Final lybians

[Mark G]

A club mate is looking for figures and painting notes for the latest Libyan option in the DBA book 1 lists.  As a new opponent for his Carthaginian, Numidian and Marian Romans.

What little he has found is biblical. 

Can I suggest anything he can use?  I hadn't realised the list went so far forward, and figured they were all just part of Carthage by then

[Duncan Head]

Part of the reason for the extension of the end-date was to cater for the Libyan revolts against Carthage - in the Mercenary War for instance. By this time many of the Libyans were settled, agricultural and even with some cities. And further east, Diodoros says of the Libyans in Cyrenaica that some are farmers and others are nomad pastoralists, but:

both of these groups have kings and lead a life which is not entirely savage or different from that of civilized men.

However there were still (in the 1st century BC) wilder groups in the desert:

The third group, however, obeying no king and taking no account or even thought of justice, makes robbery its constant practice, and attacking unexpectedly from out of the desert it seizes whatever it has happened upon and quickly withdraws to the place from which it had set  out. All the Libyans of this third group lead a life like that of the wild beasts ... cover their bodies with the skins of goats... Their weapons are appropriate to both the country and their mode of life; for since they are light of body and inhabit a country which is for the most part a level plain, they face the dangers which beset them armed with three spears and stones in leather bags; and they carry neither sword nor helmet nor any other armour, since their aim is to excel in agility both in pursuit and again in withdrawal. Consequently they are expert in running and hurling stones, having brought to full development by practice and habit the advantages accorded them by nature.

A little later, Strabo writes (of the Moors, but see the bit in bold):

Although most of the country inhabited by the Maurousioi (the Moors) is so fertile, yet even today (the first century AD) most of the people lead a nomadic way of life. But nevertheless they beautify their appearance by braiding their hair, growing beards, wearing golden ornaments, and also by cleaning their teeth and paring their nails. And only rarely will you see them touch one another as they walk, for fear that the adornment of their hair may not remain intact. Their horsemen fight mostly with javelins, using bridles made of rush and riding bareback; but they also have swords (machairas). The infantry hold before them as shields (aspidas) the skins of elephants, and clothe themselves with the skins of lions, leopards, and bears, and sleep in them. I might almost say that these people, and the Masaesylii who live next to them, and all the Libyans in general, dress alike and are similar in other respects, using horses that are small but swift, and so ready to obey that they are governed with a small rod. The horses wear collars made of tree-fibres or of hair to which the rein is fastened, though some follow even without being led, like dogs. These people have small shields (pelte mikra) made of rawhide and small spears with broad heads, wear unbelted tunics with wide borders and as I have said use skins as mantles and protection (prothorakion).

He could do worse than to use Libyan skirmisher figures marketed for use with the Carthaginians - or the recent Khurasan Numidian infantry are made after Strabo's description, with hide shields and animal-skin capes - and maybe do the spearmen with unarmoured Cartho-Lybian figures like War&Empire's WE-CA02 - though whether they actually used hoplite shields or some sort of large leather shield is unclear. There's even a few figures like Lancashire Games CA03, which are based on Phil Barker's old Libyan drawing who have large round non-hoplite shields.

[Swampster]

(I knew Duncan would get in while I was writing...)

Duncan's AMPW summarises the literature sources - basically Herodotus, Diodorus and Strabo. All pretty much agree on the goat leather tunic (probably dyed red). There is rock art and also Persian carvings . Some of the figures are in long tunics, others in thigh length.

What scale?
There used to be a range of Libyan Garamantes in 15mm by a company called Trey Corbies. From what I remember, they were very similar to the Later Moorish figures from Lurkio https://thelittlecorporal.co.uk/later-moors-213-c.asp
PSC do the Corvus Belli Libyan javelinmen in plastic. Xyston do similarly coiffured ones in metal. These are nice and distinctive - I think they are based on the Macai in Herodotus's description. Other tribes also had distinctive hairstyles, though finding the figures would be a problem.

Spearmen are more of a problem unless you assume they have been very 'punic-ised' and use some of the Carthaginian figures - unarmoured spearmen probably being best. The various available figures do tend to have the ungirded tunic mentioned by Strabo, though the helmets may not be appropriate and the shields should probably be hide. I don't think there is any evidence for the shape of the shields other than being large - I do wonder if something like the Tuareg shields would be okay, despite the millenia or so gap.

For unhelmeted spearmen, some of the medieval Sudanese figures could work e.g. from Donnington. The clothed ones also tend to be shown with ungirded tunics The sub-saharan features probably aren't distinctive enough in 15mm to make them unsuitable.
Berbers ought to have been okay but most ranges seem to follow Heath's picture of them in swaddling bands - I don't know the source of that.

If chariots are wanted, those in some Carthaginian ranges are based on the Libyan examples in Persian art. Rock art examples seem smaller, though the representations tend to be rather vague.

Numidians probably ought to be similar (except perhaps the hair), but most are based on Trajan's column rather than e.g. the Canossa terracottas.

[Mark G]

Thanks guys.

15s, should have mentioned earlier.