Lydian or Phrygian infantry in the Achaemenid period

[Jim Webster]

Do we know anything about the evolution of Lydian or Phrygian infantry in the Achaemenid period?

In Diodorus Siculus we read about the army of Cyrus 'sometimes called the younger'

https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/14B*.html

"Cyrus, after gathering to Sardis both the levies of Asia and thirteen thousand mercenaries, appointed Persians of his kindred to be governors of Lydia and Phrygia, but of Ionia, Aeolis, and the neighbouring territories, his trusted friend Tamōs, who was a native of Memphis; then he with his army advanced in the direction of Cilicia and Pisidia, spreading the report that certain peoples of those regions were in revolt. From Asia he had in all seventy thousand troops, of whom three thousand were cavalry, and from the Peloponnesus and the rest of Greece thirteen thousand mercenaries."


Later this is augmented by

"When Cyrus saw the King's army advancing, he at once drew up his own force in battle order. The right wing, which rested on the Euphrates, was held by infantry composed of Lacedaemonians and some of the mercenaries, all under the command of Clearchus the Lacedaemonian, and helping him in the fight were the cavalry brought from Paphlagonia, more than a thousand. The left wing was held by the troops from Phrygia and Lydia and about a thousand of the cavalry, under the command of Aridaeus. Cyrus himself had taken a station in the centre of the battle-line, together with the choicest troops gathered from the Persians and the other barbarians, about ten thousand strong; and leading the van before him were the finest-equipped cavalry, a thousand, armed with Greek breastplates and swords." [Xenophon gives him a 600 strong cavalry bodyguard]

Now the last time  we meet Lydian or Phrygian infantry they are in the army lists as pre-hoplite spearmen either Irr Sp (I) or Irr Ax (O)
Now Karians are assumed to be Hoplites by the Achaemenid period, but I wonder if this is because they are assumed to have been Hoplites almost before the Greeks were.
But do we have any thoughts on Lydians or Phrygians?

[Duncan Head]

Obviously we have Herodotos, who specifically says that both the Lydians in Xerxes' army and the Karians in his fleet are armed in Greek style in 480. The Phrygians by contrast are said to be light infantry with spear and javelin like the Paphlagonians, Armenians, etc.

The Tatarli tomb is in Achaemenid Phrygia and as well as the straightforward Achaemenid troops depicted there is one scene that I would assume to show local Phrygians with Arrgive-looking shields, spears and drepana (see here figure 10 for instance).

There's also the warrior relief from Yilan Tas, probably 5th-century Phrygian (Draycott figure 10) - helmet, spear, shield a bit too small for a hoplite.

[Jim Webster]

Thanks Duncan, some more useful reading to get my teeth into.
I'm sure I remember you writing about converting figures for this period or slightly later?

[Duncan Head]

I'm sure I remember you writing about converting figures for this period or slightly later?

Probably the Lykian hoplites that I put together originally for the Paraitakene Battleday? In a Slingshot article about 2018 and in the Currently Painting thread here somewhere. Not much "conversion" involved - War & Empire Lykians with long spears instead of short, mixed with Greek unarmoured hoplites, painted in colours from the Lykian (or Milyan - see the Draycott article linked to last time) tomb painting at Karaburun.

Oh, and later a few Lykian drepanon-men from Thracian figures, also in Currently Painting.