"Numidian Light Cavalry" Topic

Hi,

as part of my Hannibal in Spain project I present the Numidian Light cavalry.

More pictures,some historical background, tactical considerations for the use in FoG and painting tips as always on my blog:

link

Lovely work on those indeed!

Nice painting.

You say on your blog "There are no contemporary figurative depictions of Numidian Cavalry". In fact this –
link – does seem to be a contemporary rendering of a Numidian. I think the tunic may be the red-dyed goatskin that Herodotos describes for the Libyans, with some hair left on as a fringe.

Bummer. I guess he'll just have to redo the whole lot….

Those are nice. I love the animal hide technique on the shields. I'm totally going to steal that.

The scenic setting in those photos is downright awesome.

- Ix

Nice work on the figures!!!!!! Mike Adams

Thank you for your comments.

@GurKhan: Thank you for pointing this out. I made the corrections. I remember coming across this one in another place but it was refered to as a moorish rider.

Do you refer to Herodotos 4.189? It is quite likely that men also wore goatskin, potetnially also in some cases dyed red.

I don't think the CB miniatures are based on the depiction you linked to, but rather Trajan's column. I will however paint the commander as wearing a red cloak, always good to introduce some colour :).

Oooh, yes!

Peithetairos: I was thinking partly of Herodotos VII.71, which has the Libyan warriors dressed in leather – though you're right, it may only be the women in IV.189 who are explicitly said to be in red.

As for Libyan or Moor – Strabo (XVII.3.7) – does say that the Maurousioi "Moors", the Masaesylian Numidians, and "the Libyans in general, dress alike and are similar in all other respects" – so I suspect that representations of one can be used for all, most of the time. He has them using skins only as cloaks, so it's possible that the skin tunic of the Louvre figure was not all that common.

I had a look at Herodotos VII.71 and found it most interesting. In as much we can assume that during the Punic Wars leather was still dominant I don't know, but it is clearly an option.

I guess one could paint up some Numidians as if they wear thin leather, but I did not see any miniature based on the Louvre piece.

Thank you for pointing out Strabo's comment on the term 'Moor', that makes it more clear for me and does suggest that there were indeed no differences.