Feb/Mar 2008 ANCIENT WARFARE VOL II, ISSUE I Light infantry With: • Portrait of a Peltast • Lanciarii: Elite legionaries? Also: • The battle of Dara • Read your Homer! € 6,99 And more www.ancient-warfare.com Copyright Karwansaray BV AW nr5 feb-mrt08.indd 1 24-07-2009 17:30:56 AW nr5 feb-mrt08.indd 2 24-07-2009 17:30:59 ANCIENT WARFARE CONTENTS Feb/Mar 2008 4 NEWS AND LETTERS 32 HOPLITE OR PELTAST Publisher: Rolof van Hövell tot Westerflier, MA, MCL Macedonian ‘heavy’ infantry Publisher’s assistant: Gabrielle Terlaak Editor in chief: Jasper L. Oorthuys, MA A HISTORY OF Sales and marketing: Tharin Clarijs 7 Website design: Christianne C. Beall EUROPEAN SHIELDS Art and layout consultant: Matthew C. Lanteigne Part 2. Weapon and status symbol Contributors: Nick Barley, Ross Cowan, Murray Dahm, Sidney Dean, Paul Elliot, Stephen English, Christian Koepfer, Chris Lillington-Martin, Mike Thomas THEME Illustrations: Andrew Brozyna, Igor Dzis, Carlos de la Light infantry 36 ROMAN TACTICS Rocha, Johnny Shumate, Graham Sumner. DEFEAT PERSIAN PRIDE Design & layout: © MeSa Design, INTRODUCTION e-mail: [email protected] 12 The battle of Dara Print: PublisherPartners. www.publisherpartners.com THE SOURCE Editorial office 14 PO Box 1574, 6501 BN Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Thucydides on Lightly Armed Troops Phone: +31-6-28788885 (Europe) +1-740-994-0091 (US). E-mail: [email protected] Skype: ancient_warfare. Website: www.ancient-warfare.com Contributions in the form of articles, letters and queries from readers are welcomed. Please send to the above address or use the contact form on our LANCIARII website. 18 41 BE A GENERAL Elite legionary troops? Read your Homer Subscription Subscription price per 12 months is 29,95 euros including postage worldwide. 6% VAT applicable in the EU. Subscriptions: www.ancient-warfare.com or Ancient Warfare PO Box 1574, 6501 BN, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Distribution Ancient Warfare is sold through selected retailers, museums, the internet and by subscription. If you 24 HUMBLE AND DEADLY wish to become a sales outlet, please contact the The ancient slinger editorial office or e-mail us: [email protected] 45 BE A GENERAL Solution to ‘Xenophon’s cavalry commander’ Copyright Karwansaray BV, all rights reserved. Nothing in this publication may be reproduced in any form without prior written consent of the 46 REVIEWS publishers. Any individual providing material for Books and models publication must ensure they have obtained the correct permissions before submission to us. Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders, but in a few cases this proves impossible. The editor and publishers apologize for any unwitting cases of copyright transgression and would like to hear from any copyright holders not acknowledged. 28 WARRIOR PORTRAIT Articles and the opinions expressed herein do not Peltast light infantry necessarily represent the views of the editor and or publishers. Advertising in Ancient Warfare does not necessarily imply endorsement. 50 ON THE COVER Ancient Warfare is published every two months by Karwansaray BV, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. PO Box 1110, 3000 BC Rotterdam, The Netherlands. ISSN: 1874-7019 Ancient Warfare 3 AW nr5 feb-mrt08.indd 3 24-07-2009 17:31:29 NEWS AND LETTERS News and letters INTERACTION WITH OUR READERSHIP IS VERY IMPORTANT TO US AND WE’RE GLAD TO SEE THE WEBSITE IS REGULARLY USED TO POSE QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS ON OUR MAGAZINE. LAST TIME WE ENCOURAGED OUR READERS NOT TO BE AFRAID TO VENT THEIR CRITICISMS. IT IS GOOD TO SEE THAT CRITICAL MINDS READ OUR MAGAZINE. The conquest of Spain I am glad to see that the fourth issue of Ancient Warfare deals with the Roman conquest of Hispania. There are however many issues that could be addressed regarding the different contributions, many of them on controversial points such as the not a representative example. 2nd century date. character of the Celtiberian ‘guerrilla’. There are moreover some factual errors Also, the sword has many problems. I will however restrict my comments that make this a flawed reconstruction. So far not a single bronze or brass to a few points of fact visible in the The belt-buckle is a very archaic type metallic frame for the sword scabbard figures and figure captions, which are that cannot be dated later than c. 350 has been found; they are all made in misleading or plain wrong. BC, over a century before Viriathus. iron. The spearhead embedded in the The sword shown in p. 34 is neither There are more appropriate types for a scabbard frame was placed there, in a Roman gladius hispaniensis, nor its Iberian prototype. In fact, it is a ‘fronton sword’ (of Quesada’s type 2, cat. number 908). This particular sword comes from Almedinilla (Cordoba) Ancient-warfare.com – a site I’m actually re-excavating The magazine website has been completely redesigned. We believe the now– and is dated to the first decades layout is much improved and the site is now easier to navigate. We have also of the 4th century BC. Real prototypes added a blog where the editor keeps track of what is going on ‘behind the of the gladius hispaniensis belong to a scenes’ of Ancient Warfare. complete different tradition (see JRMES In the near future – perhaps already when you read this – we will also 8, 1997, pp.251-270). have added a podcast, an internet audio show, which we are producing in The – otherwise splendid – illustration cooperation with thehistorynetwork.org. We are quite excited about this of a Lusitanian warrior in page 18 must new feature and hope you’ll like it too. The first episode will feature several also be taken with more than a grain of of the authors in this issue discussing the theme of ‘Light infantry’. salt. Mail armour was very rare – not Finally, if you’d like to keep up to date with our plans and ideas, make sure a single examples is archaeologically you subscribe to our free electronic newsletter. Go to ancient-warfare.com documented among thousands and simply put your name and email address in the box at the top right of the of warrior burials – and sources page. The website has an archive of older editions as well. specifically mention it was very rare (Strabo 3, 3, 6). So this is a chieftain and 4 Ancient Warfare AW nr5 feb-mrt08.indd 4 24-07-2009 17:31:36 NEWS AND LETTERS shape. Finally, the shape of the caetra iron boss is also wrong. Roman hospital found I know Spanish archaeology is not Future themes During excavations in Oudenburg, well known abroad, but enough These are the planned themes in western Belgium, the remains information is now readily available for the coming issues of Ancient of a Roman military hospital, online or in books published in Britain Warfare: a valetudinarium have been or France, so that these embarrassing - Victory and defeat (April 2008) discovered. The fort containing mistakes could have been avoided. - The Age of the Trireme. 700 BC the hospital dates to the third I would not like to leave the impression - 335 BC (June 2008) century AD and was established that I disagree with the articles - The campaigns of Julius Caesar as part of the defences in-depth published in Ancient Warfare, or that (August 2008) of the Rhine border, then possibly I detract from their merit, but I believe - Warfare in the Ancient Near East reinforced during the Gallic serious and polite criticism is still (October 2008) empire of Postumus (260-268) healthy. If you have any suggestions for and subsequently became part of future themes, or if you’d like the Saxon Coast defence system. Prof. Fernando Quesada-Sanz to contribute, don’t hesitate to The find of a hospital here is contact us. noteworthy since the nearest We apologize for the misidentification of comparable find is in Neuss, just the ‘fronton’ sword and the misleading north of Cologne, Germany. caption in the Viriathus article. It should, of course, have said that this was a reconstruction of what a chieftain like Virithus could have looked like. As to the factual errors in the image the small ‘pocket knife’ space, during itself, we can only repeat what Johnny the funeral rites; it is not a ‘reserve Shumate said on reading this letter: “I weapon holder’, and this is proved by a wish I had contact with Prof.Quesada detailed examination of the excavation before I started the illustrations. He is reports. correct that the information on Iberian Finally, the hilt is also regrettably warriors is scant outside the Spanish wrong; the ‘atrophied antennae’ sword world. I mostly used the information hilts are small iron spheres decorated out of Osprey’s book Rome’s Enemies: with silver or copper inlay, never Spanish Armies. I hate it when I render vertical disks as shown. Some early, an illustration that’s not correct. I try 5th century BC hilts are known with to pride myself on historically accurate flat disks, but never this way or in this images. I offer my apologies” ■ © Brendan Keeley Ancient Warfare 5 AW nr5 feb-mrt08.indd 5 24-07-2009 17:31:37 AW nr5 feb-mrt08.indd 6 24-07-2009 17:31:40 A HISTORY OF EUROPEAN SHIELDS - PART 2 Weapon and Status Symbol? The scutum in the early Roman Empire AS WE HAVE SEEN IN PART I OF THIS ARTICLE ‘INVENTING THE SCUTUM - ITALIC SHIELDS UNTIL THE LATE REPUBLIC’, THE SCUTUM SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN A FORMIDABLE WEAPON. HOWEVER, DURING THE REIGN OF AUGUSTUS THE ROMAN SCUTUM, WHICH HAD SERVED BASICALLY UNCHANGED IN THE ROMAN ARMY FOR CENTURIES, SUDDENLY BECAME SUBJECT TO A SERIES OF DRASTIC MODIFICATIONS.