Hoplites of Magna Graecia

[Eoin OCnaimhsi]

Greetings all, I hope everyone is well.

I am planning ahead for my next project and doing a bit of homework.

I plan to do a late 4th/early 3rd century force from the Sicilian Greek city of Selinunte. I am unsure of what armour, helmets etc would have been in use in Sicily, and therefore what manufacturers might do the most appropriate range. I have seen illustrations of Syracusans with a lighter panoply( no linothorax or bronze cuirass), perhaps this was trend in Magna Graecia?

I fancy the Victrix Mercenary Hoplites although how appropriate the are, im not too sure. Relic do some slightly later stuff but may be too late as by the time of the first Punic war Selinunte was more or less reduced to nothing.

Thanks

[Corso]

Hi

The linothorax would have been used, being popular with Carthaginians, Greeks and Etruscans. Although it is fairly possible that unarmoured hoplites would have fought too - full hoplite armour wasn't cheap.

For that reason I suggest you get Victrix unarmoured hoplite box (which also includes archers) - it has a good number of helmets of the period like the pilos and the chalcidian, both of which have been found in Italy, besides Greece. You can also supplement it by getting a pack of Hypaspists - the kit, which includes includes a command group can be used to make linen-armour hoplites with greaves instead of hypaspists. (it's what I'm doing at the moment......).

I found the mercenary hoplites a tad larger compared to the unarmoured hoplites and hypaspists.

Hope this helps

[Eoin OCnaimhsi]

Thats very helpful Corso,  thanks.

[Jjonas]

I also think Victrix has many figures that will work. However I started a hoplite unit from Akragas (later Agrigentum) using figures from Gorgon Studios Etruscan line.

https://gorgon-studios.myshopify.com/collections/etruscans

Unfortunately Gorgon Studios photos are down now, and my project is far from moving along. However I found their appearance a satisfactory difference for bell cuirass protected hoplites. Probably depends on your period. I tend to guess that gear was far less uniform in Sicilian Greek cities, if there is any consistency. My goal was to have bell cuirass and linen thorax mixed together with coinage providing the shield symbols.

Here is an image:
http://theminiaturespage.com/news/pics/2009/aug/889417b.jpg

And another:
http://www.brueckenkopf-online.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/GS_etruscanpreview2.jpg

This is one I converted to a Spartan by adding some extra dreadlocks:

http://www.ancientbattles.com/HeroesOfGreece/spartan%20shields/003.jpg

[Easy E]

I have seen a lot of mixed information on this topic and the answer (as always) with Ancient warfare is... maybe? 

As others have pointed out, the full linothorax panoply was pretty expensive.  As time went on lighter armor and equipment came into vogue.  This included Peltast shields instead of the traditional larger one.  In addition, less often did people use Greeves, cheek guards, and breastplates.  Instead, lighter and faster became more popular. 

Etruscans (and many Greek city-states, even early Rome) seemed to use a system where the population was divided into several "categories" based on income and than assigned their role in the battle line based on what they could buy.  Therefore, the more you made, the better armor you had.  The heavily armored guys were typically the core of the army.  However, this also implies a lot of tier 2 and 3 units with very little armor at all and possibly just with the helmet, pelte shield, and spear.

I would say this is probably not unique to Magna Graecia either, but a wider trend across the ancient world.  Therefore, an army might have 1 unit of "full" hoplites, and a couple with lesser amounts of gear, before getting to the lighter non-hoplite troops.         

[Wiegraf]

The items that the Sicilians had available to them were probably quite numerous and probably varied quite a bit. Considering that Sicily was fought over for hundreds of years by the Greeks and Carthaginians and then Pyhruss came along in 280 BC (if you consider that the early 3rd century BC).

I can imagine they at first had a lot of your typical greek armaments - Hoplon, linothorax, the typical helmets and dori. But as the world hellenized a lot of influence from Greek world would have come into the area. Rome was a growing power, so I don't imagine that they, or the Italian tribes of Italy (Greek colonies in the south standing between them), had too terribly much influence in Sicily with the time frame you are covering, but there may have been some.

As Easy E states, it is all "maybes". We don't have exact, accurate sources.  I have read Greeks would field their heaviest, most decked out warriors in the fronts of the armies' key units,  in a core centre with the toughest, most geared up lads, while the rest of the poorer and men with less equipment would be supportive rolls, stand in ranks behind the rich, or do skirmish warfare (peltasts and the like). It certainly seems that the Romans also followed this tradition, but eventually adopted to their maniple system, though considered to order things based on wealth and land. Though it seems they sent in the poor folks first eventually (Hastati, leves, elites) to soften the foe up.


I think the best course would be indeed the unarmored hoplite box set from Victrix, with that being the main unit type of the army. Hoplite warfare seems to be the most common type of fighting in most of the Greek world until the Pikemen and other types of formations slowly started to do away with them. Perhaps some peltasts and even converting some Theuros shields here and there..  Though the hoplite phalanx fighting style lasted on well into later years.

I'd be interested to see how people represent Carthage in this era. From my readings, it seems that the Carthaginians and all their auxiliary and mercenary type soldiers really struggled to land defeats on the Romans in the first punic war, and often resorted to light raids and guerrilla tactics. Xanthippus of Sparta seems to have organized the Carthaginians into a successful battle formation that was able to defeat the maniple system the romans had developed. Beforehand I assume they'd be fighting in a lot of lighter , skirmish formations considering all the troop types they had hired. I wonder how they faired against the Greeks. They most likely made use of Hoplite warfare as well.. 

[Captain Harlock]

Judging from the pottery and statuettes found, many parts of armour that were abandoned in mainland Greece continued to be fashionable in magna grecia.

[AdamPHayes]

The beauty of a Sicilian project is that you do have a lot of mercenaries as well as influence from Italy. The Attic helmet seemed to be the most popular in this period but where there is Punic or Gallic mercenaries you would be reasonably sure to see a fair few Montefortino type helmets. The amount of armour worn will not always be down to financial means but also the professionalism of the soldiers. Poorly disciplined troops are known to ditch heavy uncomfortable armour and cut down long unwieldy spears because they are mainly lugging them around on the march not in battle situations.

[Eoin OCnaimhsi]

A lot of really good responses there from everyone, thanks.

I am a few months off getting into the project, in the middle of one currently. I like to plan ahead!

Given that Selinunte was allied at different times with Athens, Carthage and Syracuse and fought against Segesta and Carthage there is a lot of scope for creative speculation I suppose. I like the suggestion of a core unit of the richest citizens in more or less full panoply, and a few units of semi/unarmoured with different helemts and the odd non aspis shield. Lots of slingers( I have a fascination with the sling!), some peltasts, Thureophoroi, and maybe a small number of Hippeis.

I also plan on lots or Mercs. Ligurians, Gauls, Balearic slingers, Tarantines, Cretans, maybe Italic units.

I do intend to do a Carthaginian force to oppose my Greeks. I suppose lots of linothorax guys, lots of Libyan skirmishers, Numidians, Punic units with no armour, Mercs and maybe even a chariot?