"Apollonia 220 BC" Topic

At the battle of Apollonia the rebel Molon, fighting the Seleucid Emperor Antiochus III, did not have enough phalangites and deployed some interesting troop types on either flank of the phalanx.

In Roberts/Bennett, Twilight of the Hellenistic World p73, they refer to 'the scutati, the Gauls and in general all his heavy troops' – quoting Polybius.

Any suggestions as to what these scutati and heavy troops may have been?

Grateful any views

Garry

I don't know anything about this battle, but looking at the translation I think "heavy troops" means his non-light troops- ie those capable of fighting in the battle line. Perhaps these would be thureophoroi (maybe some thorakitai), or perhaps scutati suggests a Roman influence in equipment?

Cheers, Simon

Just read the battle description in AMPW (page 75) by Duncan Head, he puts them as Galatians and thureophoroi.

Cheers

keith

Scutati brings to mind large shields visible from a distance with pots on their heads. Not a scientific explanation, but I would hazard a guess he is talking about.

Possibly using some form of salvaged Roman shield…but that seems somewhat unlikley. Of course, not like anyone has a picture eh? :)

Given that the battle was fought in Media, I'd guess that the chances of these troops having direct contact with Rome or its troops were pretty slim, unless they were travelling mercenaries. More likely that Polybius is using non-specific military terminology to describe shields used by those Galatians or Thurephoroi or Thorakites (as Keith said above) and calling them Scutati in general, something a Roman reader could relate to a bit more.

I guess you're free to use whatever seems best.

Yes, on reflection 220BC is too early for Roman influence that far East.

Thank you for the comments – had a look at AMPW and unlike the reference in Bennett et al puts thureophoroi, Galatians and others in the centre with few if any phalangites. Must check Bar-Kochva as well.

Makes me think thurephoroi/thorakitai could be upgraded to 'inferior' hoplites and count as a 1 point phalanx under Hail Caesar. Molon had been doing quite well upto that point and I doubt he would have put lightly armed troops up against the Seleucid phalanx.

Maybe the equivalent of the Kardaka Hoplites that almost faced up to Alexander.

Gives me some food for thought.

Cheers

Garry

For the Raphia game, I originally had the Thureophoroi drawn up two ranks of miniatures deep, with one unit behind another. After our last play-test I decided to instead have them massed 4 ranks deep, because I didn't feel they should have greater tactical flexibility than the phalangites. And it gives them a little more staying power…

Cheers, Simon

Ironically some phalanx generals like Pyrrhus and Antiochus tried to improve the flexibility of their phalanxes by stationing loose order Italians (Pyrrhus) and Elephants (Antiochus) amongst them.

Indeed- I suspect that this greater flexibility, that we first see with Pyrrhus, came in from Italy. Prior to that they seem to have deployed them in great masses. It would be nice to know if there were any tactical subdivisions within these, or if they were drawn up in ranks like pikemen.