Kretan Hoplites
Spearmen Infantry(0.6.7)Side / Back
Short description
These Kretan Hoplites carry a shield displaying the famous labyrinth.
Description
Ancient Crete was world-famous for its excellent archers. These mercenaries were sought-after by armies all over the Mediterranean, even to the extent that ancient sources generally seem to equate ‘Cretans’ with ‘mercenary archers’. However, its city-states must also have fielded at least a limited number of heavy infantry. Protected by Chalcidian type helmets, metal greaves, a bronze cuirass, and a round shield spotting the legendary Labyrinth, these Kretan Hoplites are well-equipped for a battle in the traditional phalanx.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
After waves of earthquakes and destructive fires had destroyed the ancient civilization of Minoan Crete, the island seems to have been repopulated by Dorian-speaking immigrants from mainland Greece between 1200 and 800 BC. As the number of poleis increased, Crete was once more an important – even if somewhat disconnected – part of the Greek world. Important cities such as Gortyn, Knossos, and Lyttos were ruled by a landed aristocracy which presided over a popular assembly of government. Evidence from other classic Greek poleis strongly suggests that at least part of this more well-to-do citizenry would have defended their homes as heavily armed spearmen in a hoplite phalanx. Finkelstein (‘The Philistines in the Bible’, JSOT 27-2 (2002)) suggests that Cretan Hoplites served as mercenaries together with Carians, Ionians and Lydians in the Saite army in 7th and 6th century BC Philistia.
From the 3rd to the 1st centuries BC, Crete generally seems to have been in turmoil, with constant bloody wars erupting between the island’s main cities between c. 222-219 BC. The rival cities invited foreign powers such as the Macedonian king Philip V or the Rhodians into their feuds. The island subsequently gained a reputation for piracy. In the first century BC, the Romans would finally stamp out this phenomenon. Crete was definitively conquered in 69 BC after a ferocious three-year campaign led by Quintus Caecilius Metellus, which earned him the title ‘Creticus’.