EB Preview :: Hegemones tou Stratou

[keravnos]

This would take pages upon pages to answer, but all effort was taken to ensure Historical authenticity.

Now, I understand this must sound corny, so here is one of them...

For Epeiros, the statuette of a General found at Dodona, presumably the dedicatory image of a "Strategos" of Epeiros, and quite possibly a King of Pyrrhos' lineage. The statue has been identified as belonging to "Kineas", Pyrrhos' most trusted friend and general, but that too is conjectural, at best.

I understand that there are a lot of Pyrrhos statues uncovered over the years, and a reconstruction at present day Arta, then Ambrakia, his capital, but those are all either Romani-era and reconstructions of Romani era statues. The one used was deffinitely Epeirote, and hellenic to boot. One of its most characteristic qualities is the fact that the one wearing it is wearing the latest novelty mail, under his lamellar coated linothorax. It has been theorized that bronze bolts were holding those Iron "shards" in place/reinforcing the cuirass as well. While a sight to behold in battle, it really is a great cuirass as there are 3 different layers of defense for the one wearing it, Iron lamellae on top, linothorax, leather underneath that and under it all a mail hauberk (and of course some kind of padding below that-Not one person can wear a mail hauberk without something below that-Thanks Watchman). Deffinitely what a Strategos would need to go to war with and survive. Besides, seeing that his Grandfather, Alexandros I of Epeiros was killed while fighting Samnites in nearby Pandosia in 331 BCE, it would be absolutely sure that he would go for broke, so far as his own defense was concerned. He knew that his enemies would try to kill him, so he would probably try to be as "hard to kill" as possible.









Then there was the depiction of the battle in heraklea, when he nearly died.

he began the charge,
conspicuous by his rich and beautiful armor, and letting it be seen

and changing
his scarf and his arms with Megacles, one of his friends, and,
obscuring himself, as it were, in his, charged upon the Romans

Dexous, who, snatching away his helmet and his robe, rode at
once to Laevinus, holding them up, and saying aloud he had killed
Pyrrhus.

some other indications on what kind of armor he used, was the fact that...

until Pyrrhus,
understanding what had happened, rode about the army with his face
bare, stretching out his hand to his soldiers, and telling them aloud
it was he

thus his helmet must be obscuring his face. Both the one he wore initially and the subsequent one. Much like the helmet the Epeiros' general wears ingame. It is a Chalkidian bronze helmet (please note that the nose piece is missing from the below helmet)

(For more on its decoration, see below)

A helmet with a "ram" cheek was selected for various reasons. One of them was the fact that in Epeiros, one of the chief "honorary" positions was "chief herder". The reason for that would be that Epeiros, then and now is largely mountainous, goat country, the "highland of Greece" in dire contrast to rich, filled with valleys Makedonia, and flatland Thessalia.

Crest and plumes, there are coins that depict him as he is shown, and illustrators (Including the famous and recently deceased one, McManus) have also painted Epeirote troops as having either 3 crests in their helmets or 1 crest and two plumes. Their leader could have no less.

The plume arrangement selected, as well as being both a reference to the mountainous and hardy nature of the Epeirotes, is also a direct reference to the "bulls" of Epeiros, of whom the ancient writers speak of. When seen in the midst of battle your eyes are drawn towards him, and it is exactly as is the ancient greek text which is translated (roughly) as...

he began the charge,
conspicuous by his rich and beautiful armor, and letting it be seen

in here...
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/674

Another source, calls his cloak/robe "... red and had many golden designs in it"

here is a woman holding in hand the greaves of Achilles. As Aiakides traced their ancestry to Neoptolemos, son of Achilles (also known as Pyrrhos) those would be great to have for the General of Epeiros. This goes on the "knee" part of the greave


Then on the "leg" part, the thunderbolt, famous Epeirote symbol, the "thunderbolt" of "Zeus Keraunios", Patron God of Dodona (along with Dione his Epeirote-only godess.)


In this coin, depicting a shield where the "ΜΟΛΟΣΣΩΝ" (Of Molossians) is barely read.

the two plumes possibly be something like the following, in the Coin of Athena struck by Pyrrhos in 281 BCE, VERY near in the time when the events took place in Heraklea, thus it would be easy to assume that this would be the idea of a "VERY ORNATE and IMPOSING" helmet. Does that Hercules guy in the other side of the coin remind you of anything?
http://www.coinarchives.com/a/lotvie...cID=202&Lot=37


--Please note that "Athenas" wore the most ornate and imposing helmets there were. I think it would be safe to assume that the Crest/plumes configuration of Pyrrhos could be something of equal magnificence. The Battle of Heraclea took place in 280 BC between the Romans under the command of Consul Publius Valerius Laevinus and the combined forces of Greeks from Epirus, Tarentum, Thurii, Metapontum, and Heraclea under the command of King Pyrrhos of Epeiros.

This could VERY WELL also be a "Victory" coin. The triple crested helmet has been depicted as close to that on coin, but with the model limitations in mind. So the 2 crests (who align themselves almost vertically to the center one) became plumes (All Hellenistic generals share the same model - I know it doesn't look it, but they do. Imagine what a FANTASTIC job Stephan25 has done)

--edited because some details were in a different place. EBH is quite big, you know...


As you see the EB team has done its homework. Now I am sure that there are a lot of thinngs we could do differently. Still, this is how it was done and these are some of the reasons. Now, please don't expect this kind of account for EVERY single ONE of our generals or our units too.

I know it sounds corny to hear and read, but we DO our homework, and ALL of our units have references. The team chooses to spend whatever time it has trying to improve the mod, not "justify" our choises. We have a Unit Dictator, who can be a very unpleasant person if EB criteria aren't met

I took the time to gather all data and present to you, whereas there are other things I should be doing, just to let your minds at ease on that very fact. We try our LEVEL best to be as authentic and true to the sources as we can. There is no way to accurately 100% portray a world that is more than 2.000 years old, but we try. There isn't much we can gain from EB but we try to be as correct as possible. No corners cut. ..