Macedonian army research and amending a DBMM army list

[Sarissa336]

I haven't wargamed for years, but I've noticed how the Alexandrian Imperial army in the DBMM army list (2008) allows for only pike armed hypaspists and phalangites. I still think that it's far from proven whether the hypaspists were permanently pike armed at this stage. My own view, based on the evidence (and the view of many academics and enthusiasts as well), is that they were cross trained so that they could fight either pike armed or hoplite armed, depending on circumstance.

Then we have the asthetairoi, who appear to have been a subset of the pezhetairoi units. Heckel makes a good case for the asthetairoi being either pike armed or hoplite armed (like the hypaspists, depending on circumstance) or exclusively hoplite armed (Heckel, W, "The Asthetairoi: a Closer Look" in Alexander & His Successors. Essays from the Antipodes, 2009, pp.99-117). In addition, Anson makes an even stronger case for the asthetairoi as hoplite armed (Anson, EM, "The Asthetairoi: Macedonia's Hoplites" in Philip II and Alexander the Great. Father and Son, Lives and Afterlives, 2010, pp. 81-90). Taken together, these two papers put in doubt older theories about who the astheitairoi were, their armament and function.

Given these recent and significant developments, I propose that the Alexandrian Imperial list should be amended to allow for those wargamers who are not entirely comfortable with the all pike armed interpretation. Let's say the hypaspists should be reclassified as either pike or hoplite armed (to allow for differences of opinion), with a further phalangite option allowing for hoplite armed asthetairoi units (?) It's just a thought.

By the way, many thanks for all the positive feedback regarding my book, the Macedonian War Machine. It was a pleasure to research, but hell on earth to edit!

David

[Andreas Johansson]

You might want to bring this up on the DBMM Yahoo list (DBMMlist). More chance for rulesset-specifc discussion there.

[Sarissa336]

Thanks for the suggestion, I might just do that.

[Duncan Head]

Hi David!

Andreas is right, any changes to the DBMM lists need to go to Phil, who isn't on this forum (unless he's keeping very quiet), but is on https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/DBMMlist/.

Personally I was not all that convinced by Anson's suggestion about hoplite asthetairoi, which have been mentioned here before - though I can't remember in what thread. Recently I looked at Stephen English's PhD thesis on Alexander's campaigns and noticed that he thinks that the phalanx fought with hoplite shield and spear at the Hydaspes - I don't know if this carries through to his book on the same subject. What is this obsession with finding Macedonians re-equipped as hoplites? And does this fashion suddenly disappear with Alexander's death?

[Sarissa336]

Thanks for the link there, Duncan.

I can understand your skepticism, but I found both Heckel and Anson compelling on this subject. Certainly worth having a closer look at.

cheers,

David

[Imperial Dave]

I enjoyed your book very much David and although I am way way down on the knowledge ladder compared to some worthies on here, I for one tend to follow your reasoning re the option for "hoplite" rearmament

[Sarissa336]

Glad you enjoyed it Dave. There won't be a second volume!

[Patrick Waterson]

My one question would be: where did these revived hoplites get to and what did they do under the Successors?

Good to have you on the forum, by the way David.  Much admired your Macedonian articles of yore in Slingshot.

[Jim Webster]

Just to say 'Hi' and join in the general love-in :-)

asthetairoi were raised, by me, in this thread

http://soa.org.uk/sm/index.php?topic=1192.0

For me the interesting point is why the phalangites were turned to Hoplites to be turned back to Phalangites again after Alexander died.
The articles were interesting but I felt that I would like more of the bigger picture, looking at the Lamian war, and subsequent conflicts

Jim