Slave Slingers
Missile Infantry(0.6.7)Side / Back
Short description
These Douloi Sphendonetes are slaves who accompany their masters to war, fighting as slingers.
Description
One peculiarity of Illyrian warfare was that their slaves fought alongside them, some rich individuals being able to field several hundred slaves. Illyrian armies were typically short of reliable missile troops, and so many of the slaves were deployed as slingers. With neither shield nor armour, these men are expected to harass the enemy formations prior to the line infantry comes into contact with the enemy. Only suitable for ambush, missile combat and harassing the enemy flanks and rear, these slave-conscripts are unable to engage in close order fighting for any duration of time.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The Illyrians' regular raiding of their neighbours must have provided numerous slaves; in 230 BC for instance the entire population of Phoinike in Epeiros was enslaved.
Those slaves that formed a part of Illyrian armies were, of course, given the most menial tasks, and were the most expendable component of the Illyrian host.
Most Illyrian communities were poor and primitive compared to their Greek neighbours, and so they valued slave labour. If one believes the Greek author, Theopompos, the Ardiaei had some 300,000 slaves, whose legal situation was identical to that of the Helots of Sparta. According to Agatharchidis, the Dardanoi also possessed many slaves; some of them more than a thousand. These slaves were primarily responsible for agricultural labour, but, like the helots of Sparta, could be forced to accompany their masters to war.