Phalange Mixte

[Sean Manning]

It does make you wonder, given the way that the Alexander historians hide the role of Persian infantry at the Granicus and Issos. I understand that Diodorus is just as bad for fourth-century battles, and Xenophon for the campaigns of Aegesilaus. Its also possible that some ethnic Persians did fight as close-order spearmen before the kardakes. It was certainly part of the Assyrian military tradition, and practiced by many Persian subjects, and Herodotus' Persian War battes are described in simplified fashion (one uniform clash of Greek hoplites against Persian sparabara). There are some reliefs of guards at Persepolis with spears, big shields, and no bows. That supports the idea that sparabara were more effective troops than the Greek sources would suggest, because they kept using them.

[Paralus]

Its also possible that some ethnic Persians did fight as close-order spearmen before the kardakes.

...Herodotus' Persian War battes are described in simplified fashion (one uniform clash of Greek hoplites against Persian sparabara).

The Herodotus point is cogent. The clearest description we have is Plataea. There is no doubt that the field army of the Persians at this battle, possibly some 50,000 odd if Greek Medisers are added, is that which the King took into the field “normallyâ€

[Paullus Scipio]

Paralus/Michael wrote

Whilst Herodotus might simplify his description – though the detail is reasonable – the drift is clear: harassment of the hoplite line by horse borne javelineers and archers; follow up by foot archers and then a furious engagement of spear and scimitar armed infantry.

...if we are talking about the clashes between Heavy Greek Hoplite Men-at-Arms and the Persian Army, this needs a little elaboration. At Marathon, according to Herodotus, it is the Athenians/Plataeans who close to Hand-to-Hand combat "all along the line". He says they began from a mile away and advanced 'at a run', being the first Greeks Herodotus had heard of charging at a run. In reality they probably advanced 'at the double' i.e. a fast walk, as Herodotus himself actually says, and the charge/run will have been the last hundred yards or so, the effective missile zone. (Her. VI. 110-115 Penguin translation)

At Plataea, the Persians "make a barrier of their shields" from behind which they launch an archery barrage at the Spartans and Tegeans, who, stung by this, charge; there is a brief Hand-to-Hand struggle at the shield barrier, and then the shieldless Persian Archers desperately resort to trying to grab the Greek spears, to no avail of course. (Her.IX.61-67)

Similarly, at Mycale, the Persians fight from behind "a defensive line protected by a barrier of interlocking shields". Again, it is the Greeks who advance rapidly to contact but "The Persians, so long as their line of shields remained intact, successfully repelled all attacks..." and eventually the Athenians " burst through the line of shields and fell upon the enemy in a mass assault" and the Persians retreat to their camp which is assaulted and captured in due course, as at Plataea. (Her. IX.99-104).

Note that in all cases it is the Greek Hoplite Men-at-Arms who charge and initiate hand-to-hand combat - the Persians are content to shoot/fight from behind their wall of Pavises/Spara.

Unfortunately no clear description of the levies of Cyrus is available.

....true, but we do have significant evidence for later Achaemenid organisation, and it is a reasonable assumption that Cyrus/Khurush's Persians were similarly organised.
Persian society consisted of nobles,(azata) who, like later feudal structures owed their lands and allegiance to the King, and were in turn served by 'bondsmen/retainers' (bandaka). Military Service was compulsory for all between 17 and 50 ( and only the King could grant exemption, according to Xenophon (Cyropaedia VIII.3.47). At the bottom of the social pyramid were the serfs/slaves who actually worked the land (mariaka)
The army itself was organised into units/regiments of one thousand (Hazarabam ; Gk: 'myriad') divided into ten companies of 100 each Satabam, divided in turn into files of ten men called Dathabam, with a file leader Dathapatis (who was presumably the sparabara/ shield/pavise bearer), 8 archers and a 'file-closer/second-in-command' bringing up the rear (Pascadathapatis lit: after/rear file leader). These details come from Aramaic documents and ration states from garrisons in Egypt, which also reveal, as one might expect that actual strengths of the company/satabam were frequently 60 or so rather than the 'paper' 100, and sometimes fell as low as 30-40. It seems that the filedathabam was kept at 10 men in such cases. Xenophon also refers to units of these sizes, though giving Greek equivalent names.
There were also Divisions of Ten thousand,(Baivarabam) the most famous being the King's personal Division, the 'Immortals' (Amrtaka) whom Herodotus (VII.40-41) tells us were so-called because they were always kept up to strength.

...was indicative of the arrays of Cyrus and Darius I it failed catastrophically against the Scythian mounted nomads north of the Danube in 513. Here Herodotus has Darius enduring what might have been the mother of all losses – although he is more interested in describing the various oddities of the Scythians themselves

...this is misleading, because it was not that the Persians and their Tactics lost against the Scythians in battle but rather, as Herodotus tells us (IV.119) that they adopt a Strategic 'scorched earth' policy; "they decided to avoid a straight fight, and to retire, blocking up all the wells and springs which they passed and trampling the pasture...". So doing, Darius is led on and on. Ultimately his foraging parties come under increasing pressure from the Scythians and their Sarmatian allies. They also threaten the bridge across the Danube, and in disarray Darius and the Persians withdraw......so the Persian tactical system never got to grips with the elusive nomads, and whilst it is true that the Persians were 'comprehensively beaten', it was not in battle.

It is however significant that the Scythians knew they would be beaten in open battle, and refused to fight, preferring to poison their own lands.

[Paralus]

At Plataea, the Persians "make a barrier of their shields" from behind which they launch an archery barrage at the Spartans and Tegeans, who, stung by this, charge; there is a brief Hand-to-Hand struggle at the shield barrier, and then the shieldless Persian Archers desperately resort to trying to grab the Greek spears, to no avail of course. (Her.IX.61-67)

I haven’t a copy of Herodotus at home. How incredible, I’ve had one for over thirty years, it must have decamped with my Curtius (it too has wandered but kindly been electronically replaced by Marcus over at Pothos). Never a lending library be. Therefore I was flying from memory, which memory seems to have conflated the attacks on the Megarians and Athenians with that on the Lacedaemonians it seems. My head is far too deep into the Iranian campaigns of Antigonus and Seleucus at the present. A refocus might be necessary. Ask me about the chronological debate over Gaza, Babylon, Nicanor, the upper satrapies, Babylon again…..

Well Old Man (with all possible respect), that indeed implies a shield wall from behind which the foot archers let fly. How deep I wonder? I shall endeavour to run down an internet translation and have a re-read. The only problem there being the aged, near (if not) Victorian translations that dominate the public domain publications (“Thou takest thyself forsooth to Lacedaemon…â€

[Paullus Scipio]

Paralus/Michael wrote:

Never a lending library be.

....wise words!! :evil: Over the years many of my best and rarest books have gone that way, including one 'friend' who openly refused to return a rare early copy of 'Adventures in the Rifle Brigade' by Sir John Kincaid - long since an 'ex-friend'! :twisted: I must have bought between 6 and 8 copies of 'Lord of the Rings' down the years too.........

How deep I wonder?

....uuu..mm, how about 10 as a rule? (see my previous post)

[quote]I can’t think that this is the array that Cyrus has conquered an empire with. There will have been a stronger emphasis on infantry; certainly more infantry than simply a shield wall “skinâ€

[Paralus]

[According to him, this event took place north-east of the headwaters of the Syr Darya…

An alternative account from Xenophon's Cyropaedia contradicts the others, claiming that Cyrus died peaceably at his capital !!
The final version of Cyrus's death comes from Berossus, who only reports Cyrus met his death while warring against the Dahae archers north-west of the headwaters of the Syr Darya

I’ve always tended to the Syr Darya. The Dahae and the Sacae semm to be ambivilant subjects. Much as the Indians who were, by Alexander’s time if not well before, largely independent.

I was in the process of re-reading the relevant sections of Cyrus to Alexander (the go-to book on the Achaemenids) whilst the kids had a swim. The book and beer awaits in the backyard…I should go and do my duty. Anyhow, Briant believes that the Sacae and Dahae, whilst recognising the “Great Kingâ€

[Sean Manning]

Unfortunately no clear description of the levies of Cyrus is available.

....true, but we do have significant evidence for later Achaemenid organisation, and it is a reasonable assumption that Cyrus/Khurush's Persians were similarly organised.
Persian society consisted of nobles,(azata) who, like later feudal structures owed their lands and allegiance to the King, and were in turn served by 'bondsmen/retainers' (bandaka). Military Service was compulsory for all between 17 and 50 ( and only the King could grant exemption, according to Xenophon (Cyropaedia VIII.3.47). At the bottom of the social pyramid were the serfs/slaves who actually worked the land (mariaka)
The army itself was organised into units/regiments of one thousand (Hazarabam ; Gk: 'myriad') divided into ten companies of 100 each Satabam, divided in turn into files of ten men called Dathabam, with a file leader Dathapatis (who was presumably the sparabara/ shield/pavise bearer), 8 archers and a 'file-closer/second-in-command' bringing up the rear (Pascadathapatis lit: after/rear file leader). These details come from Aramaic documents and ration states from garrisons in Egypt, which also reveal, as one might expect that actual strengths of the company/satabam were frequently 60 or so rather than the 'paper' 100, and sometimes fell as low as 30-40. It seems that the filedathabam was kept at 10 men in such cases. Xenophon also refers to units of these sizes, though giving Greek equivalent names.
There were also Divisions of Ten thousand,(Baivarabam) the most famous being the King's personal Division, the 'Immortals' (Amrtaka) whom Herodotus (VII.40-41) tells us were so-called because they were always kept up to strength.

I should point out that we don't know the exact makeup of these mixed formations of pavise-men (OP sparabara) and archers. Herodotus describes his generic Persian soldier with spear, woven shield (gerra), bow, dagger, and sometimes scale armour. He tells us that the army had a decimal organization, which other sources confirm, suggesting a nominal depth of ten men. The Jewish-Aramaic Garrison at Elephantine was organized into squads of 10 or 11 but we don't know if they were sparabara. It seems likely that the middle ranks didn't carry the shield, because Herodotus tells us that once the shield-wall was down the Persians had no shields to defend themselves. Did the middle ranks carry spears into battle, and if so, what did they do with them when shooting? Did the file-closers have shields too? How many ranks of archers could shoot at once?

[Paullus Scipio]

Sean wrote:

I should point out that we don't know the exact makeup of these mixed formations of pavise-men (OP sparabara) and archers

...quite right, hence my use of "presumably"...

Herodotus describes his generic Persian soldier with spear, woven shield (gerra), bow, dagger, and sometimes scale armour. He tells us that the army had a decimal organization, which other sources confirm, suggesting a nominal depth of ten men.

"The Persians, who wore on their heads the soft hat called the tiara, and about their bodies, embroidered tunics with sleeves, of divers colours, body armour with iron scales upon them like the scales of a fish. Their legs were protected by trousers; and they bore wicker shields;( Gk: 'Gerra', the word usually used for Spara) their quivers hanging at their backs, and their arms being a short spear, a bow of uncommon size, and arrows of reed. They had likewise daggers(akinakes) suspended from their girdles along their right thighs." (Her.VII.60)
Elsewhere Herodotus describes the Immortals thus:
"then ten thousand, picked also after the rest, and serving on foot. Of these last one thousand carried spears with golden pomegranates at their lower end instead of spikes; and these encircled the other nine thousand, who bore on their spears pomegranates of silver. "

This would be consistent with the organisation I described earlier, with the file-leaders having the golden pomegranates, and the rest silver.Notice too that alll( at least of the Immortals, and probably the other Medes and Persians too) carry spears.
At I.135, Herodotus says the Persians wear Median dress ( i.e. jacket and trousers instead of the traditional long robe) ".. and their soldiers wear the Egyptian corselet". It is likely that this is a reference to the scale corselet, since if it was of linen, Herodotus would have said so, as he does when describing the equipment of others in Book VII and the present of 'a remarkable linen corselet' by Pharoah Amasis of Egypt to the statue of Athene on the island of Lindos (II.182).
That not all the Persian Infantry was armoured is clear from Herodotus' description of Plataea, so perhaps body-armour, at least the scaled kind may have been restricted to Officers/file leaders, as with other cultures.

(Her.IX.61) - my emphasis:
"the Persians, on their side, left off shooting, and prepared to meet them. And first the combat was at the wicker shield barrier. Afterwards, when these were swept down, a fierce contest took place by the side of the temple of Demeter/Ceres, which lasted long, hand-to-hand. The barbarians would lay hold of the Greek spears and break them; for in boldness and warlike spirit the Persians were not a whit inferior to the Greeks; but they were without shields.. ( I don't have the Greek handy, and am wondering whether the word used is 'gerra' or 'Hopla', as some translations give 'lack of armour' or deficient in armour' rather than 'without shields' ? ), ..untrained, and far below the enemy in respect of skill in arms. Sometimes singly, sometimes in bodies of ten, now fewer and now more in number, they dashed upon the Spartan line, and so perished.

The fight went most against the Greeks, where Mardonius, mounted upon a white horse, and surrounded by the bravest of all the Persians, the thousand picked men, fought in person. So long as Mardonius was alive, this body resisted all attacks, and, while they defended their own lives, struck down no small number of Spartans; but after Mardonius fell, and the troops with him, which were the main strength of the army, perished, the remainder yielded to the Lacedaemonians, and took to flight. Their light clothing, and lack of shields, were of the greatest hurt to them: for they had to contend against men heavily armed, while they themselves were without any such defence."

Clearly, the implication here is that the vast majority were without shields or armour.

The Jewish-Aramaic Garrison at Elephantine was organized into squads of 10 or 11 but we don't know if they were sparabara.

...quite right, and the likelihood is that they were Takabara( see my earlier post), but even from the above quotations it can be seen that the Persians themselves also had a decimal organisation, not to mention, as you said, other sources such as Xenophon's later description ( in the Cyropaedia), so that we can infer that the file was nominally ten deep, as you say.

Did the middle ranks carry spears into battle, and if so, what did they do with them when shooting? Did the file-closers have shields too? How many ranks of archers could shoot at once?

Good questions ! And not ones with known answers...though from the above, it would appear that all carried the short spear as well as bow, and since H. tells us that spears were carried point down, this may be a clue that they were simply stuck point down in the ground while using the bow......

[Kineas]

(Her.IX.61) - my emphasis:
"the Persians, on their side, left off shooting, and prepared to meet them. And first the combat was at the wicker shield barrier. Afterwards, when these were swept down, a fierce contest took place by the side of the temple of Demeter/Ceres, which lasted long, hand-to-hand. The barbarians would lay hold of the Greek spears and break them; for in boldness and warlike spirit the Persians were not a whit inferior to the Greeks; but they were without shields.. ( I don't have the Greek handy, and am wondering whether the word used is 'gerra' or 'Hopla', as some translations give 'lack of armour' or deficient in armour' rather than 'without shields' ? ), ..untrained, and far below the enemy in respect of skill in arms. Sometimes singly, sometimes in bodies of ten, now fewer and now more in number, they dashed upon the Spartan line, and so perished.

The word used is "anoploi" and don't leap to the conclusion that that means "unshielded". it may, but here's the LSJ

ἄνοπλος , ον,

A. without the ὅπλον or large shield, of the Persians, who bore only γέρρα, Hdt.9.62: generally, unarmed, PlEuthd.299b, Onos.42.17; τὸ ἄ., opp. τὸ ὁπλιτικόν, of citizens not entrusted with arms, Arist.Pol.1289b32:--of ships, unarmed, Plb.2.12.3. (On the form v. ἄοπλος.)

[Paullus Scipio]

Kineas wrote:

The word used is "anoploi" and don't leap to the conclusion that that means "unshielded". it may, but here's the LSJ

.....I assume that is for others benefit, since otherwise it would be like "telling Granny how to suck eggs", as the old saying has it.....and what I thought in the first place !
An almost verbatim translation of 'Hopla/Opla' is pan-oply ( and from the Greek root), so the Persians were 'un-panoplied'; the 'panoply' in this instance consisting of shield/aspis, helmet/kranos , Long spear/Dory, body armour/thorakes/spolas sword/xiphos etc.....

[Kineas]

Sorry, no egg-sucking intended, just catch-up for the lurkers and not-so-much-Greek readers.

[PMBardunias]

There is a good paper that addresses the heart of Kineas' lesson
"The myth of the Hoplite's Hoplon"
JF Lazenby, D Whitehead - The Classical Quarterly, 1996 .

Hoplites don't derive their names from their shields, "hoplon" only rarely is used for shield alone. In fact the quote used to support the notion that hoplites are named after the hoplon as shield in interesting. It basically says that peltasts derive their name from the pelta, while hoplites derive their name from the aspis. You see the problem.

Hoplon in the sense of "tools of war" is the word that hoplite derives from. Sort of like "well-armed men".

[Kineas]

Since I first read the LSJ, I've been fascinated by the fact that hoplon refers to the ropes on a ship--the very ropes, in fact,t hat serve as tackle. And the very weaponry of an animal--it's claws, or the sting in its tail.

ὅπλον , τό,

A. tool, implement, mostly in pl., like ἔντεα, τεύχεα: (prob. from ἕπω A):

I. a ship's tackle, tackling, Hom.(only in Od.), 2.390, al., Hes.Op.627 ; esp. ropes, halyards, etc., δησάμενοι δ' ἄρα ὅπλα Od. 2.430 , etc.; in which sense Hom. twice uses the sg., rope, 14.346, 21.390: generally, any ropes, Hdt.7.25, 9.115, Hp.Art.78.

II. tools, strictly so called, in Hom. esp. of smiths' tools, Il.18.409,412 ; in full, ὅπλα χαλκήϊα Od.3.433 : in sg., ὅπλον ἀρούρης sickle, AP6.95 (Antiphil) ; ὅπλον γεροντικόν staff, Call.Epigr.1.7 ; δείπνων ὅπλον ἑτοιμότατον, of the wine-flask, AP6.248 (Marc. Arg.).

III. in pl., also, implements of war, arms and armour, Hom. (only in Il.), αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ πάνθ' ὅπλα κάμε, of the arms of Achilles, 18.614, cf. 19.21 ; ὅπλοισιν ἔνι δεινοι̂σιν ἐδύτην 10.254 ,272 ; so in Pi.N.8.27, IG12.1.9, E.Hec. 14, etc.: rarely in sg., weapon, οὐδέ τι ἀρήϊον ὅπλον ἐκτέαται Hdt.4.23 , cf. 174, E.HF161,570,942, Pl.R.474a, X.Cyr.7.4.15 ; ποτὶ πονηρὸν οὐκ ἄχρηστον ὅπλον ἁ πονηρία [Epich.]275 ; piece of armour, D.S.3.49.

2. the large shield, from which the men-at-arms took their name of ὁπλι̂ται (εἰκόνα γραπτὴν ἐν ὅπλῳ IG22.1012.18 (ii B. C.), cf. IGRom.4.1302.35 (Cyme, i B. C./i A. D.), Th.7.75, D.S.15.44, 17.18); ὅπλον στύππινον IG11(2).203 B99 (Delos, iii B. C.) : metaph., τη̂ς πενίας ὅπλον ἡ παρρησία Nicostr.Com.29 ; ὅ. μέγιστον . . ἁρετὴ βροτοι̂ς Men. Mon.433 , cf. 619.

3. in pl., also, heavy arms, Hdt.9.53 ; ὅπλων ἐπιστάτης, = ὁπλίτης, opp. κώπης ἄναξ, A.Pers.379 ; ὁ πόλεμος οὐχ ὅπλων τὸ πλέον ἀλλὰ δαπάνης Th.1.83 ; ὅπλα παραδου̂ναι Id.4.69 ; ὅπλα ἀποβάλλειν Ar.V.27 , etc.

4. ὅπλα, = ὁπλι̂ται, men-at-arms, πολλω̂ν μεθ' ὅπλων S.Ant.115 (lyr.): and freq. in Prose, ἐξέτασιν ὅπλων ποιει̂σθαι to have a muster of the men-at-arms, Th.4.74, etc.; ὁ ἐπὶ τω̂ν ὅπλων στρατηγός, opp. ὁ ἐπὶ τη̂ς διοικήσεως, Decr. ap. D.18.38, Decr.ib. 115 ; χειροτονηθεὶς ἐπὶ τὰ ὅ. πρω̂τος . . στρατηγός IG22.682.44 (iii B. C.); στρατηγει̂ν ἐπὶ τὰ ὅ. SIG697 E (Delph., ii B. C.), etc.

5. τὰ ὅ. the place of arms, camp, ἠ̂λθεν εἰς τὰ ὅ. Lys.13.12 , cf.X.Cyr.7.2.5, etc.; ἐκ τω̂ν ὅ. προϊέναι Th.1.111 , cf. 3.1.

6. Phrases : ἐνέδυνον (v.l. ἐνέδυντο) τὰ ὅ. Hdt.7.218 , etc.; ἐν ὅπλοισι εἰ̂ναι or γενέσθαι to be in arms, under arms, Id.1.13, cf.E.Ba.303, Th.6.56 ; ἐν ὄπλοισι [ἰππομ]άχεντας Sapph.Supp.5.19 ; ἐν ὅπλοις μάχεσθαι Pl.Grg.456d ; ἡ ἐν τοι̂ς ὅπλοις μάχη Id.Lg.833e ; ποιη̂σαι ἐξέτασιν ἐν ὅπλοις Decr. ap. Arist.Ath.31.2 ; εἰς τὰ ὅ. παραγγέλλειν X.An.1.5.13 ; ἐφ' ὅπλοις or παρ' ὅπλοις ἡ̂σθαι, E.Supp.674,357 ; μένειν ἐπὶ τοι̂ς ὅπλοις X.Cyr.7.2.8 ; for ὅπλα ῥίπτειν, ἀφιέναι, κατατίθεσθαι, v. sub vocc. ; for ὅπλα τίθεσθαι, v. τίθημι.

IV. of the arms possessed by animals for self-defence, [τὸν ἄνθρωπον] οὐκ ἔχοντα ὅπλον πρὸς τὴν ἀλκήν Arist.PA687a25 , cf. b4, al.

V. membrum virile, Nic.Fr.74.30, APl.4.242 (Eryc.), Hsch.

VI. a gymnastic exercise, the last which came on in the games, Artem.1.63.