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Short description

The well-equipped Epibatai of Kyzikos can fight with both javelins and sword and are brave defenders of their rich homeland, which has been thriving for half a millennium and will thrive for centuries to come.

Description

These men serve on board the ships of the Kyzikan navy. Kyzikos is a wealthy city state located on an island off the coast of western Bithynia, which possesses a great harbour and several depots for warships. Its famed fleet has allowed it to retain its autonomy for centuries. But not only the sailors make a navy strong, so do the soldiers on board the trieres, who fight in naval battles, protect trade ships against pirates, take part in landing operations, and can be deployed on land to strengthen the citizen army of Kyzikos. The Epibatai carry large aspis shields and wear both linen cuirasses (linothorakes) and metal helmets of various types: crested Attic helmets, pilos helmets without cheek guards, or Chalcidian helmets. They are thus well protected and their straight, short xiphos swords give them an advantage in the crowded melee on ships. Javelins complete their equipment and can be launched at the crew of enemy ships from afar. A flexible unit both on the deck of a triere and on land, these Epibatai are Kyzikos' best defense.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Kyzikos was founded by Milesians in the year 756 BC and always retained close ties to its mother city (Plin. nat. hist. 5.143, Schol. Apoll. Rhod. 1.955). Though not as famous as Miletos, Kyzikos retained its independence for almost eight centuries and was one of the richest cities in the Greek world. The famous Kyzikan gold staters were of such a high quality that they became one of the main currencies of the Aegean, Black Sea, and Eastern Mediterranean, especially before the emergence of the coinage of Philip II and Alexander (Dueck, Illiterate Geography (2021), p. 117; Pope, The Ancient Greeks (1976), p. 9). Even though the staters were actually made of electrum, an alloy of gold and silver, this was seemingly no issue and the Athenians at the height of their power used them for state payments and tributes (Kallet/Kroll, The Athenian Empire (2020), p. 43) – Kyzikos was one of the most powerful members of their Delian League (Athen. 12.534) and it repeatedly rebelled when Athens attempted to reduce its autonomy (Thuc. 8.107, Diod. 13.40, Xen. Hell. 1.1.11-19, Plut. Alkibiades 20).

Of the greatest impact for history, however, was Kyzikos' relation with the Attalids of Pergamon. Philetairos, the founder of the dynasty, was already closely linked to Kyzikos, as is attested by the establishment of a festival dedicated to him, the Philetaireia, which appeared in Kyzikos by the mid 3rd century BC (IG 660). A few years later Attalos I (r. 241-197 BC) married Apollonis, the moderate and pious daughter of an average Kyzikan citizen (Polyb. 22.20). As every CK player will know, marriages establish alliances, especially when there are plenty of children. Apollonis bore Attalos four sons, two of which (Eumenes II and Attalos II) would become kings. She probably died in 161/160 BC, since Eumenes II erected a temple for her one year later which was adorned by an inscription saying that Apollonis had "recently joined the Gods on Olympos" (OGIS 477-478, no. 308). In Kyzikos, Eumenes II and Attalos II sponsored the construction of another temple for their mother, which included images of mothers’ lovingly caring for their children (Anth. Palat. 3.1-19). Accordingly, the Kyzikans fought on the Pergamene side in the war against Pontos in 183 BC (Polyb. 25.2.13) and in 154 BC they dispatched their fleet to attack Bithynia, the arch rival of the Attalids (Polyb. 33.13.1-3).

Polybios stresses that Kyzikos could send the Pergamenes twenty "decked ships" (trieres or tetreres) in the early 2nd century BC, when the Attalid fleet encompassed 27 ships of this type (Polyb. 33.13.1-2). Together, they attacked the coast of Bithynia, and it will have been the Epibatai who burned forts and raided villages. Their decisive action brought the war to a quick and victorious end (Polyb. 33.13.6). A century later, well after the end of the Attalid dynasty, Kyzikos was targeted by Mithradates VI of Pontos, for it had supported the Romans. In the sea battle at Chalkedon in 74 BC, the Kyzikans had lost 10 ships and 3,000 men, leading Mithradates to think that the time was ripe to take the city (Plut. Lucullus 9.1). The king brought a huge force to Kyzikos and encircled the city from both the land and the sea, erecting ten fortified camps all around it. The Kyzikans held out, however, trusting their fortifications to keep them safe until Lucius Licinius Lucullus would arrive with the main Roman army. Mithradates, of course, knew the situation only too well, and constructed a 45m high siege tower and various smaller devices to take the city by storm. A strong wind from the sea, however, shook the tower and the ladders and they eventually crashed down to the ground (Plut. Lucullus 10.1-3). Though Mithridates had brought 400 ships to the siege, the Kyzikan fleet still scored some minor victories and kept the supply lines open (App. Mithr. 15.74, Strab. 12.8.11C576). Even when the Pontic admiral came up with novel technology, the defenders did not give in: two penteres were bound together and carried a massive boarding bridge, but on command of their general Peisistratos, the Kyzikan Epibatai poured burning pitch down the harbour walls and set the device aflame (App. Mithr. 15.73-74).

The king now proceeded to dig a tunnel beneath the walls, but the Kyzikans got wind of the enterprise and almost captured Mithridates himself when they advanced through a counter tunnel (Strab. 12.8.11C576). After yet another setback, the Pontic army was suffering from food shortages and a famine broke out. When Lucullus eventually arrived, Mithradates' men were already weakened and retreated without putting up much resistance (Plut. Lucullus 11.1-12.1). Lucullus was realistic enough to know whom he had to thank for the victory and gave the Kyzikans considerable chunks of territory in the inland of Bithynia (Strab. 12.8.11C576). The stunning victory of the Kyzikans, who had been vastly outnumbered, was based not only on the courage of Kyzikos' citizens and the experience of its marines and sailors, but also on the natural advantages of Kyzikos' position. The Pontic (!) historian and geographer Strabo (12.8.11C575) writes:

"Kyzikos is an island in the Propontis, being connected with the mainland by two bridges; and it is not only most excellent in the fertility of its soil, but in size has a perimeter of about five hundred stadia. It has a city of the same name near the bridges themselves, and two harbours that can be closed, and more than two hundred ship-sheds. (...) Now I am omitting most details, but I may say that there are three directors who take care of the public buildings and the engines of war, and three who have charge of the treasure-houses, one of which contains arms and another engines of war and another grain."

Superior organisation, superior defences, and superior experience in naval sieges were the factors that brought the Kyzikans victory and would preserve their independence for another century. The Epibatai must have played a crucial role in the successes of this special polis. Luckily, we know exactly how they were equipped: the funerary stele of one Demetrios, found at Panderma near Kyzikos and erected around 370 BC, shows a soldier in a fight on a battleship (it is now in the Glyptothek in Munich). He wears the aspis shield of a hoplite, a Linothorax, an uncrested Attic helmet, and a xiphos for melee. Since skirmishes between ships were common, we added the javelins (for their usage by marines cf. Morrison/Coates/Rankov, The Athenian Trireme (2000), p. 150), as well as some more common helmet types for variety.