Pontic Chalkaspidai and freed slaves?

Hi all!

Anyone know where the Pontic Chalkaspidai (brazen shield) come from? I saw they're mentioned in Plutarch's Life of Sulla and discussed in an old thread here but no clear answer.

Are the Chalkaspidai and phalanx of freed slaves the same unit? If not, where and how did the kingdom draw soldiers into the unit of Chalkaspides? Are they given lands in exchange for service? Are they professionals like later-period Macedonian Pezhetairoi or seasoned troops like Seleucid Argyraspidai? :help:

Also in their unit description: "Vital to the success of the Pontic Chalkaspidai are light hoplites, hypaspistai, or even experience Persian light infantry stationed to guard the vulnerable flanks of the greater phalanx" - Where is their hypaspistai??

I've been dreading answering this one. Sorry you had to wait, AqD.

Essentially, the chalkaspides appear in Mithridates' campaigns in the Asia Minor. The current version in EB1 seems to be a misinterpretation of them, and partly as a holdover from RTW Vanilla. The team has been looking into how to more correctly implement them and, considering Mithridates' strong efforts to appear as Hellenistic rather than Persian king, the Pontic chalkaspides are likely more along the lines of the Antigonid chalkaspides and would be equivalent to EB1's Pezhetairoi. Now, the Pontic hypaspistai... well, where do I begin?

Essentially, there is no record of them as far as I can tell; however, I do think it likely that an infantry royal guard did exist, but I could not begin to describe to you their nature. The original writer of the description may have thought he was being clever in using the term hypaspistai as a general, Hellenistic term for the king's bodyguard.

Unfortunately, don't expect any changes for EB1. You'll have to wait until EB2 to see what we have planned... assuming we've planned it already.

AqD,

Given the reply abou just submitted, one could always roleplay the Pontic Thorakitai as the "hypaspistai", as it seems the original writer was just trying to express how the Pontic Kingdom was trying to gain its "Hellenistic street cred".

Thanks! But I'm wondering how they recruited the troops? It's almost certain that Thorakitaki are ex-slaves freed by the King and retrained from the phalangite units. But what about Chalkaspides? In Plutarch's Life of Sulla, he mentioned both of Chalkaspides and phalangites formed by ex-slaves, but made no clear distinction between the two. In EB it seems to me they're considered as the same unit, same Chalkaspides, and more "medium" rather than elite - which is what I think too but most online DBA/DBM wargaming lists disagree :dizzy2:

I wonder if there is really a second phalanx unit formed by ex-slaves? Or just Chalkaspides? But what about the Chalkaspides before Mithriditic wars, when the pontic army beat seleucid army in 227BC?

And regarding Hypaspitai, I read from DBA that there was the sinopian guard described by Italicus - but I failed to find the original text... (it's Silius Italicus right?) Are there any other source for Pontic Chalkaspides except for Plutarch's words? :sweatdrop:

PS: By "Pezheitairoi" you mean Macedonian's professional force right? So they're not seasoned troops? I also found that two translations of Life of Sulla described recruited ex-slaves as "men-at-arms", which should mean professionals but it's medieval term...

That certainly gets tricky, but we need to reconcile 1st century recruiting habits with a 3rd century start date. If the cities of Syria are any indication, Hellenistic citizenry tend to be drawn to a powerful king. The idea that decedents Makedonian military settlers could serve a Pontic king is not an impossibility and likely close to what actually happened in some areas.

I'll have to read those passages though to get a better understanding of the 1st century situation, however. That will probably wait until after exams this week.

The Pontic army defeating the Seleukid one was a combined action with Antiochos Hierax against Seleukos II, correct?

The Pezhetairoi (expect name change for EBII), are the professional military men of the Hellenistic pike corps.