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General Category => Army Research => Topic started by: BjörnF on March 02, 2021, 07:32:14 PM

Title: Local allies for Makedonian Successor armies in Asia Minor
Post by: BjörnF on March 02, 2021, 07:32:14 PM
I will soon make a few armies for very early Successor armies, like 320-280, in Asia Minor and I was thinking about local allies. My other figures are Xyston 15mm, so I am looking through their range right now.

I suppose their Kappedokians (https://www.scotiagrendel.com/Xyston/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=2_3_9&zenid=cbnf04fgg0cf6jfvv76069e7a2 (https://www.scotiagrendel.com/Xyston/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=2_3_9&zenid=cbnf04fgg0cf6jfvv76069e7a2)) and Paphlagonians (https://www.scotiagrendel.com/Xyston/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_3_11_42&products_id=124&zenid=cbnf04fgg0cf6jfvv76069e7a2) are the most important, they cover most inland tribes. Paphlagonians could be used as Phrygians too, right?

What about the coastal tribes? Just normal Hellenistic miniatures? Xyston has some more exotic ones, or maybe they are too early? They have some miniatures called Pisidians (https://www.scotiagrendel.com/Xyston/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_3_84_85&products_id=354&zenid=cbnf04fgg0cf6jfvv76069e7a2), but are these ok for 300BC? Or the Milyae (https://www.scotiagrendel.com/Xyston/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_3_84_85&products_id=365&zenid=cbnf04fgg0cf6jfvv76069e7a2) they are supposed to be somewhere between Lykia, Pisidia, and Phrygia? Or the Lykian marines (https://www.scotiagrendel.com/Xyston/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_3_84_85&products_id=361&zenid=cbnf04fgg0cf6jfvv76069e7a2)?

I think my question is basically this: How well could miniatures representing tribes in Asia Minor in Xyston's Early Achaemenid range be used for armies in 300BC?

Title: Re: Local allies for Makedonian Successor armies in Asia Minor
Post by: Duncan Head on March 02, 2021, 08:19:05 PM
The Pisidian figures are based on the usual interpretation of Herodotos' description of a people whose name has't quite survived in the manuscripts (the identification is based on the assumption that the name may have become assimilated to aspidas, the next word in the text); so they are based on sources from 480 BC or so, and may just conceivably not be Pisidians anyway. The Milyans are also based on Herodotos, and it has been suggested that the warriors with javelins and hoplite shields from Karaburun-Elmali (http://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/files/1973/07/Battling-Lycian-Karaburun.jpg) may in fact be Milyan, not Lykian. And there is nothing in Lykian art that bears much resemblance to Herodotos' feather-hatted Lykian marines. 

That said, I don't see much reason to expect very much change between 480 and 300 except, perhaps, for a spread of Greek and then maybe Macedonian styles. Whether Macedonian equipment had made much headway by 300 is anyone's guess. Later, of course, the thyreos seems to have become popular in the region, but that's not till after 270 or so.
Title: Re: Local allies for Makedonian Successor armies in Asia Minor
Post by: BjörnF on March 02, 2021, 08:22:21 PM
Thanks Duncan!