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Thread: Training regimen for the soldiers of the Diadochi... is there any record of one?

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    Arrogant Ashigaru Moderator Ludens's Avatar
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    Lightbulb Re: Training regimen for the soldiers of the Diadochi... is there any record of one?

    Quote Originally Posted by seleucid empire View Post
    well, really it was only Rome that had full time professional troops
    Actually, the Roman legions that defeated the Diadochi were still the conscript levy. That said, those particular levies consisted mainly of veterans from the second Punic War, so they would have had more experience than the professionals they opposed.

    I am not sure I know how Diadochi recruitment worked (and no doubt it varied depending on time and place), but IIRC foot companions were settlers from "military colonies": in return for the right to settle they were obliged to serve the Diadochi kings. A pike-formation does require a great deal of drill to function effectively, so no doubt they had received at least some training.
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    Senior Member Senior Member Ibn-Khaldun's Avatar
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    Default Re: Training regimen for the soldiers of the Diadochi... is there any record of one?

    Didn't EB-team once posted something about this matter? I suggest you to go through some of their articles/faction previews.

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    COYATOYPIKC Senior Member Flatout Minigame Champion Arjos's Avatar
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    Default Re: Training regimen for the soldiers of the Diadochi... is there any record of one?

    Tbh saying "nobles that can ride well" is quite an understatement: these would've spent great part of their day training, both physically (gymnasion) and tactically...
    While as Ludens pointed out, they were also klerouchoi, who would live in garrisons and train aswell...

    If anything the hellenistic world had a greater number of professionals, compared to the roman one, during the early and middle republic...
    This process started after the persian wars, when more and more poor Hellenes, devoted their lives to become mercenaries and later Makedones (picking up and developing boeotian tactics) trained both professionals and semi-professionals...
    Just an example, here is Polybios on the preparations for Raphia's campaign by the Ptolemaioi:

    Polycrates undertook the training of the cavalry of the guard, about seven hundred strong, and the Libyan and native Egyptian horse; all of whom, numbering about three thousand, were under his command. It was Echecrates the Thessalian who trained most admirably the cavalry from Greece and all the mercenary cavalry, and thus rendered most signal service in the battle itself, and Cnopias of Allaria too was second to none in the attention he paid to the force under him composed of three thousand Cretans, one thousand being Neocretans whom he placed under the command of Philo of Cnossus. They also armed in the Macedonian fashion three thousand Libyans under the command of Ammonius of Barce. The total native Egyptian force consisted of about twenty thousand heavy-armed men, and was commanded by Sosibius, and they had also collected a force of Thracians and Gauls, about four thousand of them from among settlers in Egypt and their descendants, and two thousand lately raised elsewhere.
    Roma on the other hand, overshadowed them all in terms of manpower, greater flexibility in the field, not to mention political: most of the time it was socii/allies doing the dirty and hard work....
    Last edited by Arjos; 01-13-2013 at 18:23.

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    RABO! Member Brave Brave Sir Robin's Avatar
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    Default Re: Training regimen for the soldiers of the Diadochi... is there any record of one?

    If I understand properly, units such as the Hetairoi and Pezhetairoi were land owners who were well off enough that they had the social status to be members of their respective military units, but also the time with which to train with other such men. Units like the Klerouchoi were military settlers who were invited to settle land and thus improve their social status with military service being part of the deal. I'm not so sure that they were strictly professional in a sense that their "occupation" was soldier, but they probably had a similar martial background to the post-Marian Roman legions.
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    Arrogant Ashigaru Moderator Ludens's Avatar
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    Lightbulb Re: Training regimen for the soldiers of the Diadochi... is there any record of one?

    They probably didn't think of themselves as "professional warriors" anyway. "Professional" is a fairly modern concept. Hetairoi would have defined themselves as nobles; Pezhetairoi as settlers/farmers; pre-Marian legionaries as citizens doing their civic duty. Warfare was not their profession: it was a social obligation (though in the case of nobles it was their primary obligation).
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