The Army of Herod

[dwkay57]

Does any member own a Jewish army from the time of Herod the Great? If so I'd be interested to hear what sort of unit and organisational structure they've used and also what sort of classifications they've applied to different troops types. I've carried out some research myself and am forming some conclusions but would welcome the opportunity to see how close they were to the thoughts of others.

The army will be in 6mm and effectively use left over figures from other armies that are further down the painting schedule.

[Duncan Head]

There's a DBM/DBMM army list ("Late Judaean") which covers the last Hasmoneans and the Herodians after Pompey's intervention. One example list at http://www.maws.org.uk/dbmm/armies/2-51-LJuda-400-01.html if you speak DBMM-ese.

I presume you've seen Samuel Rocca's Osprey The Army of Herod the Great and The Armies of the Hasmonaeans and Herod by Israel Shatzman (U of Pennsylvania 1991)?

[dwkay57]

Duncan,

Yes, I have the DBM Army lists Book 2 (1993) with that army in and I have a copy of the Osprey book.
I borrowed the Shatzman book on an Inter-Library loan and have made some notes from it. I've also read the MH Gracey article "The Armies of the Judean Client Kings".

Whilst these have helped to form an opinion, I just wanted to check what others had done in case I missed something obvious (or not so obvious as the case may be).

[Duncan Head]

Then you know more or less the same as I do: I've not tried to build the army.

I would note that there seem to be helmets with transverse crests on some of Herod's coins - this one is actually Herod Archelaus, but it's the same style - which might be Roman-style centurions' helmets and thus fit with the rest of the evidence for the "Romanisation" of the heavy infantry. Guy Stiebel's chapter on the military equipment from Jericho mentions iron armour scales, and a find of scales from Masada has been identified as Herodian, so ideally you probably want scale-armoured rather than mailed figures.

[Patrick Waterson]

In Matthew 8:5-13 Luke 7:1-10 we find a 'hekatontarchos' (officer-of-a-hundred) in Capernaum, who seems to be a Greek rather than a Jew, but unless the Judaean forces had exclusively Judaean and Idumaean officers, he might belong to the Herodian rather than the Roman army - one cannot see a Roman centurion being able to afford to build a synagogue for the locals (Luke 7:5) even if he wanted to.

This would accord with the presumed Romanisation of Herod's army.

[Jim Webster]

In Matthew 8:5-13 Luke 7:1-10 we find a 'hekatontarchos' (officer-of-a-hundred) in Capernaum, who seems to be a Greek rather than a Jew, but unless the Judaean forces had exclusively Judaean and Idumaean officers, he might belong to the Herodian rather than the Roman army - one cannot see a Roman centurion being able to afford to build a synagogue for the locals (Luke 7:5) even if he wanted to.

Why not, Centurions often commanded Auxiliary cohorts, they were on good money, sixteen times as much as the ordinary legionary file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/XP%20User/Desktop/Speidel_PayScalesRevisited2.pdf

Add in various 'cash bonuses' he could expect when involved with a local population, building a synagogue would be no big deal. It only need by built in the style of the local houses, they're not saying he build anything especially grand. He could pay four or five local lads to build it out of his wages over a period of a few months

Jim

[Duncan Head]

In Matthew 8:5-13 Luke 7:1-10 we find a 'hekatontarchos' (officer-of-a-hundred) in Capernaum, who seems to be a Greek rather than a Jew, but unless the Judaean forces had exclusively Judaean and Idumaean officers, he might belong to the Herodian rather than the Roman army ...
This would accord with the presumed Romanisation of Herod's army.

Josephus (Ant. Jud. XVII.1.3 and 9, for instance) refers to Roman officers serving in Herod's army - "Rufus and Gratus, who had three thousand of the most warlike of Herod's army with them".

[Patrick Waterson]

And one would expect Roman officers to be commanding Romanised auxiliaries ...

If our 'hekatontarchos' is in fact Roman (and Jim's evidence allows him to be) then he would be commanding a 'century' and presumably doing so in Herod's army as opposed to Rome's, given that he had interacted with the Judaeans and developed a liking for them and their ways.

The evidence emerging does suggest that Herod's forces were Romanised, at least in part.  My best guess is that his regulars would follow Roman-style organisation and equipment, with (as Duncan pointed out) scale armour as the predominant metal type.  Appearance might be similar to the Romanised Ptolemaic chap depicted at Sidon.

In fact, Nick Sekunda's reconstruction of the 'reformed' Ptolemaic army might serve as a guide to organisation.  I am not sure about this, but it may be worth a thought.

[Jim Webster]

Given the wide area of recruitment for Jewish forces, 'Romanisation' could well create a common identity

[stevenneate]

I used a collection of whatever figures I could find in scale armour and carrying a thureos shield for Judaean troops.  I found Carthaginian figures useful for this.  Adding in a few Marian legionaries also tops up the numbers. I've employed a similar system for Judaean troops in my Hasmonaean army and for Josephus' regulars in my Jewish Revolt. 

I have no problem with Roman soldiers becoming officers in the armies of other states, especially those states considered friendly.  Their expertise would have been highly sought after and the pay good.

My Judaeans have been thrashed from pillar to post on many a table and yet they endure in my affections.  I've never seen another gamer use them and with good reason but the DBM list for Herod's army can be pretty effective.

 

[Jim Webster]

My Judeans have never got a lot of use.
I've had a lot of fun with them using a Parthian ally. Here you take the absolute maximum of Parthian mounted troops and just build the Judeans round them 

[dwkay57]

Thanks for the responses. Without trying to pretend to be an expert from my limited research:

The general principle seems that Herod had to unite a fairly disparate nation and move it from a Hellenistic base into a Roman world which leads to a mix of terms to describe units and officers, just to add to more confusion. The end of Roman civil war would have produced an excess of officers willing to act in foreign armies. Besides Gratus and Rufus, I came across a Volumnius who seemed to be some sort of chief engineer and there were probably more. Besides these Herod seems to have used his family to head various detachments or smaller forces.

The illustrations in the Rocca book do show some troops with scale armour, but also with chainmail. The illustrations also show a lot of long spears and as they were used both pre and post this period in Jewish armies, it makes me think they were the predominant arm.

I'll try and write up my version of the army list over the next few days and post that so you can have a good laugh at it.

[Mick Hession]

I built a Herodian army in DBMM (the list is essentially unchanged from the DBM version IIRC) a couple of years ago. The bulk of the figures were From the Xyston Maccabean range with Donnington Jewish and Slave Revolt figures used for the poorer quality Judean foot. I used them in a Roman Empire-themed competition as an almost entirely infantry force with a substantial Roman allied contingent. I plan to acquire the figures needed to do the cavalry at Britcon in a couple of weeks and hope to get them on the table again soon.

I found them fun to use. They have a low aggression rating which in DBMM means they will usually get to drive the terrain placement which in turn lets them get the most out of stratagems like Ambush. I was a bit worried they would struggle to get decisive results but got 2 big wins and 2 big losses - if I am going to get a middling score in a competition that's how I like to do it.

Cheers
Mick

[dwkay57]

As threatened, attached are my current thoughts as to what my Herodian army might look like.

It's not really an army list in the traditional sense, but more a summary of my basic research and how it might translate into what eventually gets painted. Apologies in advance for anyone who was anticipating anything more typical, shorter or interesting.

It is also not truly historical in that it doesn't try to represent a snapshot of the army at any particular time but is more of an overall impression during the course of his reign.

[Patrick Waterson]

Josephus (Antiquities XVII.8.3) gives us the following glance at the army at Herod's funeral:

"About the bier were his sons and his numerous relations; next to these was the soldiery, distinguished according to their several countries and denominations; and they were put into the following order: First of all went his guards [doruphoroi], then the band of Thracians, and after them the Germans [epi de toutois hoposoi Germanōn = then the Germans themselves in similar number]; and next the band of Galatians, every one in their habiliments of war; and behind these marched the whole army in the same manner as they used to go out to war, and as they used to be put in array by their muster-masters [lokhagōn = commanders of lochoi*] and centurions [taxiarkhousin][/b]; these were followed by five hundred of his domestics carrying spices."

*The Hasmonean or Herodian lochos seems to have been a 500-ish, perhaps 512-man, unit - cf. the Spartan lochos at First Mantinea in 418 BC, which works out at 512 men and see I Maccabees 12:5-23 for a Spartan-Hasmonean connection.  Alternatively it could signify a c.500-man cohort, which might allow us to construe a meros as a legion-equivalent.

If I had to guess - which unfortunately is all I can do, so do not put too much weight upon it - I would expect the bodyguards, Germans, Thracians and Gauls to be cavalry.  Duncan or someone else might have evidence otherwise.