The "Fred thread": the Argead Macedonian Army

[PMBardunias]

Maybe in more poetic writing it could be, but considering that there was a regiment already called "Silver Shields," I see no reason to take their name as anything other than literal..

I thought the "silver" referred to the actual precious metal (Fittings?) not the color. Doesn't Curtius say something like that? Wasn't there a "gold" shields unit as well?

I've thought about it in the past, and I suspect that the oval peltae depicted on the Kazanluk tomb paintings possess a very similar system (one looser strap at each extremity and a double strap grip in the middle) so that they could have employed like a series of porpakes to allow the bearer to use a rhomphaia with both hands. That shield type and the rhomphaia both appear in Thrace at about the same time (mid-4th c. BC), so it seems like they very well may have been linked.

Argive aspides are often shown with a second antilabe opposite the one gripped by the hoplite- distinct from the other segments of the rope running around the inner surface or the additional telamon sometimes seen on aspises in vase images. In some images this second "grip" is gripped by another hoplite seemingly wrestling for the shield. I have no idea why they are on aspides, since you cannot simply turn one upside down lest your intimidating lambdas become unimpressive "V"s. They would allow you to be carried home on your aspis by your surviving friends I guess.