Unit Browser for RTR: Imperium Surrectum

Short description

These proud citizens of Emporion will hold the line against any Greek or Barbarian who dares to endanger their trade!

Description

These men are the opulent and industrious citizens of Emporion, the proverbial city of commerce on the eastern shores of Iberia. Even if they would rather use their purse, in case of emergency these citizens will take up their dory and (sometimes gilded) aspis-shield to defend the walls of their proud polis. Protected by sturdy linothorax armour, greaves, and (crested) Thracian helmets, these men will hold the line against any Greek or Barbarian who dares to endanger their trade!

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Emporion was founded in 575 BC at the banks of the river now called Fluvià, as a colony of the Anatolian polis Phokaia. Strategically located on the trade routes between Massalia and Tartessos, over time Emporion grew into the largest Greek city in Iberia. Strabo (III.4.8-9) describes how the Emporitans formerly lived on a small island off the shore, called the Old City, but had in time moved to the fertile mainland. They were known to be skilful in flax-working. This, together with the city’s location on the mouth of the Fluvià, would have formed a firm foundation for its commerce. For centuries, the polis maintained its independence against Carthaginian and Iberian influences, until it allied itself with Rome during the Punic Wars. In 218 BC, the city became Scipio’s base for the Roman conquest of Iberia. The city ultimately lost its independence after picking Pompey’s side in the civil war.

Not much is known about Emporion’s army in the timeframe of RIS. However, a number of slightly older artifacts point at a local hoplite tradition. Several fifth-century lekythoi (a type of ancient Greek vessel generally used to store olive oil) depicting hoplite helmets have been found in Emporionite graves (Ruiz et al., ‘Greek Armament’, Athens Journal of History 4-4 (2018), p. 286). A fourth-century black-figure cup excavated in Emporion (currently located in the Catalonian Archaeology Museum) also depicts two traditionally-armed hoplites in a fighting scene. Finally, a mosaic from Emporion displays a scene with a hoplite bearing a gilded shield. This, together with what is known from the wealthy elites of other contemporary Greek poleis, supports the inclusion of an Emporionite Hoplite unit in RIS.

Hoplites’ principal weapon was the thrusting spear (dory), eight to nine feet long, with an ash or cornel wood shaft, iron head, and an iron or bronze but spike. The centre of the shaft was bound with cord for a secure grip. The spear was usually used in an overarm thrust, but it could also be thrust underarm or even thrown. The “Argive” shield (called aspis) is large, 80 cm - 1 meter in diameter, convex, made of wood covered with a thin bronze sheet, and was carried with two handles, a bronze porpax in the centre through which the forearm passes, and a cord antilabe at the rim. Hoplites commonly wore greaves, clipped around the legs by their own elasticity. Over the Greek woollen tunic, chiton, the hoplite wore a non-metallic corselet. The heavier and more expensive iron cuirass had increasingly disappeared since the 5th Century BC, as hoplites sought to be swifter and more flexible on the battlefield. It was replaced by a linen corselet – the linothorax – wrapped around the body, tying under the left arm and was split below the waist into strips called pteryges (feathers) for ease of movement. Hoplites formed up into a formation on a frontage of about 3 feet per man, with each man’s right protected by his neighbour's projecting shield. In this formation, the hoplites found mutual protection from an accumulation of shields to their front, rear and side. In the heat of Mediterranean summer, men often waited until the last moment to put on their armour and shield, usually assisted by slave attendants (Hunt, ‘Military Forces’ (2008), pp. 108-117). By the time in which RIS starts, hoplites had thus become lighter and more vulnerable to missiles than their archaic and classical predecessors. As old-fashioned citizen levy, they may hold a line, but will not perform as good as contemporary elite or professional forces raised by the Hellenistic dynasts.