Macedonian Silver Shields

[Paralus]

YPAPISTHS = the one "under the shield" - shield bearer.

In the Athenian army the slave carrying the master'w shield

In the Beotian army hoplite tasked with the duty of carrying the Generals shield. Plutarch says that Epameinondas dishonoroubly discharged his for being bribed.

The practise was carried in the Byzantine armies (Skoutaris)

That was the original meaning of "aid de camp".

Indeed it does. Difficult to express, but, they seem to be the king's "shield" on foot: his guard. As shield carriers for the king they and - a fortiori - the agema were the corps dedicated to his protection. A job amply displayed by Peucestas and Leonnatus in India.

The hypaspists also, interestingly, carried the king's "ceremonial" arms before the army.

It's not that I dismiss the arguments over the shield easily, rather that the discussion of these soldiers often bogs down in entrenched views of whether or not they were always armed as were hoplites. My view is that they were, as the elite and 'over-worked" corps of the army, armed in both fashions depending on the job in hand. There is no doubt they will have been armed in the hoplite panoply when assaulting the city of Tyre from a tower constructed on two boats – ditto Coenus’ brigade.

Similarly, as I have said, likely too much emphasis is laid on "shield" in the name. We don't really know how the term was used or where its emphasis lay. It is likely that Alexander renamed as hypaspists the original “foot companionsâ€