 7).