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Short description

The Masdyenians are experienced mercenaries from Paphlagonia who can fight both as skirmishers and melee infantry. Just make sure not to remove their privileges!

Description

These warriors come from Paphlagonia in northern Asia Minor, more precisely from a group called the Masdyenians. They are sought after for their abilities as dual missile and melee infantry. The Masdyenians wear Thracian embades (enclosed boots), Paphlagonian clothing, and fight with short Paphlagonian spears and javelins. Their defensive armament is predominantly Greek: round pelte shields with bronze overlays, Phrygian bronze helmets and decorated linothorakes. As experienced fighters and with their flexible tactics, they are a useful weapon for any Attalid, Paphlagonian, or foreign army.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

In 133 BC, Attalos III, the last king of Pergamon, died (Strab. 13.4.2). Through his testament, he bequeathed his kingdom to Rome, but demanded that all Greek cities in its territory – including Pergamon – were to remain free (inscription OGIS 338). Though the Senate almost immediately agreed to the terms and passed a law accordingly (OGIS 435), the Romans did not have a great reputation and many did not believe that they would be kind rulers (and in that respect, they would of course be right). While most of the poleis were initially happy to wait and see how events would unfold, the Attalid army and the navy were not keen to lose their status. These forces included a group of former Paphlagonian mercenaries, the Masdyenians (OGIS 338, l17). The name is certainly Paphlagonian, and as foreigners and mercenaries they had not held citizenship in Pergamon. Through Attalos' last will, however, they received just that (OGIS 338, l17). It is likely that they, like some of the other soldiers, including the Mysian horsemen and Thureophoroi (see their descriptions), feared to lose their (new) privileges, and hence they elected Aristonikos, allegedly an illegitimate son of Eumenes II and thus half-brother of Attalos III, as their leader (Strab. 14.1.38).

Taking the title of Eumenes III, Aristonikos first had to deal with the Ionian cities who had accepted the last will of Attalos. With the experienced Attalid fleet, he quickly overran Samos, Kolophon and Myndos, forced Smyrna into submission and gained Leukai (Flor. 1.35.4). When advancing from Smyrna to Kyme, however, his fleet was intercepted by the Ephesians and soundly beaten (Strab. 14.1.38). Aristonikos retreated into the interior and now relied on his army, likely including the Mandynians and the Mysians. From Phrygia and Bithynia, he recruited large numbers of Thracians to increase the size of this host (Val. Max. 3.2.12), and he also freed slaves, calling them Heliopolitai ("citizens of the sun", Strab. 14.1.38). After conquering Thyatheira, one of the most important production centres in the kingdom, he began to mint his own coins there which depicted the Attalid snake (Thonemann, The Hellenistic World (2016), fig. 4.25). His Mysian soldiers incited towns and cities in the interior of Mysia to support their cause (IGRR IV 154), and when a Roman army finally arrived, Aristonikos' Thracians tore it into pieces (Val. Max. 3.2.12). The Thracian part of his army subsequently invaded Europe and attacked cities on the Chersonesos including Sestos (OGIS 339) and Kyzikos (in Asia, IGRR IV 154), while the freedmen and other poor in Aristonikos' army took Apollonis, dreaming of a new state called ‘Heliopolis’ as a utopia on earth (Thonemann (2016), p. 82). Aristonikos' position was improved even further when Ariarathes V of Cappadocia died, but, at the same time, Nikomedes II of Bithynia and Pylaimenes of Paphlagonia declared their support for the pro-Roman Ionians and Rome (Africa, Aristonicus (1961), pp. 110-124).

Though Aristonikos seemed to be winning the war, Nikomedes II now managed to combine his forces with those of Ephesos and Kyzikos (and possibly Miletos) and soon threatened Aristonikos' position from the north. The usurper subsequently moved his headquarters to Stratonikeia in Caria to re-assemble his army further in the south (Collins, The Revolt of Aristonicus (1978), pp. 100-101). Nikomedes, however, held the Bosporus long enough for a new Roman army under Marcus Perperna, who had put down the First Slave Revolt in Sicily, to make its way into Asia. The combined Roman, Bithynian and Ionian forces defeated Aristonikos in a pitched battle and laid siege to Stratonikeia. When the city fell in 129 BC, the usurper was captured alive and brought to Rome, where he would be executed – by that point, Perperna was already gone, having died near Pergamon (Liv. Per. 59, Iust. 36.4, Vell. 2.4).

What happened to the Masdyenians we do not know, nor how they were equipped. Herodotus had this to say about the Paphlagonians (7.72.1): "The Paphlagonians in the army had woven helmets on their heads, and small shields and short spears, and also javelins and daggers; they wore their native shoes that reach midway to the knee". Hence we have given this unit short spears, round pelte shields, javelins, Phrygian helmets (in 7.73.1 we hear that the Paphlagonian equipment is identical to that of the Phrygians) and Paphlagonian clothes. Linothorakes were added because the last will of Attalos implies that the Masdyenians were valuable mercenaries who must have served the Attalid army loyally for years or decades, possibly as the result of an alliance between Eumenes II and King Morzos of Paphlagonia after 189 BC (Livy 38.26.3). Thus, the equipment of the Masdyenians as a sort of elite Paphlagonian skirmisher/melee infantry unit is based on educated speculation, with RIS representing a fine detail in the last will of Attalos III – may he raise a glass for us on the island of the blessed!