Macedonian Silver Shields

[Paullus Scipio]

Giannis wrote:-
"Could we estimate the value of all those shields in talents?"

Well, I think we can so...oo.....
Just for fun, I decided to work out what it would have cost Alexander to outfit the Hypaspists with the silver shields that would turn them into Argyraspides………

I decided that, as Alexander, I would be generous and instead of silver-plate, I would oufit the Hypaspists with solid silver, and I would assume Aspides, the larger shield.
Replacing the bronze face, around 1mm thick, with pure silver requires 636 grams of silver per shield so for 3,000 Hypaspists that would be 1908 kg of silver. There are 26kg to the Attic Talent, so about 73.3 Talents……….
The mines at Phillipi in Macedon alone yielded 1000 Talents per year…..
Now let us look at just some of the wealth which fell to Alexander as loot…..

Diodorus says that the capture of Susa brought in 40,000 talents of uncoined Gold and Silver and 9000 talents of darics(gold coins); that of Persepolis, 120,000 talents reckoning the gold added to the value in silver. Arrian (III.. I6. 7) Susa 50,000 talents, Persepolis, 120,000 talents. Curtius (V. 2. II; 6. 9). Susa, 50,000 talents, Persepolis, 120,000 talents. Plutarch, (Alex., 36. I; 37. 2) Susa 40,000 talents coined, Persepolis an equal amount of coin. Justin (XL. 14. 9) Susa 40,000 talents, Persepolis 120,000 coin.
3,000 Talents alone were taken in the baggage after Issus…
2,600 Talents of Gold and 600 Talents of Silver from Damascus….. and so on, and so on.
Notice that we haven't considered the wealth of Egypt, or Syria, or Anatolia etc etc

And none of this includes annual income in tribute and taxes either……

At Babylon, as a bonus, Alexander paid each cavalryman 600drachma (1/10th of a Talent) each foreign cavalryman 500 drachma, each Infantryman 200 drachma and so on. There were over 7,000 cavalry in total ( 6-700 Talents!!) and over 40,000 Infantry( more than 1,300 Talents !!!!)…..so about 2,000 Talents bonus paid to the Army. hock:
(As an aside, that was about 300days pay- possibly as much as a years pay - for the cavalry and infantry, as a bonus !! )

So what was that worth in modern terms? Well comparing approximate buying power, daily wages and so on, a Talent of Silver was worth in today's dollars U.S.$840,000 aprox!

For those too lazy to work it out, each shield had roughly U.S,$20,500 in today's money in silver on its face.....no surprise that none survived, eh? :lol:

So, as Alexander, I have no hesitation in spending a mere 73.3 Talents on new shields for my Loyal and Faithful Hypaspists/Guards……….. small change !! D lol: :lol: :lol: