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Short description

These well-armoured Bosporan Hoplites are not the most experienced regiment, but they take huge pride in their polished armour and their position as members of the Hoplite class.

Description

These Hoplites are recruited from among the Greek citizens of the Bosporan Arche, a realm of Hellenic Poleis and Scythian fiefdoms ruled by a single ruler, who is Archon of the Greek citizens and king of the non-Greek populations (Heinen, Antike am Rand der Steppe (2006), pp. 21-22). Like all Hoplites, they are well-armoured, wearing either bronze or iron muscle cuirasses, or linothorakes reinforced with scales, greaves. Among their metal helmets one finds Thracophrygian, Phrygoboiotian and various crested Chalcidian types. In the classical phalanx, they interlock their round Aspis shields and fight primarily with the dory spear, secondarily with xiphos or machaira swords. Their chlamydes (cloaks) are testament to their pride as citizens of the poleis of the Kimmerian Bosporos.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Like all Greek city states, the Ionian (Miletos and Teos were their metropoleis) colonies on the Kimmerian Bosporos such as Pantikapaion, Phanagoreia or Gorgippia afforded relatively strong opportunities for political participation by their citizens. Hence, they proudly went to war as Hoplites. A headstone with the image of two warriors from the 4th century BC, found on the Taman Peninsula and now in the Pushkin Mueum in Moscow, shows two unarmed Hoplites wearing Corinthian helmets (KP-374525. F-1601). The piece was later reused as part of a building in the 1st century BC, by which time the Corinthian helmet was long gone, but it may also have been out of use in the Northern Black Sea area as elsewhere in the Greek world by the 4th century. Instead, such pictures should be interpreted as heroic representations of the Bosporan citizens who were proud to be depicted as Hoplites. There is, however, sufficient evidence for their actual equipment in the Hellenistic period. In the burial of a warrior who lay in a tomb alongside the road to Noyvi Karantin (Karantinno shosse), 19th-century Russian archaeologists found a bronzed-over Aspis shield as well as the remains of several machaira swords and one of the xiphos type (Spasskii, Bospor Kimmeriiskii (1846), pp. 132-134). Dated to the early 3rd century BC, they correspond well with RIS' start date in 270 BC. Spearheads typical for the Hoplites' dory have been found everywhere in the territory of the Bosporan Arche, meanwhile (Mielczarek, Bosporan Army (1999), pp. 47-48). Bronze greaves were also very common, as is attested by plentiful finds in the area of Kerch, the ancient Pantikapaion (Mielczarek (1999), pp. 53-54) . Finally, a stele from the 4th or 3rd century BC depicts a warrior wearing greaves, an Aspis, and three spears (Id. 53).

These Hoplites mainly defended the major cities of the realm, while mercenaries were recruited for offensive operations. For instance, 2.000 mercenary Hoplites, but no citizens, fought at the Battle of That River deep in Scythian territory in 310/309 BC (Diod. 20.22.3). In the Theodosian War (roughly 390-370 BC), in which a coalition of the Bosporans and Olbia fought Herakleia Pontike, Chersonesos and Theodosia over the possession of the latter, the Bosporans would customarily position their Scythian archers behind their Greek Hoplites. Not, as a TW player might expect, to protect the bowmen, but, according to the 2nd century AD author Polyainos (6.9.4), so that the Greeks would be unable to flee. This may imply that during this war, too, the Hoplites were mainly mercenaries who could not be trusted. There is in fact little info on the actual deployment of the citizen Hoplites in battle, but the stelai indicate that military service was widespread. It is probable that they were mostly used as garrisons and to defend the Bosporan home territory, while riskier campaigns abroad would rather be conducted using mercenaries and Scythian allies.