Unit Browser for RTR: Imperium Surrectum

Short description

These Illyrian Kalores te lehte are fast-moving mounted skirmishers, armed with javelins and sword.

Description

The Illyrians were typically weak in cavalry, as their communities were both too poor to sustain herds of horses suitable for war, and Illyria itself lacked good horse-raising country. Nonetheless, small numbers of Illyrian cavalry were found, and they fought in the manner of mounted skirmishers, harassing enemy forces with their javelins, and able to negotiate tough terrain on their hardy horses.

Never numerous, Illyrian cavalry were unarmoured javelin skirmishers. The Vace clasp shows them without shields. The later Romans called shielded javelin cavalry "Illyrian", which implies they adopted shields at some time - perhaps in the 3rd century BC when their Greek and Macedonian neighbours also took them up. This figure's helmet is a bronze Macedonian/Thracian type.

The Illyrians' shortage of cavalry meant they could be vulnerable to harrassing and outflanking attacks by such troops. They made a habit of seizing commanding hills, often wooded, which gave some security against these tactics as well as enabling the Illyrians in turn to threaten the flanks or the line of march of an enemy less at home in this sort of terrain. The forested mountains of their own territory made them difficult to conquer, especially as their hilltops were dotted with fortified towns; they "were given confidence by the nature of their country and by their fortifications".