Iberian or Hiberian ?

[Duncan Head]

Now, the lazy thinking would be that the chaps to the west, on the coast of the Black Sea, and Asia Minor not that far away, are in the Hellenistic orbit, even if very rustic and peripheral, so if anyone in the Caucasus was likely to be sporting a spined shield, might it not be the Iberians?  Equally, the Albanians squeezed up against the Caspian, with easiest communications lying to their south into Media, might be a bit more Iranian...  yet, the lancer is the victorious combatant, so for an Iberian possession, as Duncan says, seems most likely to be the Iberian.  I do not know enough about Armenian dress during this period - maybe they were more Parthianised than I imagine, having an Arsacid dynasty after all, and therefore a transmitter of Iranian styles to their northern Iberian neighbours?

The Iberians aren't on the coast of the Black Sea at this period - the coast is Colchis, which is still a separate (albeit related) state. In general, the Iberians are noted as wearing Iranian dress rather than being Hellenised, as in the Strabo passage Peter quoted earlier - the plainsmen dressed like Medes and Armenians, the highlanders living like Scythians and Sarmatians. The lancer looks reasonably Sarmatianising to me. As for the spined shield, we do have explicit testimony that the Albanians used the thureos, which was traditionally spined in both Celtic and Hellenistic usage, so that's exactly what I would suggest. And their Median neighbours did use spined thureoi as well, judging from the Zahhak Castle figure.

[DBS]

Thank you - feeling very stupid as Strabo was my starting point on thinking about these armies years ago...  oh dear, just blame it on dwindling mental faculties with advancing age!

[dwkay57]

Rummaging through my pile of small lead, whilst looking for some suitable Emesa cavalry figures (but that is a different thread), I came across some Rapier shielded Persian cavalry. The moulding of the saddle blanket in conjunction with some heavy paintwork could mimic horse armour at that small scale and I am planning on using these to form the (H)Albanian Kn(I) or EHC with javelin types as allies for my Armenians. I'll back them up with some left over Celtic/German cavalry as the Irr cv(o) or MC and throw in a few saka horse archers with their pixies hats cut down for the LH(f) or LC with bow.  I'll probably have to order some of the Baccus Dacian infantry for the foot though.