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Short description

These Xystophoroi are the Hippeis of Syracuse. As the elite of the greatest, most powerful and wealthiest Greek city in the West, they can afford the best equipment available and form an experienced and feared cavalry corps.

Description

These lance-bearing horsemen are made up of the affluent elite of Syracuse, the greatest Greek city (state) in the West. The wealth and power of the Polis and its rulers are reflected in their equipment. Colourful Boiotian and Konos helmets protect their heads, lavish linothorakes or expensive metal cuirasses their torsos, and fine, brazen greaves their legs. Beautiful chlamys cloaks complete their clothing and signal to friend and foe alike that these men are wealthy and important. Armed with a long Xyston and a straight Kopis sword, they are armed for both charge and subsequent melee. Centuries of continuous warfare against other Greeks, Carthaginians, Illyrians, and Italics have taught them the grim realities of battle. This renowned cavalry is an asset for every Basileus of Syracuse and should be used wisely.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Syracuse (Συράκουσαι, Syrakousai) was founded by settlers from Corinth in 734/733 BC as one of the oldest Greek cities in the West and was named after the adjacent swamp (the "Syrakka", cf, Ps.-Scymn. 280-282). It was originally situated only on a small peninsula called Ortygia, which, however, commanded two good harbours and a fertile hinterland. These features laid the basis for the rise of Syracuse first as a commercial and then a political power throughout the Archaic and into the early Classical Period. In 485 BC, Gelon, tyrant of Gela, captured Syracuse during a civil war and then made it his seat of power, forcing a huge part of Gela's population to follow him (Hdt. 7.156). The (sometimes forced, sometimes voluntary) enfranchisement of the citizens of other cities and of his mercenaries further enlarged Syracuse's population and thus also its military potential (cf. Thuc. 6.4.2, 94.1; Diod. 11.72.3; Dittenberger, IvO, No. 266; Luraghi, Tirannidi arcaiche in Sicilia e Magna Grecia (1994), pp. 161-168). Though Gelon would die less than a decade later and his dynasty would not last another ten years, his migration policy and his famous victory over the Carthaginians at Himeria in 480 BC changed the political landscape of the West forever. According to Herodotus, he was the mightiest man in both Europe and the Greek world (Hdt. 8.145.2) and he offered to support the Greek defence against the Persians with a force of 200 trieres and 28,000 men, including 2,000 horse riders (7.158.4). Sparta rejected the offer because it wanted to remain leader of the Greek coalition (Hdt. 7.158.5-159.1), but the passage shows the enormous military might of Syracuse.

After the death of Gelon's youngest brother Thrasybulos in 467 BC, democracy was restored in Syracuse (Aristot. Pol. 5.1312b). Since the democrats were less oppressive and expansive towards the other Sicilian cities than the tyrants, the Syracusan army decreased in size, but half a century later it would still be sufficient to repel the Athenian invasion of 415-413 BC. Thucydides underlines the prestige and effectivity of the Syracusan cavalry (Thuc. 6.37.2, 7.6.3) and emphasises that in the only victory the Athenians could score against the enemy horsemen, they suffered considerable losses (6.98.4).

In 405 BC, Dionysios I, disciple of Hermokrates, who had defeated the Athenians, overthrew the democratic government and declared himself strategos autokrator ("ruling general") for life. The demos saw him as the only hope in a war against the rampaging Carthaginians, but when Dionysios was defeated at Gela, his Italic mercenaries deserted him and the influential Syracusan cavalry revolted. Saved by his bodyguards (Xen. Hell. 2.3.5, Diod. 13.112-113), Dionysios faced an even bigger mutiny in the subsequent year in which all of the citizen troops participated (Philistos FGH 556 F 115, Isoc. 6.44-45, Ael. Var. Hist. 4.8). The historian and commander Philistos convinced Dionysios to fortify Ortygia and the cavalry eventually made the mistake to return to their new farmsteads in Aitna to collect the harvest. Dionysios quickly seized their weapons and possessions from their homes in Syracuse and forced them to submit (Polyaen. 5.2.14). Though many members of the Hippeis, the cavalry class, would remain opposed to Dionysios' rule, which lasted until his death in 367 BC and was followed by almost twenty years under his son Dionysios II, they also fought in his many wars and were vital in defeating the Carthaginians several times, as well as the Italiote League and the Sicels (Berger, Revolution and Society in Greek Sicily and Southern Italy (1992), pp. 44-45; Diod. 14.43.4, 72.1-4). In the early 4th century, the tyrant had over three thousand horsemen from the Sikeliote cities under his rule at his disposal ((Diod. 14.47.7, 58.2, 62.3).

After another democratic interlude, Agathokles violently secured the position of tyrant in 316 BC (Timaios apud Diod. 19.5.4-9). He, too, based his rule on mercenaries (Diod. 19.9), and fought against the Carthaginians, eventually landing in Africa when Syracuse was besieged in 310 BC (Diod. 20.3-5). After the Carthaginian wars, he mimicked Dionysios in expanding into Southern Italy and the Adriatic, conquering Kerkyra, among other far away places (Diod. 21.2). In 305 BC, he became the first ruler in the West to call himself Basileus (Diod. 20.54.1). He, too, could scarcely do without the Syracusan cavalry, as is attested, e.g., by his coins (Lopez Sanchez, The pro-Carthaginian and pro-Roman Hispanorum Coin Issues of Sicily (2014), fig. 11). The coins are also the best source for the equipment of the citizen cavalry under Hieron II, who became tyrant in 275/274 BC (Polyb. 1.8) and Basileus/king in 269 BC (Syll.3 427seq.). On one issue of bronze coins, for example, Hieron himself with the royal diadem appears on the obverse and a horseman on the reverse. We can see a Xystophoros, a lancer in the style of the Macedonian cavalry, with a Konos helmet, metal cuirass and chlamys (Arslan CRN Milano, 1075). Another series depicts a similar horse rider on the reverse, but this time with Boiotian helmet and what is clearly a muscle cuirass (Calciati 195.9., BMC 587). Archaeological findings confirm this equipment, as 95% of all Greek muscle cuirasses have been found in Magna Graecia (Talk by Michael Zerjadtke on the Linothorax and Hellenistic Warfare, Barcelona 2022). Finally, a third version (SNG ANS 929) depicts the horseman as wearing a Linothorax with a band.

Hieron would defeat the Mamertines with these horsemen (Syll.3 427seq.), later use them against the Romans, and finally, after being pressured into an alliance with his former enemy, agianst the Carthaginians (Polyb. 1.11.7, StV III 479). He remained a loyal supporter of Rome until his death in 215 BC and financed the erection of many impressive public buildings, certainly helped by the appreciation of and donations by the Hippeis (Cic. Verr. 2.14.118, Diod. 16.83.2). Thus, the Hippeis, though fundamentally opposed to the rule of one, could accept the monarchy as they profited financially and were part of a vibrant and important state. Though Hieron's Syracusan Arche ("Realm") never quite reached the heights of that of Dionysios I or Agathokles, it was more peaceful and stable. When war was on the horizon, however, it could always rely on its excellent cavalry.