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Short description

These Lycian archers fire deadly arrows of cane, while they are protected from enemy fire by their solid armour.

Description

These archers hail from Lycia, a mountainous, yet fertile area of South Western Asia Minor. In contrast to most Greek archers, they are not made up of young or poor men who cannot afford armour, but composed of experienced warriors. Letoides, the god of the bow, was one of the chief deities of Lycia and archery therefore occupied a central place in Lycian culture. The warriors are wearing muscle cuirasses, linothorakes or breastplates, felt caps with feathers on their heads, and goatskins hang over their shoulders. From their cornel-wood bows, the archers fire unfeathered arrows made of cane from short range, while in melee they defend themselves with hand-daggers. The Lycians have fought for Persians and Greeks in the past, now they fight for the Ptolemaic kings or anyone who has enough money to hire them. These heavy archers are an asset for every army.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Lycia was a region to the east of Caria in south western Anatolia, between the Indos river in the West and the coast north of the Rhodian colony of Phaselis in the East. It was a land of high, rough mountains and fertile alluvial plains, of fortified cities and flourishing rural settlements. The region is now famous for the graves of its nobles which were often carved into rocks, especially in Myra, and attract scores of tourists. In antiquity, its inhabitants called themselves trm̃mili (Termilai, e.g. TAM 1, 88; cf. Hdt. 7,92) and spoke a language related to Luwian, the dominant language of Anatolia in the 2nd millennium BC. Homer called them Λύκιοι (Lykioi). During the Trojan War, Sarpedon, the proud and renowned king of Lycia, marched to the aid of Troy and fought alongside Hektor. He was eventually cut down by Patroklos, who, in turn, was killed by Hektor (Hom. Il. 16.419-683). According to Homer, the Rhodians founded the colonies of Rhodiapolis, Gagai, Phaselis and Korydalla on their coast (Il. 13.310-314). In any case, there were connections with the Greek world from the earliest times. Although the Persians conquered Lycia in the late 6th century BC (Hdt. 1.176), its local dynasts took advantage of the Greek victory during the Graeco-Persian Wars and became allies of the Athenians (Bryce/Zahle, Lycians (1986), pp. 103-107). The rulers of Xanthos dominated the region and their monumental graves can nowadays be seen in the British Museum (surprise, surprise).

In the 370s BC, Perikles of Limyra challenged the supremacy of the Xanthians and declared himself king of Lycia, thereby causing the Great Lycian War. After besieging Telmessos and Phaselis, Perikles was able to secure half of the Lycian Peninsula. However, there is always a bigger fish! During the Great Satrap Revolt against the Great King of Persia (366-360 BC), both Perikles and the Xanthians failed to realise their goals and, when the revolt collapsed, were forced to accept the overlordship of Mausolos of Caria (r. 377-353 BC). The Oeconomica (Oikonomika), a work often ascribed to Aristotle, preserves a rather hilarious anecdote from this period: ‘Noticing that the Lycians were fond of wearing their hair long, Kondalos, a governor under Mausolos, pretended that a dispatch had come from the king of Persia ordering him to send hair to make false fringes and that he was therefore commanded by Mausolos to cut off their hair. He therefore said that, if they would pay him a fixed poll tax, he would send for hair to Greece. They gladly gave him what he asked, and a large sum of money was collected from a great number of them.’ (Ps.-Aristot. Oec. 1348a, l. 28-34)

After the end of the Hekatomnid dynasty in the late 4th century BC, Lycia passed first into the hands of Alexander and then those of the Ptolemaic kings, before it was conquered by the Seleucid king Antiochos III the Great in 197 BC (Keen, Dynastic Lycia (2018), p. 180). In the treaty of Apameia (188 BC), the Seleucids had to cede Lycia to Rhodes, but the Lycians violently resisted their new overlords (Polyb. XXIV, 14, 13; XXV, 5, 3). Already in the 180s BC, the Lycian Poleis formed a league with its own laws, council and assembly (Strab. 14.3.3.; SEG 18.570), which remained autonomous until 43 AD, at which point it was incorporated into the province of Lycia by emperor Claudius. Yet, the Lycian League continued to exercise political, religious, economic and ceremonial functions until at least the 3rd century AD, possibly the 7th (Zimmermann, Martin, s.v. Lykioi, Lykia, in: DNP online).

Herodotos, the father of history, described the Lycians in the Persian army before the famous battles of Thermophylai, Artemision, Salamis and Plataiai as follows:

"They were thorekophoroi ['cuirassiers'] wearing greaves and carried bows made of cornel-wood, unfeathered arrows made of cane and javelins. They wore skins of goats hung about the shoulders, and felt caps encircled with feathers on their heads. They also carried hand-daggers and drepana [scimitars or 'war-sickles']" (Hdt. VII, 92). The manifold equipment of the Lycians can only be portrayed by two different units in TW, the Lycian Marines and the Lycian Archers. Therefore, the archers come with the bows made of cornel-wood - a tree still most common in Greece and Anatolia today - and unfeathered arrows made of cane, which would fly less far than feathered arrows and be less precise, but be highly effective at closer range. They are protected by a mix of muscle cuirasses, Linothorakes and breastplates, as thorax is a very generic term, to which the felt caps with feathers and the goat skins can be added. Instead of the drepana of the marines, they are only equipped with hand-daggers for melee. Despite the lack of a shield, they are well protected against enemy fire, but should be kept out of prolonged melee. Their range lies between that of normal archers and javelins, and they thus add another tactical dimension to your forces.

Lycia had its own god of archery, Letoides, whose name was found on inscriptions excavated in the early 19th century (Grotefend, Inscriptions in Lycia (1833), p. 325). As Artemis was the Greek goddess of archery and her mother was called Leto, Letoides may have been a local name for her twin brother Apollo, who is often depicted with a bow as well. In Lycian, Artemis was called Ertemi (TL 44, c8). Ironically, in the Greek myth, the Lycians let down Leto when she came to their land. While being hunted by Hera, the lover of Zeus eventually reached a lake in Lycia, but the local peasants were not pleased when Leto wanted to drink the water of their lake. Out of anger, she turned the peasants into frogs (Ov. Metam. 6, 339-681), a scene depicted on the Latona (=Leto) fountain at Versailles. Further evidence for the equation between Apollo and Letoides can be found in the Iliad. During the Trojan War, Apollo supports the Lycians and rescues the corpse of their fallen king Sarpedon, who you can play in Troy TW, from the battlefield (Hom. Il. 16, 667-683). Furthermore, the Lycians Glaukos (16, 527-532) and Pandaros (2, 827; 4, 101; 119), who was also a famous archer, enjoy his favour.

It can then be stated with some confidence that Apollo, who was one of the most popular gods in Greece, was revered in Lycia as Letoides. Greek authors accordingly ascribe a cult of Apollon to the region. Diodoros of Sicily (1st century BC) recounts the story of the Telchines, made famous in the Percy Jackson series as a mix of dogs, fish and humans, who migrated to Lycia and founded a temple of Apollo (Diod. V, 55-56) – probably the famous oracle at Patara (Hdt. I, 182; Bryce, Lycian Apollo (1991), p. 146). In the fourth century BC, Apollo, Artemis and Leto became a divine triad, and later the national divinities of Lycia, in the Letoon near Xanthos, now a UNESCO world heritage site (Bryce, Lycian Apollo (1991), p. 147). With all of this in mind, it is likely that archery was greatly renowned in Hellenistic Lycia, and its bowmen would be well-trained and experienced soldiers. Metal breastplates and cuirasses, in particular, were not cheap and a symbol of status. The Lycians would be able to afford such costly armour by virtue of being professional warriors – either in Ptolemaic pay, or as mercenaries abroad.