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Short description

The best footsoldiers of the Pontic kingdom are brave young Greeks from good families who fight in the mould of Alexander the Great's Hypaspists.

Description

These men are the royal guard of the Kingdom of Kappadokia on the Pontos Euxeinos (Black Sea). Recruited from among the urban, Greek elites of the region, they represent some of Pontos' most renowned and influential families. The monarchs have armed them with the best equipment available, produced in the royal armouries and blacksmiths in the capitals Amaseia and Sinope. They fight as heavy spearmen after the role model of Alexander's Hypaspists and are nigh impossible to overcome for most foes. Not only are they protected by colourful Hellenic helmets – most of them of the Phrygian type – and leather cuirasses with metal plates, but they also carry stunningly decorated Aspis shields and bear greaves on their legs. The guards are usually deployed in a Hoplitic spear phalanx, but they can also defend themselves with swords in melee.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Most of our knowledge on the Pontic army concerns the reign of Mithridates VI (ca. 120-63 BC), who challenged Roman claims to supremacy in the Eastern Mediterranean in three major wars against legendary commanders such as Sulla, Lucullus and Pompey. Though he ultimately failed to overcome the Republic, his colossal efforts changed the region forever. The Bosporan Kingdom around modern-day Crimea became integrated into the Pontic monarchy and even after Mithridates' death, Pontos survived until 63 AD (see: Barrett, Polemo II of Pontus; Polemo, Historia (1978) for its later history). Furthermore, during the Ephesian Vespers in 88 BC, Mithridates had 80,000 Roman and Italic merchants and equites in Asia Minor killed, reputedly on a single day (App. Mithr. 61-63). That the Greek population so readily supported the killing spree was the result of the ruthless methods the publicani, the Roman tax collectors, had made use of in the wealthy area. Cicero, Caesar and Augustus, in this order, accordingly restricted the power of the publicani and established a new system in which the tax collectors were closely surveyed and controlled. Thereafter, Roman rule in Asia Minor became much more acceptable (Badian, Publicani, 1983).

Yet, long before the days of Mithridates VI, the area traditionally called Kappadokia on the Pontos Euxeinos was under the rule of kings. The dynasty was founded by Mithridates I (ca. 349-266 BC), who was the son of a Persian nobleman called Ariobarzanes (Diod. 19.40.2; Plut. Demetrios 4.1) and who took advantage of the chaotic situation during the Diadochi wars to secure control over an area in the mountains of Paphlagonia, south of the Black Sea coast (Strab. 12.3.41). Over the following decades and centuries, the kingdom continued to expand, reaching its greatest extent under Mithridates VI, who invaded Greece and achieved overlordship over Athens (Poseidonios FGRHist 87 F 36 apud Athen. 5.211d seq.). As part of his army, the Alexandrine historian Appian mentions a unit of Epilektoi of the infantry, soldiers handpicked by the king or his most valued generals. Other sources speak of a force of select Hoplites (Eutr. 6.8 and possibly Plut. Sulla 24.1). It is self-evident to imagine them as being armed in the same way as Alexander's or the Seleucid Hypaspists: a classic Aspis shield, various Greek helmets, heavy body armour (in this case a Linothorax reinforced with Cappadocian style metal plates), greaves, Hellenic swords such as the Kopis and Xiphos for melee and the Hoplite spear, the Dory, as the main melee weapon.

Hoplites will have been a feature of earlier Pontic armies ever since the first poleis were integrated into the kingdom, but the Hellenisation of Pontos and its army reached a new phase under Mithridates VI, who also introduced a large Macedonian phalanx regiment (Plut. Sulla 18.4; 19.2). Before then, the royal guard was probably only made up of cavalry in the style of other Achaemenid successor states. This unit, an infantry guard, gave Mithridates’ army a powerful new weapon that could hold out better against the Roman legions.