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Short description

This lightly armed cavalry unit, fighting with javelins and spears, is best suited for skirmishing and running down routing enemies.

Description

Machimoi cavalry, or machimoi hippeis, is a lightly armed cavalry unit representing part of the Ptolemaic army reserves, mostly made up of native Egyptians. Fighting with javelins and spears, their combat style is reminiscent of early, pre-Hellenistic cavalry and appropriate for the light Egyptian padded armour they are equipped with. These cavalrymen are thus best suited for scouting, skirmishing, harassing, and running down fleeing enemy troops, but should be held out of close quarter engagements with professional and elite soldiers.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The Egyptians have been used by the Ptolemies as reserves to increase the number of soldiers in important battles, for example as light troops in the battle of Gaza in 312 BC (Diod. XIX.80) or even as part of the phalanx at Raphia 217 BC (Polyb. V.65.9). Their inclusion as “machimoi” (μάχιμοι, ‘the pugnacious’, or ‘troops fit for action’; Burckhardt, s.v. ‘‘Machimoi’’, in: Brill’s New Pauly, 2006) in the Ptolemaic army, however, is still a topic of scholarly debate. Papyri attest their inclusion among the guard, police, settlers of small plots of land, and military reserves. It is however unlikely that the machimoi formed their own cavalry contingent before the second century BC. In his description of the Ptolemaic cavalry forces at Raphia, Polybios (5.65.5) uses the Greek term “enchorioi” (natives, local people) but this may refer to Greek cavalrymen born in Egypt (Fischer-Bovet, Army and Society in Ptolemaic Egypt (2014), p. 132) as the term “machimoi hippeis” is not attested until the latter half of the second century BC. However, Egyptians may have made use of cavalry during the so-called “Great Revolt”.

Although the Egyptians had revolted against the Ptolemies many times, perhaps already in 245 BC (Fischer-Bovet (2014), p. 65), they were much better equipped during the so-called “Great Revolt” (206-186 BC), thanks to Ptolemy IV, who, according to Polybios, armed them for the short-term successful battle of Raphia, but did not consider the long-term consequences of such a policy (Polyb. V. 107.1). Polybios’ narrative is not very consistent, as he states that in 210 BC Egypt was the only part of the world not involved in warfare, which is why he may have conflated a potential soldiers’ rebellion directly after Raphia in 217 BC with the Great Revolt of 206 BC (Fischer-Bovet (2014), p. 89). Nevertheless, Ptolemy did arm 20,000 Egyptian soldiers for his phalanx at Raphia (Polyb. V.65.9), which may have contributed to a more experienced revolt force. During the aforementioned revolt, the Egyptians crowned their own pharaos, Haronnophris and Khaonnophris, even taking upper Egypt and parts of the Nile Delta from the Ptolemies. Not much is known about their military forces, though controlling a big part of upper Egypt, the self-proclaimed pharaos might have been able to raise a mobile cavalry unit. Despite early successes, in the end the revolt was defeated and, according to Heinen (The Syrian–Egyptian wars and the new kingdoms of Asia Minor (1984), p. 439), the Ptolemaic dynasty was never really in danger until 30 BC. The long-term consequences of revolts like this, however, might have been an increased investment in internal security during the 2nd century BC. This would have resulted in a strengthening of police and guard forces, raising their status to that of Greek cavalry settlers (Fischer-Bovet (2014), p. 118). The official establishment of the machimoi hippeis falls into this same timeframe.

Crawford (Kerkeosiris: an Egyptian village in the Ptolemaic Period (1971), pp. 69-71) counts eight machimoi hippeis in 130/129 BC among attested cleruchs. In Kerkeosiris, the laarchia was composed of cavalry-machimoi with 20- or 30-aroura plots (triakontarouroi or eikosiarouroi) and of infantry-machimoi with 7- or 5-aroura plots (heptarouroi or pentarouroi), compared to the 80 to 70 arouras of kleroi other cavalrymen received (Fischer-Bovet (2014), p. 212; 218). 20 arouras could allow a soldier to lease out the plot, producing enough wheat for the family, and to go on campaign for a reasonable period of time.

The machimoi laarchiai were formed under Ptolemy V in the second century BC and were made up of both machimoi infantry and cavalry, commanded by a laarchos (Fischer-Bovet (2014), p. 122; 164). The establishment of the laarchiai suggests an increase of importance of the machimoi in the Ptolemaic army during this period. Whereas katoikoi received desert land, machimoi were allotted plots of land with low flat-rates and of good quality, which demonstrates that machimoi were actually among the well-to-do at the village level, although many did not enjoy a standard of living as high as some katoikoi hippeis (Fischer-Bovet (2014), p. 259).