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Short description

Thracian Longspearmen are an excellent early game solution to deal with enemy cavalry or to protect skirmishers, but due to their low morale and skill, they should not be used on the main frontline or as assault units.

Description

‘In the rest of the retreat the Thracians made a very respectable defence against the Theban horse, by which they were first attacked, dashing out and closing their ranks according to the tactics of their country, and lost only a few men in that part of the affair.’ – Thuc. VII. 30.

Thracians were widely known for their expertise in battle with the javelin or as horsemen. But being armed with several spears of different lengths, Thracian peltasts could perform different roles, according to the situation on the battlefield. Especially when Thracians fought other Thracians, they could expect to confront considerable numbers of skilled cavalry, and, accordingly, developed anti-cavalry tactics. Faced with the harassment of enemy horsemen, they formed infantry circles, protecting those who continued throwing javelins from their midst. To reach enemy cavalrymen more effectively, this unit uses longer spear-types. They are protected by their iconic pelte shield, and some wear Chalcidian helmets, the type of helmet most commonly used in Thrace. The rest of their equipment consists of colourful patterned tunics and cloaks, Thracian boots, and caps of the Phrygian type.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The Thracian land was not only home to vast mountain ranges but also wide valleys, the latter being a place where cavalry could thrive. The quantity and quality of Thracian cavalry is repeatedly emphasized in the sources. Examples include Sitalkes planning to invade Macedon during the Peloponnesian War with an army that consisted of cavalry to a third (Thuc. II.98.4), or Alexander making extensive use of Paionian cavalry squadrons (Arr. Anab. I.14.2; III. 8, 13). Thracian infantry, mainly equipped as lightly armed peltasts, developed formations to combat enemy cavalry superiority. Thracian mercenaries, employed by Athens during the Peloponnesian War, raided Boiotian lands on their way back home, and were intercepted by Boiotian cavalry. There, the Thracians formed defensive circles, allowing the peltasts to seek shelter in their ranks, which even seems to have impressed Thoukydides (Thuc. VII. 30).

The use of long spears in these kinds of situations, though never explicitly stated, is implied by a variety of sources. The first mention goes back to the stories of the Illiad, where Thracians armed with long spears surround the Atiolian king Thoas, who killed one of their companions (Hom. Il. IV.4). Thracians might have continued Archaic traditions of combat revolving around the nobility, with the javelinmen and spearmen in supporting roles (Webber, The Gods of Battle (2011), “Long Spears”), or changing their types or usage of certain weapons when need arose. The use of spearmen in Thracian armies was at least not a foreign idea. Webber argues that Seuthes was aware how to use spearmen in conjunction with cavalry, as he ordered the Greek hoplites of the ten thousand to bring up the rear behind the cavalry (Xen. An. VII.3.48).

Archaeological findings show different types of spear tips. Several large spearheads (40 cm long and proportionally wide) have been found and are on display at Kabyle, having been dated to the Roman Republican period (Webber, 2011). Findings like this could indicate mutual influences between Macedon and Thrace, especially in pre-Hellenistic times. Webber says that the Thracian long spears might have inspired Iphikrates' peltast-spears and Philip's sarissas, which suggests that they might even have measured around 12ft/ 8 cubits/ 4m. After the conquest of Thrace by Philip, the flow of ideas was probably more one-sided. Hellenistic Thracians could have been used to buff the numbers of soldiers in Hellenistic phalanxes, or they were still fighting the old fashioned way. In Lukian’s Nekrikoi Dialogoi (XXVII.3), for instance, a Thracian peltast pierces King Arsakes and his horse explicitly with a sarissa. Whether he was part of a phalanx or of a Thracian contingent of skirmishers is not mentioned, though the emphasis on the fact that it was a Thracian, speaks for the latter case. Already during Philip’s conquest of Thrace, long spears, or sarissas, were used by certain tribes. Of the many injuries Philip received in his life, one wound to his leg was the result of a Triballian soldier stabbing him with a sarissa (Didymus in Dem. xi 22, col. xiii 3-7; Justin ix 3.2). Though the sources are not always very clear when it comes to the usage of the long spears, it seems that, outside of defensive tactics, there was no dedicated sarissa phalanx established by Thracian kings, as was the case in Macedon. They were likely a weapon used mainly for self-defence against the many horsemen Thracians regularly confronted in battle. For this reason, these Thracian Longspearmen are not represented as a phalanx, but as a spear-unit.