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Short description

Tarantine Cavalry are highly regarded as mounted skirmishers all over the Mediterranean world.

Description

The “Tarantines” are typical of traditional Greek cavalry, in that they used javelins and fought as mounted skirmishers (‘hippakontistai’). What makes them distinctive, however, is that they use a large round shield; next to the protection that is already offered by their Linothorax armour and Attic or Boiotian helmets. The shield used by Tarantine Cavalry is a heavily rimmed and bowl-shaped Argive aspis (Ueda-Sarson, Tarantine Cavalry, 2004). Their main tactical role is that of mounted javelinmen, typically brigaded with other light cavalry, serving as “experts in wheeling and retreating”. However, their heavy shield enables the Tarentines to not just resist the missiles of enemy skirmishers, but also to better engage in close combat when required (i.e. Diod. 19.39.5).

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Tarantine Cavalry were famous throughout the Mediterranean basin as versatile and effective cavalry. They did not actually come from Tarentum (Greek: Taras); rather, any cavalry that fought in the manner of Tarantine cavalry was described as such.

Alexander the Great’s uncle, Alexander of Epeiros, campaigned in Italy at the request of Tarentum, and it is possible that some of the Tarantine cavalry that served there with him (Iust. 12.2) ventured east after his death in c. 330 BC. “Tarantines” are first mentioned by Diodoros (19.29.2) as serving with the Diadoch Antigonos Monophtalmos ("the one-eyed") in his wars in Asia - they were “men picked for their skill in ambushing”. They are described as being 200 strong, and accompanied by Medes numbering 2,000. This small band of Tarantines was instrumental in Antigonos' successful conclusion of the campaign, as they captured Eumenes' army's baggage at the battle of Gabene; a task in which they succeeded admirably.

Thereafter, Tarantines are found as mercenaries serving in Greece as well as in the armies of the Seleucid Kings in Asia. Antigonos' son Demetrios, for instance, used Tarantines in Greece (Polyainos 3.7.1); and at the battle of Gaza in 312 BC Demetrios had 100 Tarantines organised in three squadrons as an extreme left wing flank force (Diod. 19.82.2). They are also mentioned by Livy (37.40) in the battle of Magnesia (190 BC) on the Seleucid left wing.

Historians have debated the actual function of this type of cavalry: was it able to engage in close combat, or not? “Tarantines” are mentioned in Hellenistic and Imperial age military manuals by Aelian, Arrian and Asklepiodotos; all are very similar in their treatment of this type of cavalry - Tarantines are a type of light cavalry that throws javelins, and those 'properly' termed Tarantines solely do this; however, other cavalry also termed Tarantines fight hand-to-hand after having shot at the enemy. Ueda-Sarson (2004) argues that Polybios’ account of the 3rd battle of Mantineia (Polyb. 11.12.6-7) does not provide conclusive evidence for the Tarantines’ tactical role. 'Synapheinai', the word used for their counter-attack, seems to have no particular connotation of charging into contact. The references to later use of Tarantines by the Seleucids are more useful. It is notable that the polymath Poseidonios (ca. 135-51 BC), the likely most recent source for the tactical manuals, came from Seleucid Apameia. Ueda-Sarson (2004) convincingly argues that his 'proper' type of Tarantines might have been developed in response to the Seleucid’s confrontations with Parthian horse archers from the 2nd century BC onwards, and was therefore actually a later invention. However, the very theoretical nature of the manuals has to be taken into account: Aelian (Takt. 15) says the Tarantines were divided into Hippakontistai (pure skirmisher cavalry) and Elaphroi (those who also fight in melee), but the term Elaphroi does not appear in any inscription or unit list from a Hellenistic army. Therefore, the unit in RIS is able to fulfil both roles.

Finally, it needs to be stressed just how universal the Tarantine mercenaries where: They do not only appear in the armies of the kings, but also in the service of Elis, an ally/member of the Aitolian League (Head, Armies 2012, 35) and the Achaian League (Polyb. XI, 12, 6-7). In Sparta, Kleomenes III (ca. 254-219 BC), when reforming the Lakedaimonian army, also hired Cretan archers and Tarantine cavalry to strengthen his military (Plut. Kleomenes 6,3) - doubtlessly with Ptolemaic subsidies. In 2nd century BC Thessaly, light cavalry units under a separate officer called ‘tarantinarchos’ are attested (Sprawski, Jason of Pherae (1999), p. 111). Even in Athens, whose army in the Hellenistic period was rather small and only encompassed a few hundred horsemen, Tarantine style equipment was eventually introduced. By 148 BC, so called Tarantinarchs ("commanders of the Tarantines") appear among the officers of the Hippeis and there riders are called Tarantinoi (IG II² 958.1.16-19). They proved especially useful during the slave revolt in the mines of Laureion in 98/97 BC, where they would have been able to chase and capture the runaway slaves and break up those who would stand and fight (the inscription FD III.2 , no 26, III, 14-18 only records five Hippeis at the Pythaids, the sacred procession from Athens to Delphi, that year: the rest must have been busy fighting the rebels). Different from what was practiced in most other contemporary armies, the aforementioned Athenian and perhaps also Thessalian Tarantinoi were thus actual citizens, and not mercenaries - the final chapter in the success story of the Tarantines.