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Short description

Athenian Marines were never numerous, but they are trained to fight with every possible weapon in every kind of situation.

Description

Athenian Marines or Epibatai were never numerous, but they are trained to fight with every possible weapon in every kind of situation. These men of the Hoplite class serve aboard Athenian warships, but can also be used for landing operations or to defend your coasts and harbours against the enemy. Protected by reinforced Linothorakes, a round Aspis shield and Attic helmets produced in the Kerameikos, they use their curved Kopis swords to hack at the enemy at close quarters, the usual way of fighting on the board of a triere. Their shield portrays a dolphin jumping over a trident against a background that resembles a sun disc lighting up the open sea. Such devotions were supposed to appease the sea god Poseidon, whom the Athenians had rejected in his competition with Athena.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:

It were Athens’ ships that made it powerful, that allowed it to defeat the Persians and win the hegemony over the Aegean. While 3rd century Athens relied as much on trieres as 5th century Athens and while these fast ships won battles thanks to elaborate manoeuvres such as the periplous (sailing around the enemy’s line) and the diekplous (sailing through the enemy’s line), they also had trained sea soldiers on board. These were usually not very numerous, however: during the Ionian Revolt (499-493 BC), the Chians assigned 40 wealthy citizens as Epibatai (“Marines”) to each of their ships (Hdt. VI, 15), but by the time of the Peloponnesian War (431-402 BC) the number had sunk to 10 soldiers per triere (Thuc. III, 91; 94; 95; IG II2 1951,84fseq.: 11e).

Epibatai would not only fight on board of their own or enemy ships. They would also be used for landing operations, often supported by armed rowers (as Phil De Souza has repeatedly argued), and on the larger warships of the Hellenistic East they would operate artillery such as catapults (first mentioned in Athens in the inscription IG II², 120, l. 37, dating to some point between 358 and 354 BC). Accordingly, they fought with all kinds of weapons, but almost always in lighter armour than Hoplites, since the weight of the metal would mean certain death should an Epibates go overboard – a Linothorax was the heaviest possible armour. While preferring the thrusting spear of the Hoplite and Greek swords such as the Kopis or Machaira for melee, the “Marines” of Athens especially were also skilled with javelin and bow, and Plato (Laches p. 183D) mentions an Epibates who fought with a spear sickle (dorydrépanon); irregular weapons such as these may have been more common.

After its defeat in the Lamian War against Macedon in 322 BC, Athens ceased to be a naval power. However, in 281 BC, upon the death of Lysimachos, his conqueror Seleukos Nikator returned the island of Lemnos to the Athenians. Pausanias (X, 20, 5) says the Athenians brought "all of their seaworthy trieres" to Thermopylai in 280 BC. Over a century later, the Romans passed Delos into the hands of Athens, and other small islands were controlled by the Athenians during this period. Therefore, a small squad of trieres must have existed and may have been extended - similarly to other parts of the armed forces - in the immediate prelude to the Chremonidean War (267-261 BC). Around the time of the Lamian War, larger troops carriers such as Tetreres and Penteres are also attested at Athens (IG II², 1632 (II, 812) a) and they, too, may have been built again for the renewed conflict against Antigonid Macedon.