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"Hoplons on horseback" Topic


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JC Lira27 Jun 2020 8:39 p.m. PST

I've noticed a number of manufacturers have Greek cavalry with the large round hoplon or aspis shields cast on. This seems odd to me. is it historically accurate?

Personal logo Herkybird Supporting Member of TMP28 Jun 2020 1:15 a.m. PST

Certainly if riding Dolphins!

picture

…and Centaurs..

picture

I personally think that the Hoplites on horseback are really mounted infantry. Though its like Anglo-Saxons 'cavalry'. No one can be completely sure…unless someone knows better?

GurKhan28 Jun 2020 4:46 a.m. PST

There are a lot of illustrations of armoured horsemen with the Argive shield ("hoplon") in 7th-6th century vase-painting and sculpture. They are sometimes accompanied by an unarmoured "squire", and are usually identified as mounted infantry. The key text is still P Greenhalgh's "Early Greek Warfare: Horsemen and Chariots in the Homeric and Archaic Ages" (1973 with various reprints) which includes scenes of such men dismounting, and hoplites duelling on foot while their attendants hold their horses.

To complicate things, when Hellenistic Greek cavalry do take to carrying shields on horseback in the 3rd century, one of the shield types illustrated is the Argive shield (or at least something indistinguishable from it in small-scale art). See for instance link – one of the Tarantine javelin cavalry who probably started the fashion. Other shield types are probably more popular, though.

Coyotepunc and Hatshepsuut28 Jun 2020 8:25 a.m. PST

Who makes dolphin-riding hoplites in 28mm?

Personal logo Herkybird Supporting Member of TMP29 Jun 2020 5:14 p.m. PST

Who makes dolphin-riding hoplites in 28mm?

Oh, I WISH!

Wouldn't know what to use them for, though, possibly boarding actions? LOL!

Asteroid X03 Jul 2020 9:01 p.m. PST

Maybe one should be asking who makes smaller dolphins that mounted Greeks would fit on!

The Last Conformist05 Jul 2020 10:43 a.m. PST

Wouldn't know what to use them for, though, possibly boarding actions?
They'd be right at home in Man O' War, methinks.

Major Bloodnok25 Sep 2020 2:40 p.m. PST

Would this be Hoplon Cassidias?

FatherOfAllLogic28 Sep 2020 6:44 a.m. PST

Major, that's terrible!

Major Bloodnok28 Sep 2020 7:03 a.m. PST

Of course it is, if it wasn't why bother..

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