Seleucid Chrysaspides
Spearmen Infantry(0.6.7)Side / Back
Short description
The Gold Shields are veterans of numerous campaigns, now serving their king mostly as katoikoi-farmers or on special ceremonial occasions. In extreme cases of military emergency, they may be relied upon to once more hold the line of battle.
Description
"They were followed by twenty thousand Macedonians of whom ten thousand bore golden shields, five thousand brazen shields and the rest silver shields." (Polyb. 30.25.5)
"Then he ordered his army to raise the battle-cry, and set upon the enemy, uncovering his shields of gold and bronze so that a brilliant light was given off by them, while the mountains re-echoed the shouts of his men." (Josephus, Jewish Antiquites, 12.9.4)
The Chrysaspides (gold-shields) are veteran phalangites, equipped with a 6m (21ft) long sarissa pike and a 45cm pelte shield strapped to the arm, which had the effect of leaving both hands free to handle the pike. If the phalanx formation broke down, the small xiphos sword was used. In the 3rd century BC, they would have worn a linothorax or even breastplate armour, as well as probably adopting chainmail in later times. The Gold Shields will be your back-up veteran units, used in cases where the enemy has breached your border defences and invaded your lands.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The Chrysaspides were one of the two reserve phalanx divisions of the Seleucids, numbering about 10,000 at the Daphne parade of Antiochos IV. According to Esposito (Armies of the Hellenistic States, 87) they were the veterans over the age of 45 who acted as a ‘static’ reserve to be used in case of military emergencies, such as foreign invasions. It is therefore likely that they were mostly used in ceremonies, royal visits, and in times of need perhaps even on garrison duty.
The absence of this unit from accounts before the description of the Daphne parade by Polybios, may mean that it was Antiochos IV – in line with his proclivity for splendour and luxury – who introduced such ornamented shields. We do not know if golden shields would ever have been used in battle, or if they were only intended for ceremonial use. We know of several such instances, for example in the procession of Ptolemy Philadelphos in Alexandria (Athenaeus, Deipnosophists, 5.25–5.37).
The description of the battle of Beth-Zacharias does mention the Seleucid phalanx having shields of gold, which some historians (Bar-Kochva, The Seleucid Army, 56 and note 8, 232; Esposito, 87) take as evidence of the unit’s existence at that time, while others find the evidence inconclusive (Sekunda, Seleucid and Ptolemaic Reformed Armies, Vol. 1, 15–16). In any case, we cannot convincingly determine one or the other, which makes this unit the most speculative of our Seleucid roster.