06-06-2009, 02:24 PM
Tried searching for the thread on hypaspists arms but am too tired to find it. Therefore I shall deposit this here as it was raised here. I shall get back to you Paul B on Leuktra and would like that article if you remember it.
To which I replied:
Which you termed "clutching at straws".
Now all that the iconography (the “Alexander” sarcophagus e.g.) tells us is that regular aspides may have been used. The sarcophagus – if it depicts actuality – would then tell us that those troops who did were in the immediate vicinity of the king. These are the agema of the hypaspists (the royal hypaspists).
The artwork in Macedonian tombs and the burials are fine as far as they go. Such burials are not the province of the person who would find himself in the rank and file of the regular hypaspists; rather they are the burials of those of means: the nobility or “upper class”. We know of no noble individuals in the regular hypaspists and what we do know is that they were recruited from the “biggest and most powerful” of the Makedones – not on the basis of their wealth or bloodlines. Those that we know of attained rank through ability. Indeed the regular hypaspists were most likely suplemented by the best of the phalanx as the eastern anabasis went on.
In stark contrast the royal hypaspists are indisputably of the nobility. They may well have been able to afford such burials but I’d seriously doubt that the average hypaspists could.
As I said, something else to think on.
Quote:I think you would agree that the sculptural and painting evidence shows that before and during Philip and Alexander's reign, the 'Aspis' was definitely carried and used by some Macedonian troops ( e.g. the 'Alexander sarcophagus' , the Veria relief, the Aghios Athenasios frieze, various tomb paintings etc) ….
…and if a 'clincher' were needed, the shields found in the 'Philip' tomb ( probably that of Philip Arrhidaeus, Alexander's half-brother) were indeed 'aspides', and if a Macedonian King fought on foot, where else but among his body-guard, the Hypaspists?
To which I replied:
Quote:There is the possibility that the king’s Royal foot Guards (“Royal hypaspists”) - somatophylakes as Ptolemy evidently referred to them as on occasion – may be the aspis-armed troops about the king.
Which you termed "clutching at straws".
Now all that the iconography (the “Alexander” sarcophagus e.g.) tells us is that regular aspides may have been used. The sarcophagus – if it depicts actuality – would then tell us that those troops who did were in the immediate vicinity of the king. These are the agema of the hypaspists (the royal hypaspists).
The artwork in Macedonian tombs and the burials are fine as far as they go. Such burials are not the province of the person who would find himself in the rank and file of the regular hypaspists; rather they are the burials of those of means: the nobility or “upper class”. We know of no noble individuals in the regular hypaspists and what we do know is that they were recruited from the “biggest and most powerful” of the Makedones – not on the basis of their wealth or bloodlines. Those that we know of attained rank through ability. Indeed the regular hypaspists were most likely suplemented by the best of the phalanx as the eastern anabasis went on.
In stark contrast the royal hypaspists are indisputably of the nobility. They may well have been able to afford such burials but I’d seriously doubt that the average hypaspists could.
As I said, something else to think on.
Paralus|Michael Park
Ἐπὶ τοὺς πατέρας, ὦ κακαὶ κεφαλαί, τοὺς μετὰ Φιλίππου καὶ Ἀλεξάνδρου τὰ ὅλα κατειργασμένους
Wicked men, you are sinning against your fathers, who conquered the whole world under Philip and Alexander!
Academia.edu
Ἐπὶ τοὺς πατέρας, ὦ κακαὶ κεφαλαί, τοὺς μετὰ Φιλίππου καὶ Ἀλεξάνδρου τὰ ὅλα κατειργασμένους
Wicked men, you are sinning against your fathers, who conquered the whole world under Philip and Alexander!
Academia.edu
