Molossian Agema
Heavy Cavalry(0.6.7)Side / Back
Short description
Recruited from among the King's companions and courtiers, the Molossian Agema are the finest Epirote shock cavalry.
Description
The Molossian Agema were recruited from the King's companions and courtiers. They were equipped in the new "Hellenistic fashion" with a metal cuirass, greaves, and a crested bronze helmet. They fought in the "Macedonian style", charging home with a one-handed cavalry lance, the xyston, which was used to stab and thrust the enemy. When the shaft broke, it was most likely reversed in order to bring the metal butt spike into play - or it was dropped, and the sword was drawn. The xyston was longer and heavier than a javelin, seven to ten feet in length.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The Molossians were one of the three major koinon (tribal leagues) of the Epeiros and unified the Epeirote lands for the first time under the Aiakid dynasty around 370 BC. The Molossian princess Olympias, niece of Arybbas of Epeiros, married King Philip II of Macedon around 359 BC and was to become the mother of Alexander the Great (Sekunda 2019). The most notable Molossian king was Pyrrhos (319/318-272 BC), who modelled the Epeirote forces after the Macedonian model, complete with both Sarissa phalangites and elite shock cavalry.
For a long time Epeiros was seen as one of the more “backwards” areas of Greece, inhabited by pastoralists and with no major poleis to speak of. The wide fields in the rural lands around the Molossian capital of Passaron, which were traditionally used for the livestock and sheep of the local herders, became the perfect breeding and training ground for the elite Macedonian-style cavalry that Pyrrhos formed for his army. At Asculum, Pyrrhus fielded around 2,000 royal agema, picked elite cavalry (Dion. 20.1.4.) which are probably the “Molossian horsemen” at Sparta in 272 BC (Plut. Pyrrhos 30.5).
The use of heavy cavalry that delivered a shock charge with lance and edged weapons, rather than fighting as mounted skirmishers, was a reasonably recent development in Greek warfare in the 4th and 3rd century BC. Heavy cavalry were already used by Macedon (Thuc. 2.100.5), but they were further improved by Philipp II. (382-336 BC) and their use perfected by Alexander the Great. Alexander’s heavy cavalry were trained to fight at close quarters with lance and sword, and were organised as squadrons which varied in size from 180 to 225 men (Sekunda/ McBride 1995; Hammond 1998). After the death of Alexander in 323 BC, the deployment of bodies of heavy cavalry on the battlefield became a standard feature of Hellenistic warfare (Sekunda 2012).