"Macedonian uniformity?" Topic

I promise, I don't want to start a flamewar.

Do we have any evidence for any sort of uniformity in Alexander's army?

I can scrounge up lots of photos of contemporary depictions of soldiers like Alexander's sarcophagus. I can also find plenty of modern paintings/reconstructions that interpret what they would – okay, might – have looked like.

But is there any evidence that the troops of a unit would have had any sort of uniform appearance? I.e., "This phalanx all wears blue helmets," etc?

Off the top of my head, slightly later Thracians were described as having white shields and wearing black tunics. Two units of later phalangites were described as bronze shields and silver shields.

But is there any evidence that the troops of a unit would have had any sort of uniform appearance? I.e., "This phalanx all wears blue helmets," etc?

---Yes there is evidence but is up to interpretation and is not compact, and not always entirely relevant to Alexander's army-- sometimes later descriptions have to be extrapolated back.

We are told in a speech by Alexander that over time Alexander's inherited army became better clothed and equipped. Philip began equipping the infantry and then cavalry using state funds. Alexander in his speech literally describes the Macedonian going from rags to finery in his diatribe.

Units in the Macedonian army were organized by territorial regiments and squadrons. The guards were separate, and may have had larger shields.

Later in India new gear was delivered to the whole army.
This is where the idea of more uniformity make more sense, and where the idea of shield color and iconography may have become more uniform-- ie the guard units may have been given the tinned "silver" shields.

Sekunda is more of the school that Alexander's forces being highly organized were also uniformly equipped, others diverge from this.

What we know is that gamers like uniformity because their units are game pieces so they often make their units way more uniform than likely historical practice-- since a top down view make purple helmets and silver shields more important. I make my game units uniform because they are that-- game forces based on historical references.

I've been working with the idea that this army roughly represents the one at Gaugamela, so it might be looking especially patchy. If it matters, this is going to be 15mm / Xyston, so there will be multiple figures on one base.

My plan is to paint a few batches of Phalangites, each with a generally uniform scheme. Then I'll mix them all up and base them. In this way the army will look roughly similar overall, but no unit will be entirely uniform.

Does this sound like a good approach?

Whilst there may not have been one factory to produce everything, each craftsmen would have been limited by access to the same raw materials. Recognising variance in training/family traditions, each region supplying the same troop types would have a reasonably limited variation in appearance.
Paint well and prosper!

I've yet to do a Macedonian phalanx, but when I do they will be as prettified and polished as Napoleons Old Guard.

I have yet to do a Macedonian phalanx as well, but a Pyrrhic army is "on the list." Right now I am leaning towards uniform shield designs, but non-uniform clothing. Probably paint form a palette of a few colors.

Damon.

Mine all have red tunics, each unit has a uniform shield pattern, and helmets are likewise a uniform painted colour within the unit – red helmet unit, blue helmet unit, bronze helmet unit etc.

Sorry, unhistorical or not, I've painted mine in a very uniform manner. Maybe it's because I started painting Napoleonic's when I was 12 due to the distinct uniforms. Maybe because it's just easier to paint that many figures in an assembly line manner. Besides, the dice don't seem to care.

Uniform looks better.

The Alexander sarcophagus at least suggests the royal troops were in a limited pallet of colors (even if Sekunda's description of each figure being from a particular regiment is purely speculative).

Once I get the Celts and Republican Romans off the painting table, I have a lovely box of the Ral Partha Macedonians to paint up. Enough for a good sized force, anyway. I also intend to have at least one uniform item in each unit, so as to help differentiate them on the "field", as it were.

Weren't the Celts all in family Tartans, too? I can see each Phalanx being in it's own colour, but paint can be applied over any metal armour. I fell that there might have been a uniform colour but less than uniform armour.

The Persians issued clothing to their units( more of a livery really) and Alexander began to use the same institutions once he seized power. So at least regular units should be as uniform as a 7 Years War Colonel's regiment.

By which I mean an English Civil War Colonel's regiment.

I will go against the grain here and say non-uniform.

We are so familiar with uniformed modern troops that we have a tendency to assume that regular well-organised ancient armies must also have been uniformed while most pictorial evidence would suggest the opposite. Even when Alexander re-equipped his troops with lavish new kit not all were entirely happy and it would seem as though some chose to cling to older styles:

"It is the mark of an unwise and vainglorious mind to admire greatly a cloak of uniform colour and to be displeased by a tunic with a purple border, or again to disdain those things and to be struck with admiration for these, holding stubbornly, in the manner of an unreasoning child, to the raiment in which the custom of his country, like a nurse, had attired him." (Plutarch)

The few depictions we have of several Macedonian soldiers together show similarities in style but individual colours. These ones, for example from the Agios Athanasios tomb painting.

Other colour representations show red was the most popular clothing colour but it was not universal. There is certainly no convincing evidence for regiments each having a distinguishing helmet colour.

Two very good bits of analysis have been done on Macedonian clothing colours. One is by David Karunanithy in an Appendix on Cavalry Clothing Colours in The Macedonian War Machine. This shows pretty conclusively that tunic colours were pretty variable with various shades of red most common. There seems to be some hint of uniformity with yellow or yellow-brown cloaks with purple borders being seen worn by most Companions, but there are enough exceptions to suggest that even here uniformity was not absolute. The second is an analysis of colour depictions of Ptolomaic soldiers by Rubin Post in Ancient Warfare vol VI issue 6 and reproduced with a colour guide in Stéphane Thion's excellent Le Soldat Lagide. This shows that 40% had various shades of red, 18% white, 12% each for blue and yellow with various odds and sods in purple, green, grey and maroon.

My conclusion is that the individual soldier had a fair degree of latitude when it came to choosing his personal dress. Some would have been issued and some purchased but I doubt each unit had strict dress regulations of the kind we are used to in modern armies.

What we do with this when it comes to our wargames armies is up to us. Personally I now tend to give my Macedonians a high degree of variety with a unifying factor such as a common cloak or plume colour.

It is important, I believe, when examining ancient paintings, murals, statues, etc, that one NOT be taken by the disparity of colors as an indication of vast vriety within the ranks.

Rather, I believe strongly that all these images are examples of the colors/clothing worn by DIFFERENT units, in much the same manner as any Osprey book shows a number of different plates, each representing different units, branches, etc.

I have no trouble accepting uniformity of color within an individual unit, with a VERY small latitude for individual differences based upon worn-out kit, clothing, etc, over the course of a campaign.

Certainly, having organic-dyed material, the soldier's clothing would tend to fade with exposure as the campaign wore on, but they would likely be in good standing and bright/strong color at the beginning of any campaign.

Uniformity of clothing colors within a unit is also quite important so that commanders might recognize at a glance what unit they are observing, or to what unit a wounded man belongs, etc.

So I believe strongly in uniformity within a unit, with, perhaps, uniformity of kit throughout the army.

There is a remark somewhere that the guard had the same colour cloaks. For it to be noteworthy suggests that uniformity was unusual. Simon's excellent post is right in that there will have been popular colours and there will also have been resupply when the army was in winter cantonments.
Didn't the Macedonians begin to wear Persian style clothing in Asia too?

I'd go for red being popular and brown and unbleached wool or linen, but put in the occasional blue or green or yelliw.