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Short description

These javelinmen are light infantry from Phrygia, a large and ancient region of (western) Asia Minor. Poorly equipped and trained, they are at least protected by (rather basic) shields.

Description

These skirmishers hail from Phrygia, a once large and powerful kingdom in Anatolia, led by the golden boy Midas himself. Clad only in long-sleeved tunics and trousers, and poorly equipped with small round and crescent wicker shields as well as spears and javelins, they are only of limited use as additional skirmishers for any army. Be it under the rule of Galatians, Macedonians, or others, the Phrygians now only fight when they are forced to, and that makes them rather poor warriors. Do not trust the Phrygian javelinmen, and please do not get tempted by their low recruitment cost.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The Phrygians arrived in Asia from Thrace in the 9th century BC and, led by legendary kings such as Midas or Gordios (who gave his name to the Gordian knot), they quickly erected an empire stretching from the Hellespont to Cappadocia (Eckart Olshausen, s.v. Phryges, Phrygia, in: DNP). Phrygian culture, religion and economy flourished for centuries, even when the region fell under the rule of the Lydian kings (the last of these was Kroisos, another golden boy).The Achaemenid conquest of the area in 547 BC would become a turning point, however. The use of the Phrygian language began to decline, its cities began to shrink and its military elite was increasingly dispersed and impoverished. This trend continued under Alexander the Great and then the Seleucids and was likely the result of a massive strategy of tax evasion (Thonemann, Phrygia: an anarchist history (2013), pp. 8-15). Tax collectors usually visited the major towns of a region and avoided the remote countryside, where travelling was dangerous and tedious (any CK player can probably relate).

Though a clever solution, this development had a rather detrimental effect on Phrygian military strength. In the 5th century BC, Herodotus described them as going to war with small, pelte like wicker shields, plaited helmets (here interpreted as Phrygian caps and Phrygian helmets, since we are talking about Phrygia, after all), high shoes, daggers, javelins and spears (Hdt. 7.72-73). A 3rd-1st century statue of a Phrygian found on Cyprus (Louvre AM 175bis) has a long sleeved, quilted tunic, which completes the attire. By this time, however, the Phrygians, whom Herodotus presents as rather average soldiers, had lost even more of their reputation. According to Appian, Rome and Pontos both used Phrygian levies during the Mithridatic Wars (App. Mithr. 11 & 41), but found them rather useless (id., 19). And yet, in times of need they would always be called upon to add to their numbers – in this capacity Pompey still used them at the Battle of Pharsalos (App. Bell. Civ. 2.71) in 48 BC.

Our Phrygian javelinmen represent the equipment with short spears and javelins described by Herodotus, and indeed dedicated skirmishers from Phrygia also appear in the sources as such (Herodotus speaks about them more generally and equates them to the Paphlagonians). Xenophon (Cyr. 7.4.10) tells us that Hystaspes (Old Persian: Vištāspa), trusted general of Kyros the Great and father of Dareios, who conquered Persia for the king of kings, immediately recruited the defeated javelin throwers into his own army after his victory. While Hystaspes still valued the valour and skills of the Phrygian missile infantry, the decline of the country in the following centuries also tarnished their reputation, as described above. Antiochos III the Great included Phrygian javelinmen in his army in the battle of Magnesia (190/189 BC), but, at least according to the claim of Appian of Alexandria (ca. 90/95-160/165 AD), he armed them "after the Cretan fashion" (App. Syr. 6.32). If that is true, the Seleucid king possibly did not deem Phrygian native equipment good enough, and this is pretty much the case with the unit in RIS. As levies who have been forced to fight for foreign rulers and commanders, they are a poorly equipped and trained unit, which only has its low price going for it.