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Short description

These well-trained men use the large Thureos shield as protection while skirmishing or to defend themselves in melee.

Description

The Euzonoi are fierce, well-trained missile troops. These men may be lightly armoured skirmishers, but they are well-protected by their helmets and large thureos shields. While they can defend themselves in melee with shorts swords or thrusting spears, their main weapons are their javelins. The ancient Greek javelin consisted of a wooden shaft with a leaf-shaped iron head that was sometimes barbed. Most javelins had a so called ankyle (a cord loop) fixed to their point of balance. Before throwing the javelin, the soldier would place his first two fingers through the loop, which increased the range from about 75 to somewhere between 90 and 100 metres (Spence, Historical Dictionary of Ancient Greek Warfare, p. 186).

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

From the earliest times, Greeks used the javelin, both as a hunting weapon and in warfare. From these followed the usage in sporting competitions such as the Olympic Games. Homer says in the Iliad:

"And of warriors far best was Telamonian Aias, while yet Achilles cherished his wrath; for Achilles was far the mightiest, [770] he and the horses that bare the peerless son of Peleus. Howbeit he abode amid his beaked, seafaring ships in utter wrath against Agamemnon, Atreus' son, shepherd of the host; and his people along the sea-shore took their joy in casting the discus and the javelin, and in archery; [775] and their horses each beside his own car, eating lotus and parsley of the marsh, stood idle, while the chariots were set, well covered up, in the huts of their masters." (Hom. Il. II, 767-777)

While javelins are often mentioned in the context of the Trojan War (though Homer may here be referring to his own time in the 8th or 7th century BC rather than the 12th or 11th century BC), by the archaic period and in the early classical age we find javelins almost exclusively as the weapon of young and poor men who lacked wealth, social status and/or experience to fight as Hoplites. They were either called Psiloi (e.g. Hdt. IX, 29; Thuk. IV, 93, 3) or Gymnetes (“Nude ones”; e.g. Tyrt. fr. 11,35-8; P.Oxy. 3316,14; Thuk. IV, 90, 4; VII, 37, 2) and wore neither armour nor shields or helmets. This only changed with the definite introduction into Greece of the Peltast from Thrace during the Peloponnesian War (Thuk. II, 29, 5; IV, 129, 2; V, 6, 4; VII, 27, 1). Greek Peltasts, armed with either the crescent shaped or round Pelte shield, appear from the 5th all the way to the 1st century BC and were well-trained skirmishers.

In the 3rd century BC, however, another change happened and a new term appears: the Euzonoi (Sekunda, Military Forces, in: Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Warfare, p. 343). In Sparta, these were a new force of professional skirmishers introduced by Kleomenes III (r. 235-222 BC) to replace the untrained Helot skirmishers (Polyb. II, 69, 3). Little is known about their equipment, but the most likely interpretation is that the traditional pelte shield was replaced by the larger, oblong thureos that became increasingly popular during the 3rd century BC. In regions closer to the areas of the Balkan Celts and the Northern Illyrians, who had used this type of shield long before the Hellenes, Euzonoi style troops likely replaced the classical Peltasts. Thus they will not only have been found in Sparta, but also in Epeiros and in Macedonian armies. Finally, in the West, too, with the cultural proximity to both Celtic and Italic cultures, the oval Thureos shield was in widspread use among the Greeks.