Leukaspides and Prodromoi

[antisocialmunky]

Just wondering aobut a few things that I thought the EB team might be able to figure out.

1) At Raphia, Antiochus the Great brought with him a contingent of Leukaspides or 'white shields(Not the Cadian Variety),' who were these guys? I have heard conjecture on the RTR forum that they were semi-professional phalanx infantry. I have also heard that they were an elite type of Macedonian phalanx.

2) Prodromoi seem to have been supporting cavalry used for recon or skirmishing. Why are they represented as medium uber cavalry in EB?

[Silence Hunter]

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't leukaspides the phalangites of Tarentum, recruited by Pyrrhus for his Italian campaign? However it might be that term Leukaspides in battle of Raphia is used just to define a troop time, ie. "white shields". They might have been about anyone as successors had a tendency to call their troops according to the shield (Chrysaspides, Argyraspides..).

However I would like to know more on this subject myself..

[Aper]

Have you tried a forum search about Leukaspides? Probably something will show up.

EDIT: here something https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=88183&highlight=Leukaspides&page=2

[Watchman]

2) Prodromoi seem to have been supporting cavalry used for recon or skirmishing. Why are they represented as medium uber cavalry in EB?Alex's original Prodromoi were indeed above all scouts, but they also carried the xyston and AFAIK got used as light lancers quite a bit. (And then there was the sarissaphoroi squadron, which apparently did exactly what it says on the tin and carried pikes... an experimental stab at the same direction of weapon developement as the Central Asians were already practising with the kontos, one imagines.)
But, then, Philip's and Alex's original pezhetairoi were also retrained and re-equipped psiloi skirmishers. By EB time that's not exactly the case anymore either.

Dunno what's so "uber" about the Prods though, they're fairly run of the mill light-end lancers really. Just fast and decently armoured. In an extended melee you can probably whip them with the Generic Eastern horse and their AP axes if need be.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

The sarissaphoroi are a bit of a mystery really, they may have constituted all the "scouts" or they have been one squadron (of 200 or so).

These "lancers" are, however, the notional ancestor of most of EB's Hellenistic lancers.