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Short description

The Aspidophoroi are well armoured cavalry that charge the enemy with their long spears and carry either javelins or kopis swords as secondary weapons.

Description

Greek cavalry did not carry shields before the 3rd century BC. The experiences of fighting the Thureos armed Galatians and the shielded horsemen of Italy, however, led to a fundamental change in Greek cavalry warfare and by the end of the century, both Thureos and Aspis bearing cavalry was becoming more and more common. Two different versions of the Aspidophoroi (Aspis bearers) existed. The Achaian, Aitolian and Boiotian Leagues as well as Athens and Syracuse deployed horsemen armed with a round shield slightly smaller than that of Italic cavalry, but with a big umbo in the centre. They were protected by Boiotian helmets and Linothorakes and equipped with long cavalry spears and kopis swords. This effective melee cavalry unit replaced most of the Xystophoroi lancers who had dominated the battlefields of Greece and Asia Minor for a hundred years. A second type of Aspidophoroi appears mostly in Asia Minor and was in use, most likely, by Pontos (though quite late), Rhodes and Epeiros. Armed with a large round shield with a centre-thicker spina, they carried javelins along with the spears and could pepper their foes from afar before charging. The Antigonids of Macedon and the Attalids of Pergamon, meanwhile, seem to have used both kinds of shields and equipment for their cavalry, making them extremely versatile.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Both types of Aspidophoroi are attested on the Aemilius Paullus Monument that portrays the Roman victory of the Macedonians at Pydna in 168 BC and was erected in the Sanctuary of Apollo in Delphi the next year. The battle scenes depicted pit Roman against Macedonian troops and are an important source for the reconstruction of the armament of both sides during the Third Roman-Macedonian War (171-168 BC) (cf. Taylor, Battle Scene, 2016). The origins of round shield cavalry in Macedon remain to be debated, but Italic influences dating back to Pyrrhos' campaign in Italy are certainly possible. Before 300 BC, the only Hellenic horsemen with shields were Hoplites who rode into battle and dismounted before the fight (Nefedkin, Cavalry Shields, 2009).

While the Antigonids and Attalids clearly used different Aspis shields, other Greek states seem to have favoured one of two variants. The round shield with the large umbo in the centre appears on a rock relief from Argos, suggesting it was used by the Achaian League, on the lost bronze plate from Pergamon depicting the Battle of Magnesia in 189 BC, probably as Attalid horsemen, on a series of 2nd century heroic horsemen reliefs from Boiotia and on several Greek gems of unknown origin, of which the most impressive one is in the Kestner-Museum in Hannover (Inv. Nr. K 1714). The rider in the gem has a large shield and seems to wield a Kopis, which must have been the secondary weapon besides the spear for these horsemen. The Achaian historian Polybios of Megalopolis (ca. 200-118 BC) adds that the Achaian cavalry of his time was equipped with Linothorakes (Polyb. VI, 25, 3) and that their shields were covered with bronze or painted brazen (II, 91, 7).

Even more fascinating is the evidence from Boiotia: a series of horsemen reliefs from early 2nd century BC prove the introduction of the round cavalry shield (Fossey, Cult of the Horseman Hero in Boiotia, 2014). Especially impressive is relief No. 1 (IG VII 2807) from ancient Kopai, modern day Topalia, which depicts a horseman on a rising horse, with his cloak flowing in the wind. Protected by Boiotian helmets, shields and light armour, these men were better protected than the Xystophoroi of the 3rd century and could fulfil more flexible roles on the battlefield.

The so-called ‘Cavalry Convention’ between Orchomenos and Chaironeia (dated to 286/285 BC by: Knoepfler, The Expansion of the Boeotian Koinon, 2014) sheds some light on the role of the Boiotian cavalry in the early Hellenistic period and only a few years before the start of the RIS campaign. The treaty mentions the deployment of cavalry regiments both to defend Thebes, which had been fully re-integrated into the League a few years earlier, and to help the polis Eretria on Euboia shake off Macedonian rule. The Boiotians succeeded with the latter enterprise and welcomed Eretria into the League, thereby expanding past their traditional borders. Though Eretria was lost again around 280 BC, the Hellenistic Boiotian League had clear ambitions to expand beyond Boiotia itself, as is also testified by a number of other cases, and a strong cavalry force was vital to realise such designs. Since the 5th century BC, Boiotia had been divided into eleven districts, each of whose had to provide 1,000 Hoplites, 100 horsemen, and unspecified numbers of rowers and light infantrymen (likely more than 1,000 of each) for the confederate army (FGrH 66 = Hell. Oxy.). Since the number of member cities changed at times - e.g. when Thebes was ‘destroyed’ or when Eretria joined the League - the size of the Boiotian army also varied over time. Yet, until its very end the numbers seem to have been rather stable. For instance, in 280 BC the Boiotians sent 10,000 Hoplites and 500 horsemen to the Greek army at Thermopylai to support their compatriots against the invading Celts (X, 20, 3). The reduced contingent of cavalry may be due to the fact that a sizable number had to stay behind to patrol the borders and secure peace and order, with internal rivalries between the pro- and anti-Theban factions in Boiotia still not put to bed. In fact, thanks to the fertility of the land, there seems to have been a steady growth of population. Diodoros of Agyrion (1st century BC) describes the situation three hundred years before he wrote as such: “They are inferior to no other Greek ethnos in the number of their men and in their valour in war” (Diod. XV, 26, 1).

Finally, cavalry bearing the Aspis with an umbo can also be found in the West. A limestone votive relief with representation of a heroised knight with crested konos helmet dated to the 3rd century BC from Akradina (near Syracuse) and a votive marble relief with heroised knight, squire and young man from the early 3rd century BC (Archaeological Museum of Syracuse) prove that the Syracusans adopted this style of fighting, either from Italic influences or Pyrrhos and his Epirotes, who, however, seems to have used Aspidophoroi as javelin cavalry (see below).

Other Greek states, meanwhile, used Aspis shields with a centre-thicker spina. This type of shield can also be found on the Aemilius Paullus monument and on a variety of Macedonian stelae, as it was one of the types used by the Antigonids. Outside of Macedon, it appears on a relief from Daskyleion in Mysia and was probably the second Attalid horsemen shown on the lost bronze plate of Pergamon (Nefedkin (2009), p. 5). As Nefedkin argues, Aspidophoroi became the standard cavalry in the Aegean and Asia Minor in the 2nd century BC and we can thus expect adjacent states to have adopted it as well - hence it is available in the Rhodian, Epirote (a relief from Dassaretis on the Macedonian-Epirote border shows this type of shield; Hatzopoulos, Organisation (2001), pp. 35-54) and Pontic roster. The lack of any evidence for swords for this second variant may suggest that they used javelins before charging, just like the Thureophoroi cavalry that was widespread in the Antigonid and Seleucid Empires (Nefedkin (2009), p. 9). However, there is no reason to believe they did not use the Linothorakes mentioned by Polybios (VI, 25, 3) and the Boiotian helmets attested on various reliefs.