Info about Ethiopiai Agemata

[Spendios]

Hi,

I'm quite interested in the Ptolemies and noticed that non one of my books talked about these soldiers, Internet search was also unsuccessful.
So, I ask EB members or fans knowledgeable about them to point me to a book or a site where I could learn more.

Basically I would like to know by which Ptolemies they were recruited, what battles did they fought (Raphia ?), if they were granted lands for service like others Ptolemaic soldiers and so on...

Thanks

[Mujalumbo]

I'd like to know more, too. How about the Galatian Agemata? What info is available on the Galatian Agemata?

Thanks!

[Chester]

Agemata just means elite, I think. They may have not been actual troop types or even have the same name. They are more likely a representation of what the soldiers probably looked like.

The Galatians were hired spears, but I doubt any one refered to them as Galatian Agemata.

So you will not find much on the net using those terms as search tools.

Ethiopiai Agemata falls in the same boat, if my logic is correct. IT's well known that Ethiopian society was well integrated with North Egypt. Pharohs took Nubian and Ethiopian queens and dancers to their halls and Ethiopian men were used as labors and soldiers. Wether they had an actual unit of axe men is porbably debatable. But the axe may have been common enough to use it as a proper representational model in the game.

Many units in this game were not actual troop types, but close approximations.

[paullus]

oooh! I'm researching some related issues at the moment. The depiction of the Ethiopian agemata is based--I think--off of artistic depictions of them. They should probably be called "Trogodutai" rather than Ethiopians, since that is what they are called in the papyri. I haven't seen full evidence that they were given land allotments (thus becoming klerouchoi), though they may have been given some sort of settlement incentive. The few things I have seen on them have them fighting rebels along the upper Nile. I don't know if they were even really hired until after the first major rebellions (which followed Raphia). Perhaps the EB team has a historian who has done more work on the Ptolemaic military than I have at this point, and could give you some more info.

Now, as a counter example, Harkonesis, a mercenary horseman in Pathyris, in the Fayum, sold (in about 109 BC) a fourth of his government land allotment (sounds similar to the klerouch arrangement, though it also seems he is still in active service, so its complicated--perhaps it is inherited) to make a grain payment. Now, he's identified as black-skinned, and therefore broadly defined as "Ethiopian," but beyond that, we don't know much more about him (he's also very big), except he almost certainly wasn't one of the axe-carring agemata, in whatever form it may have existed.

So while I can't say specifically what EB's Ethiopian agemata was doing, and how they were recruited, I will say that many Galatai, Trogodutai, and Thraikoi were recruited from military settlements along the Nile. Even with the Galatians, many of them were probably recruited from the epigones (military settlers) and possibly klerouchs (more wealthy military settlers). However, I'd like to see some evidence Galatians were klerouchs, most of the few I've located in papyri were epigones.

On that note, where are the Thraikoi klerouchoi? They are far more visibile in the sources than either Galatians or Ethiopians.

And on a note for my own interests, what sort of visual sources did you EB guys use in figuring out the Ptolemaic armies? There's a gaesatae figuring from Alexandria in the British museum...perhaps there could be a way to recruit them in Egypt, or at least to go pick up a group of 'em in Anatolia?

[VandalCarthage]

Trogodutai is a far too specific term for this particular unit.

Though to my knowledge there was archaeological evidence behind their inclusion, I'm most familiar with the political events leading up to them. Ptolemy II Philadelphos launched what we can only conclude was a highly successful campaign along the Red Sea coast and far into Nubia, founding several Greek cities as he went along (Ptolemais Theron, Berenike Panchrysos, Berenike Trogodytike, etc). When he returned, he paraded a huge number of souvenirs of the whole event in an equally enormous military parade. Only a few years after the campaign in around 275, the a proclamation stelae on Philae records the addition of several Nubian nomarchies.

The Ptolemies had a very standard practice of recruiting mercenaries, and when you hear of a Ptolemy recruiting mercenaries, you can safely bet that they were klerouchs of some variety or another. The Ptolemaic system of military hiring wasn't like others, where "mistophoroi" (wage-earners) were just paid, nor would such a system have been productive. Ptolemy I had a left a very long border, much of which was unsettled before hand. To garrison these areas, the most efficient thing you could do, was either set up some Greeks or Macedonians in the area or settle natives around a strategic location - both were usually the case, though sometimes distinctly Hellenic peoples weren't always present. There are extensive records of all manner of people being settled in this fashion; the Jews for example were used as garrison troops in a lot of cities. The grand-nephew of the last native Pharaoh Nectenabo himself was the commander of the Ptolemies Southern Frontier fairly early on, as his stelae records, and his command was largely of Egyptians. Though the average soldier might not get a fertile land alotment, they were "military settlers" in the technical sense. The Fayyum settlers just had the fortune to be around when the depression was just being settled and doled out. Beyond settling a certain mix there, they had to make sure that other peoples weren't left to their own devices, so there weren't often huge concentrations of any particular people in any particular place.

There are some limited records of the recruited mercenaries in the far Nubian South, and of their use. With the Nile flowing towards the most productive regions of the Ptolemaic Empire, it was pretty easy to move troops around.

[paullus]

I guess Trogodutai might be too specific, though I've seen a couple of places where they are mentioned alongside machimoi, fleet rowers, and a few other military groups. I've also seen them called machairaphoroi ("swordbearers"), so maybe y'all are right not to identify them with an Ethiopian agema.

[Urnamma]

Hi,

I'm quite interested in the Ptolemies and noticed that non one of my books talked about these soldiers, Internet search was also unsuccessful.
So, I ask EB members or fans knowledgeable about them to point me to a book or a site where I could learn more.

Basically I would like to know by which Ptolemies they were recruited, what battles did they fought (Raphia ?), if they were granted lands for service like others Ptolemaic soldiers and so on...

Thanks

Certainly. Calling them Ethipoians is an abstraction, as they were probably made up of Kushites, Nubians, Ethiopians, and many other aboriginal peoples around the horn of Africa.

As has been eluded to here, the Ptolemies left a huge southern border, much like the New Kingdom Pharaohs before them. They solved this problem by creating new Kleruchies in the south.

Evidence for this type of soldier is found in reliefs as far north as Elephantine, where in the Ptolemaic temple to Isis we find Bipenine axe wielding soldiers with a healthy amount of dark brown dye still to be seen on their skin.

Also, the use of bronze mail in the south is also attested to some degree, and I felt that it was an interesting addition to this troop type. It can be thought of like this: the area directly around the nile is humid. Iron rusts. Ergo bronze is more economical.

Also, Diadoros does mention Ethiopian soldiers in Ptolemaic service, and there is a huge amount of evidence for Nubian soldiers in Ptolemaic service. The bipennine axe is seen time and time again in connection with these people, not the least of which at the Nubian museum in Aswan. Many of the more convincing reliefs are only to be found in hazy pictures now, thanks to Nasser.

[L'Impresario]

As a sidenote, the unit's name seems to me grammatically incorrect or, at least, weird. Looks like there are two nouns in nominative, and AFAIK they aren't amongst the "allowed" combinations, where one of them has a complementative role.
Assuming that I'm correct,maybe this could be fixed by using genitive? As in Aithiopon agemata or agemata Aithiopon (Αιθιόπων αγήματα).
This brings me to a transliteration issue as well. As the initial "e" is actually a "αι", you are using the "koine" pronounciation as a way to transliterate it in english ;)
An interesting tidbit regarding the etymology of the name and its use as a general descriptor, is that "Αιθίοψ" means "he who has a 'burned/tanned' look/face" in ancient Greek.

[paullus]

Nah, you can have back to back nominatives, and I've seen it used in describing military units. I just can't recall if I've seen Ptolemies using it. I would say its probably fine though.

Any comments on a unit of Thracian klerouchs?

[QwertyMIDX]

I'm pretty sure they're planned. No promises though.

[Spendios]

Thanks everybody for theanswer !

[L'Impresario]

Nah, you can have back to back nominatives, and I've seen it used in describing military units.

Well, yes, there are some cases, but they normally have the same gender and number. I don't think that's the case with this particular unit (gender difference I mean).

[paullus]

Good point. I'm not sure if that's a rule in Greek, or if it just kinda makes sense to us. However, my thought is this: if it were the agema of the Ethiopians, that would indicate either it was a select force among the Ethiopians recruits (probably true), and/or that there were similar agemas of other nationalities (which is how it worked with Ptolemaic hipparchies), which I don't think there were. Still, your way may be right.

And here is what I know about the agema: there were at least 500 men in it (as it has a pentakosiarch), and certainly several more multiples of that as there are two different pentakosiarchs in the papyri just a few years apart and at least one syntagmatarchos over them. There were agema infantry and cavalry, and at least one Nubian was a cavalry commander in it.

[Urnamma]

Well, yes, there are some cases, but they normally have the same gender and number. I don't think that's the case with this particular unit (gender difference I mean).

Believe it or not, Teleklos and I fought over this very issue. Agema is a special case though, as we looked at ancient literature. Think of the translation this way: 'Ethiopian Guard', or 'Guard of the King'. Calling a unit 'guard' rather than 'guards' was a standard practice, and still is today, in English and French :-)

We can see it in the Varangian Guard (obviously anglicised), Royal Guard, etc. It's one of those nuances that doesn't look right at first, I think. I was in favor of genitive-nominative plural, which turned out to be incorrect, insofar as this goes. So, your thinking is in the right place!

As for Thracian Kleruchs, find me evidence that they existed as a seperate and distinct unit ;) Then maybe you'll see them. From what I see, Thracians were folded into the peltasts, thureophoroi, and even the pike line.

[paullus]

Yeah, I suppose you're probably correct on that. My argument in response would be that 1) Thracians are listed separately in Raphia, 2) Thracians are often together in the papyri, implying that they were settled or serving together (both active duty and veterans come up this way) pretty regularly, which would imply they formed their own unit. But you're right that most of the time they seem to be spliced into everything else.

And then there's the problem of whether "a Thracian of the epigones" actually meant the person was Thracian. Such a pain. Skin color can help, if he's a witness or part of a land sale, but otherwise you're looking for name roots, and by the second generation most of even the Galatians (even more so for the Thracians) seem to have been using Greek names. Which is probably why people can get more done on this subject with tomb inscriptions, reliefs, and figurines (speaking of which, there's a gaesatae-type chap (cape, sword, shield, and big package) in the British museum from Alexandria...so can we recruit gaesatae in Alexandria, or at least up in Aspendos or something?).

[paullus]

I'd also wondered about the depictions of the Ethiopians, well, really just the size of their axes. I hunted around in some art collections, and while I couldn't find any photographs or sketches from the Nubian museum or the temple of Isis, I did locate two terracotta figurines. Perhaps it was merely the limitations of the material, but the double-headed axes carried by these figures were significantly smaller than the behemoths wielded by the Ethiopians in-game.

[QwertyMIDX]

We've actually been planning on cutting them down in size, apparently a modeller was a bit overzealous or something. VandalCarthage and I came to the same conclusion as you and IIRC Urnamma agree that the axe should more like a bipennis and less like a hollywood beserker axe.