Galatian General
Heavy Cavalry(0.6.7)Side / Back
Short description
A Galatian warlord surrounds himself with fierce warriors as a personal guard. These spear-armed cavalry are an elite reserve to be used in moments of crisis.
Description
A Galatian warlord surrounds himself with fierce warriors as a personal guard. These spear-armed cavalry are an elite reserve for use in a moment of crisis.
Every warlord commands by right of personal courage as much as tactical skill, and must prove himself in battle. He and his guards are equipped as cavalry with spears, mail armour and shields so that they can dash to any point on the battlefield. The warlord can inspire his men to greater efforts just by his presence, and also has enough men to be a significant force should the need arise.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
In 279 BC, well organised bands of Celtic warriors violently erupted into Macedonia and Greece (Liv. 38.16.1-2; Paus.1.4.1; Polyaen 7.35.1-2; Just. 24.4.6), causing widespread devastation, until the host, headed by Brennus, was defeated by the Aetolian League near Delphi (Diod.22.9.1; Paus.23.10.1-10; Just.24.8.1-10). The following year, at the invitation of Nikomedes I of Bithynia, an off-shoot Celtic grouping, consisting of 10,000 warriors, crossed the Hellespont into Asia, along with their wives and children (Polyb. 1.6.5; Liv. 38.16.3-7; Strab. 12.5.1; Mem. FGrH 434 F11.1-3, F12.6; Paus. 1.41.5). The Tolistobogii, Tectosages and Trocmi tribes initially assisted Nikomedes in the dynastic struggle against his brother, before embarking on a decade of raiding and plundering in western Anatolia. Finally settling in the area of Phrygia and Kappadokia later known as “Galatia” (Mem. FGrH 434 F11.6), the three tribes were each divided into four cantons led by a tetrarch. These tetrarchai periodically gathered with 300 senators in the Drynemeton, a sacred place near modern Ancyra, in a “Council of the nation” (Stab. 12.5.1).
There was a strong heroic ethos in Galatian society, and like other Celtic groupings, warriors favoured gaining honour in conspicuous ways, particularly single combat. Diodorus Siculus describes how Celtic champions offered to fight single combats "[...] and when someone accepts their challenge to battle, they proudly recite the deeds of valour of their ancestors and proclaim their own valorous quality, at the same time abusing and making little of their opponent and generally attempting to rob him beforehand of his fighting spirit" (Diod. 5.29). In general, the Galatian tactics favoured battle in open country.