"What are Machimoi?" Topic

I am reading 'Trouble in the West' by Stephen Ruzicka wherein he describes local Egyptian troops (machimoi) as spear armed, lightly armored with curved shields. They originate as Libyan POW's and he describes them as peasant-soldiers. They are the troops raised by 'delta dynasts' and he considers them the equals of hoplites and better than the typical Persian levies. But I have a hard time seeing them as hoplites in a traditional sense: packed in a phalanx and pushing to the front.

Any thoughts?

They formed a pike phalanx at Raphia. That was in 217BC IIRC. Is that the period you're talking about?

Machimoi are the warrior class of Egypt that was alternately suppressed and utilized by the Persian and later Macedonian regimes.

During the various revolts against the Persian Empire the machimoi fought for and against various pretenders and for and against the Greeks that intervened.

The Persian Empire employed Egyptian 'hoplites' as described by Xenophon at Cunaxa, but they were hardly up to the task of crossing spears with the Greeks, since however well equipped, they skedaddled before contact was made.

The later machimoi is at Raphia, where a desperate Ptolemaic dynasty made a stand near Gaza and by secretly training up a large phalanx of native troops were able to overcome the Seleucid army. However the cautionary tale then weaves its path because the victory caused much upheaval in the Ptolemaic empire, when these Egyptians rebel, and for a short time were able to secede and create a short lived alternate Pharaoh down south….

Note that the Rosetta stone expresses the desire to repatriate the machimoi through amnesty…

link

So although used for several hundred years as the mainstay of 'Egyptian' armies, they really weren't much better than militia?

Thanks gents!

Most revisionist histories of Egypt see the machimoi as in no wise inferior to the Greeks despite the ingrained (not to mention credulous) bias that comes down to our times.

Did they not win at Raphia?

The machimoi held at Raphia against the more experienced Seleucid phalanx. The Seleucid phalanx was routed when their left wing crumbled… so by holding the machimoi were winners.

There is no adequate measure to guarantee they were anything more than trained levies. For example the Ptolemaic infantry on the left wing were more seasoned but were defeated by the Seleucid right wing infantry. If the machimoi had faced the argyraspides then they may have had more difficulty.