The Armies at Paraetacene

[Patrick Waterson]

Incidentally, there may be a simple explanation for the apparent discrepancy in Diodorus' figures for Eumenes' elephants.  We may recall that Eumenes assigns 45 to his left, 40 to his centre and 40 to his right, but Diodorus' resume of forces gives him only 114 overall.  However when we look at Gabiene, Antigonus has 65 elephants (the same as at Paraitakene) and Eumenes has 114.  Given that Eumenes suffered at least one elephant casualty at Paraitakene, we might surmise he suffered a few more, which would allow him to have 125 at Paraitakene and 114 at Gabiene, which would explain the 114 overall total for Paraitakene as the Gabiene total inserted/repeated in the wrong place, conceivably by a copyist.

Hence I suggest Eumenes gets 125 elephants for Paraitakene, but also that at least some of Antigonus' 65 elephants (perhaps the ones he assigns to his right) are of superior quality.

[Dave Beatty]

Paraitakene/Paraetacene is supposed to be near modern Esfahan/Isfahan; of Gabiene we now only that, in the words of the Wikipedia article, "In the middle of Persia, the two armies camped about four and a half miles apart from each other on an uncultivated, flat sandy plain."

Isfahan, Ptolemy the Geographer's Aspadana, started life as a Jewish colony planted during Nebuchacnezzar's deportations.  It remained primarily a Jewish colony - and probably provided troops for Antiochus' 'elephant victory' over the Galatians - until mediaeval times (specifically, the Jewish colony and nearby Persian settlement merged around the time of the 11th century AD).  Aspadana encompassed several minor waterways and was close to the Zayandehrud River, which would seem to rule out dry and dusty Gabiene.

The problem is that Gabiene is the name of the Jewish colony established circa 605 BC and it was located just north of modern Esfahan - and that is where Eumenes wintered after Paraetacene (see http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/gabae-). So I am thinking that the Battle of Paraetacene must have taken place some distance further west which makes sense with Antigonus heading towards Persepolis from Hamedan and Eumenes heading from Persepolis towards Hamedan....

So I propose that the Battle of Gabiene occurred near Esfahan and Paraetacene somewhere west of there.  I feel an article for Slingshot coming on...

[Patrick Waterson]

If you have some solid proposals for the battlegrounds, Dave, then by all means let us hear them.  Or read them.

One feature of the Gabiene battleground was that it was dry and dusty, the limited visibility helping Antigonus to retrieve his fortunes along with Eumenes' baggage train.  It will be interesting to see how this reconciles with the comparatively well-watered location of Isfahan (says someone who has not been there in this lifetime).

[Duncan Head]

Gabiene "has long been identified with the area of modern Isfahan" according to the brief discussion in Potts.

Since Andreas ... had identified Gábai with Ar. Jay (see Schwarz, Iran, p. 586 n. 1), the ancient name of Isfahan ... that location has become customary, even if the campaigns of the year 317 B.C.E. might not be supposed to have taken place so far in the north.

The definitive proof of this identification at last was provided by the trilingual evidence of Šāpūr's inscription at Kaʿba-ye Zardošt ... which once mentions Wārzin, the satrap of Gay

Thus Encyclopaedia Iranica under Gabae.

Personally I am not much inclined to credit the tale of Nebuchadnezzar's Jewish colony at Yahudiya near Isfahan, because it seems generally to be considered that the Neo-Babylonian empire didn't extend that far East. Surely the Isfahan region would be Median territory at the time? And there are stories suggesting a Sasanian origin of the region's Jewish population that seem to be older than the sources for the Nebuchadnezzar story But I don't think it affects the question of location either way.

[Patrick Waterson]

In (possible) support of the Jewish colony in the area of modern Isfahan, the Book of Judith does mention a campaign of Nebuchadnezzar in which he subdued Elam.  This was apparently undertaken while he was governor of Assyria and the northern lands but before he became full king-emperor.  This might indicate that Nebuchadnezzar (or Nabu-kudurri-usur if we prefer) had enough dominance over the area during at least the earlier part of his reign to send deported Judaeans there.

That said, agreed that the presence or otherwise of the Jewish colony should not affect the battle location.

[Duncan Head]

The cavalry "troops of slaves" whom Diodoros lists for both Antigonos and Eumenes are ilai of paides - literally, of "boys". These are presumably not "slaves" despite the Loeb translation, but a continuation of the Macedonian royal corps of Pages, the basilikoi paides or "king's boys". These "boys" were well-born teenagers who would attend on the king on campaign but not usually fight, except in emergency. There is a discussion of them here. The left-hand figure here is intended to be a slightly later Page. I wonder if at Paraitacene they may have looked much like this, unarmoured with the Macedonian kausia on their heads.

So:
- Do any rules or lists suggest classification for the Pages yet?
- Does anyone do a 15mm mounted figure with the right headgear?

[Dave Beatty]

The cavalry "troops of slaves" whom Diodoros lists for both Antigonos and Eumenes are ilai of paides - literally, of "boys". These are presumably not "slaves" despite the Loeb translation, but a continuation of the Macedonian royal corps of Pages, the basilikoi paides or "king's boys". These "boys" were well-born teenagers who would attend on the king on campaign but not usually fight, except in emergency. There is a discussion of them here. The left-hand figure here is intended to be a slightly later Page. I wonder if at Paraitacene they may have looked much like this, unarmoured with the Macedonian kausia on their heads.

So:
- Do any rules or lists suggest classification for the Pages yet?
- Does anyone do a 15mm mounted figure with the right headgear?

That looks remarkably like the Afghan/Pashtu pakol or Chitrali cap. Freikorps makes some for their Moghul Army 1630-1840 that might be able to be modified - HI04 Afghan Cavalry http://totalsystemscenic.com/product/hi04-afghan-cavalry/

You could also just file the helmet of a 'normal' Macedonian soft metal cavalry figure (like Essex or Minifig) flat - that was done with 6mm figures here https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2017/02/from-leeh-greek-cavalry-45-point.html

[Duncan Head]

I ended up using the AB Figures Thessalian. I've left a couple in broad-brimmed hats, for the rest I've cut the hat away and greenstuffed a rather unconvincing blob of a kausia, and replaced the spear with a long wire lance.

[Chris]

Is there typically an award or prize given for most realistic army(ies) at BattleDay?

Best painted I can see . . . But I think most realistic would be a new category.

It will all come out in the pages, I suppose.

Chris

[Duncan Head]

Is there typically an award or prize given for most realistic army(ies) at BattleDay?

Possibly even harder to agree on than best painted! You could have armies marked down for being too uniform, or not uniform enough, or holding their sarisai in the wrong grip, depending on the judge's views!

[Chris]

Interesting. Let us hope that the judge(s) are not too biased then. Let us also hope that there might be a complete list of prize winners (along with a sentence or two as to why award was given) in a future issue of Slingshot.

Chris

[Swampster]

That looks remarkably like the Afghan/Pashtu pakol or Chitrali cap.

There have been various scholarly debates about this. One theory is that the Macedonians adopted it after reaching India. Another is that the Macedonians brought it to India. Another is that it is just a parallel evolution, with the Afghan version being a variant way of wearing a cap common in Central Asia. I hope it is one of the first two - and though there aren't many (or perhaps any - depends who you read) mentions of the kausia pre-Alexander's trip, it does seem to appear very quickly in the West just afterwards. Some think too quickly for it to be an import.

Unfortunately the various articles I've tried to look at have been behind paywalls. https://llewelynmorgan.com/2016/06/04/did-alexander-wear-my-hat/ has a summary and bibliography.