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Short description

These armoured Cretan archers have been rewarded with land for their mercenary service in Ionia. Though they are now Milesians, they still fight with the Cretan composite bow and remain a deadly ranged unit.

Description

These Cretan archers fight for Miletos, the jewel of Ionia. They were once hired as mercenaries on their home island by Milesian agents, but after having served Miletos well, they were given land in the Maeander valley. There, they now live with their families and can be called upon when the polis needs them. They have kept their Cretan strengths and traditions, however, and are exceptional bowmen! With their composite bows, they can kill an enemy from over 100 meters away, and in addition they have been trained to defend themselves in melee with their bent Machaira swords. Equipped with a linen cuirass (linothorax), 45 cms round pelte shields, and helmets of various types, they are well protected against enemy fire and lighter line infantry. These warriors are a useful addition to the Milesian army, and they will eventually be rewarded with citizenship rights.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The so-called Neocretans probably existed in various forms: some were likely non-Cretans trained to be as good at archery as the ‘real’ Cretans, others may have been Cretan Neoi, young men who had just completed the Ephebeia (which usually happened at age 18, but could vary from 17 to 20). There are also theories that they were Cretan archers armed in a ‘new’ way, carrying heavier equipment, or the Ephebes of other states such as the Achaian League trained in the way of or even by Cretan archers (Cf. Du Plessis, Seleucid Army (2022), p. 117 for an overview of the contrasting views in Ancient History). Fischer-Bovet (Army and Society (2014), p. 80), finally, presented the rather trivial explanation that the Ptolemaic Neocretans were recently hired, from their ally Knossos. Yet, it seems unnecessary to coin a specific term only to express that soldiers had been recruited very recently.

There is only one thing we can rather safely deduce from it all: at the Battle of Raphia in 218 BC, the Cretan Archers and the Neocretans in the Ptolemaic army were grouped together in one formation (Polyb. 5.65.7). This strongly suggests that Neocretans were archers and that their equipment cannot have differed much from ‘normal’ Cretan Archers. Polybios mentions elsewhere (5.36.4) that roughly a thousand Cretans were stationed in Alexandria – maybe these were the Neocretans? The Seleucid army at Raphia, meanwhile, had 1,500 Cretan mercenaries and a thousand Neocretans in their ranks (Polyb. 5.79.10). They were commanded by Zelys of Gortyn, so that we at least have proof for the Cretan commanders of these units – a Philon of Knossos was in charge of the Ptolemaic unit (Polyb. 5.65.7). Later, at the Battle of Magnesia in 190 BC, we hear of the Seleucid army that it contained 1,000 Neocretans and "[...] one thousand five hundred Carians and Cilicians, armed in the same manner [...]" (Liv. 37.40.12). This may imply that the thousand were either actual Cretans, or the original Neocretans formed at the time of the Raphia campaign by both sides. The 1,500 Carians and Cilicians would then represent new recruits into the Neocretan corps. At the end of the day, we can only speculate about the composition and role of the Neocretans, and until new evidence is found, the question will not be answered conclusively.

The same is true for the equipment of the Neocretans, but as mentioned above, some educated guesses are possible. They were obviously armed with Cretan composite bows, and, as a valuable asset, will have been equipped with linothorax armour, something the wealthy Polis of Miletos could well have paid for. We have some evidence for the remaining gear: the painted stele of Chalkokedes of Lyttos from Demetrias in Thessaly, a Cretan mercenary in Antigonid service, shows him with bow and helmet, while his servant carries a machaira, a rather curious oval shield, and two javelins. Unfortunately the game does not allow us to give the Neocretans javelins and the oval shield seen here is extremely rare – it may in fact be the small Thureos used by the light infantry of the Achaian League in the first two thirds of the 3rd century BC (Plut. Philopoimen 9.1). All the Neocretans have instead been given small, round Pelte shields: Xenophon (Xen. Anab. 5.2.29-32) says that the Cretans among the 10,000, the mercenary force he was part of, used round, bronze Peltai (which may just mean that they had been bronzed over). An example can be seen on the stele of Thersagoras of Polyrrhenia in Volos.

Miletos, one of the centres of Greek culture since the Archaic period, had suffered greatly during the wars of the Diadochi. After the defeat of Lysimachos at Kouropedion in 281 BC, it fell into the orbit of the Ptolemies (Marquaille, The Foreign Policy of Ptolemy II (2008), p. 46). Milesians conceivably supported the Ptolemaic invasion of neighbouring Samos, and soon, all of Ionia had sworn loyalty to Ptolemaios (Bagnall, The Administration of the Ptolemaic Possessions Outside Egypt (1976), pp. 82-88). All of Ionia but Miletos' arch rival Priene, just across the Latmian gulf/bay of the Maeander, which supported the Seleucids (Lund, Lysimachus (2002), p. 207). The conflict between the cities was age old: on the one side, the seemingly poor and small Priene with its almost communistic policies – women and slaves were sometimes allowed to participate in political meetings and everyone was considered completely equal (Cf. the 2nd century BC inscription Hiller von Gaertringen (1906), no. 108.253-263; Van Bremen (1996), p. 32) –, on the other side, the wealthy, almost decadent Miletos with its impressive public buildings and its hedonistic elite, which invented the genre of pornography and the first mass produced dildo (Herod. Mimiamb. 6; Aristoph. Lysistrat. l. 112). In the Hellenistic period, Miletos and Priene fell under the influence of the Ptolemaic respectively Seleucid monarchies, but their rivalry continued unabated.

Hence, both cities were in need of additional soldiers, and this is why Miletos hired over 1,000 Cretan archers as mercenaries in the 230s BC (Chaniotis, Age of Conquest (2018), p. 309). At this point, Miletos had shaken off the tyranny of the Aitolian Timarchos, a Ptolemaic official who supported the usurper Ptolemaios "the son" around 260 BC, and regained greater autonomy (Front. Strat. 3.2.11; App. Syr. 11.65). Priene was located to the north of the Latmian gulf in southern Ionia, while Miletos controlled the southern shore. The Maeander river gave rise to the word "maeandering" and repeatedly silted the bay – nowadays it is completely gone, with Lake Bafa in the inland the only remnant of its existence. When new land came into existence this way in the mid third century BC, Miletos and Priene seemingly went to war over it. Thanks to their Cretan mercenaries, the Milesians seem to have prevailed. Admittedly, this is only one possible reconstruction, but in 234/233 BC and 229/228 BC, 3,000 Cretans altogether – the mercenaries and their families – were settled on the newly annexed land (Chaniotis (2018), p. 309). On the inscription I.Milet. 3.37 , l. 64-65 (229/228 BC) we read that the Cretans obtained full citizenship rights after twenty years of residence in Miletos, by which time they would be able to be elected for official posts or appointed as commanders of the guard (Horophylakes: another Milesian unit in RIS). These Neocretans, therefore, were new citizens, who kept their Cretan traditions, but had sworn loyalty to the polis of Miletos. This was no issue at all: the 4th century BC historian Ephoros of Kyme (also in Ionia) claimed Miletos had been founded by Cretans after the Trojan War (FGrHist 70 F 127).