Shields - pelte vs thureos

[MeinPanzer]

"-spides" comes from "Aspis" AFAIK, which is a fairly large round shield. Units with Aspis shields are for example:

Hetairoi Aspidophoroi
Baktrion Agema
etc.

"Aspis" (plural "aspides") doesn't necessarily refer to any one type of shield; it is merely the generic word for shield in Greek which was sometimes used to refer specifically to the hoplite's shield.

IIRC the pelte is not used in game, although an eastern skirmisher bears something similar. It is a small, crescent shield that was once used by Greek skirmishers. The term peltast still refers to this usage, even though peltasts now bear smaller versions of the thureos.

Is there a special name for the smaller Phalangite shields?

"Pelte" is a word that changed in meaning from the Classical to the Hellenistic period. In the Hellenistic period, "pelte" came to refer to the small, usually metal-faced shield used by phalangites and peltasts, so that we have a few inscriptions from the Hellenistic period referring to, for instance, "peltas epichalkous makedonikas," or bronze-faced Macedonian peltai. The pelte by the third century BC was the small type of the Macedonian shield.

Peltasts did not bear thureoi, and I don't know where that came from or why EB features peltasts carrying thureoi. I presume it has something to do with the interpretation of Diodorus' reference to the "peltas summetrous" of Iphikrates' reforms, and how that term is sometimes interpreted as referring to thureoi or another kind of oval shield.

Also keep in mind that designations were not that precise. Sometimes pelte, aspis and scutum could indicated shields in general rather than a specific type.

Aspis definitely could be general; pelte originally referred to specifically the crescent shaped shield introduced by the Thracians, and later came to refer to something else, and so in that way it is imprecise; scutum, however, was precise, and, as far as I know, always seems to have referred to the same thing.

[machinor]

Aspis definitely could be general; pelte originally referred to specifically the crescent shaped shield introduced by the Thracians, and later came to refer to something else, and so in that way it is imprecise; scutum, however, was precise, and, as far as I know, always seems to have referred to the same thing.

Are you sure about that last bit? It always seemed to me that "scutum" (apart from specifically meaning the shield of the Roman soldiers) was the generic Latin term for "shield". Very much like "aspis" in Greek. Thus the Iberian "Scutarii" got their name although not carrying the Roman scutum; they do look similar but then again so do scutum and thureos.

[antisocialmunky]

I was under that impression too. It is latin for "shield." Whether that comes from it actually being the original latin for all sorts of shield or Roman ethnocentrism over time.

[MeinPanzer]

Are you sure about that last bit? It always seemed to me that "scutum" (apart from specifically meaning the shield of the Roman soldiers) was the generic Latin term for "shield". Very much like "aspis" in Greek. Thus the Iberian "Scutarii" got their name although not carrying the Roman scutum; they do look similar but then again so do scutum and thureos.

You have to understand that "scutum" and "thureos" are terms describing a variety of shields that are loosely tied together by various characteristics. It's all a spectrum, so that there is in reality no such thing as an Iberian scutum or a Roman scutum. In the same way that Livy described both the small round shields of the Spanish tribes and the small round shields of the Macedonians as caetrae, the same oval shields with vertical spindle bosses and spines were called by Livy a scutum and by Polybius a thureos. To Polybius, the shields of the Iberians, Romans, Galatians, and Greeks alike were thureoi. Later on the term "scutum" came to have a generalized meaning, but in the Republican period it has a very specific meaning, which is cognate to thureos.

[delablake]

Always amazing how much information can be found in the sound EB threads...
and I would like to say thanks to all who contributed here!

[Fluvius Camillus]

If I remember correct from my RTR days, the spides were the phalanx shields.

And I also remember (dont know the exact words though):
Chalka - Bronze
Argyra - Silver
Chyra - Gold

So that means

Chalkaspides - Bronze shields (Pontos)
Argyraspides - Silver Shields (Makedonia and AS)
Chyraspides - Gold Shields (only seen in RTR Seleucids)

Can someone confirm this?

[Ludens]

Aspis definitely could be general; pelte originally referred to specifically the crescent shaped shield introduced by the Thracians, and later came to refer to something else, and so in that way it is imprecise; scutum, however, was precise, and, as far as I know, always seems to have referred to the same thing.

Thanks for clarifying. I am pretty certain that scutum, by the middle ages, had come to mean shields in generals. Off course, whether it did in the Classical age is another question

If I remember correct from my RTR days, the spides were the phalanx shields.

And I also remember (dont know the exact words though):
Chalka - Bronze
Argyra - Silver
Chyra - Gold

So that means

Chalkaspides - Bronze shields (Pontos)
Argyraspides - Silver Shields (Makedonia and AS)
Chyraspides - Gold Shields (only seen in RTR Seleucids)

Can someone confirm this?

That would not be "spides", but "aspides", or aspis . The Chrysaspides actually didn't exist as a unit: the term appears to be based on an erroneous translation of Polybius. Macedonia also used the designation chalkaspides, under Alexander and Perseus at least. I guess it simply means normal phalangites (the phalangite shield was made of bronze, after all).

[antisocialmunky]

IIRC the Pontic Chalky-Spiders are pretty much Pez rather than a super elite unit.

[machinor]

You have to understand that "scutum" and "thureos" are terms describing a variety of shields that are loosely tied together by various characteristics. It's all a spectrum, so that there is in reality no such thing as an Iberian scutum or a Roman scutum. In the same way that Livy described both the small round shields of the Spanish tribes and the small round shields of the Macedonians as caetrae, the same oval shields with vertical spindle bosses and spines were called by Livy a scutum and by Polybius a thureos. To Polybius, the shields of the Iberians, Romans, Galatians, and Greeks alike were thureoi. Later on the term "scutum" came to have a generalized meaning, but in the Republican period it has a very specific meaning, which is cognate to thureos.

Ah, I see. Wasn't aware that the generalized meaning developed later on. Thanks for clearing that out.