Unit Browser for RTR: Imperium Surrectum

Short description

These Epirote Pezhetairoi are the heirs of the elite phalangites of Alexander the Great and thus one of your most important units on the battlefield.

Description

Armed with long Sarissa pikes, colourful Pelte shields, Macedonian style helmets and – in difference to the old days – armour; these men are some of the best soldiers Epeiros can offer. After the death of their famous king Pyrrhos, they now follow his young son Alexandros in his quest to rebuild the kingdom and finally secure the throne in Pella for the Argead line.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The Pezhetairoi or “Foot Companions” were one of the elite units of Philip II’s newly reformed Macedonian army (Theopompos FGrH 115 F 348). They were the original “Macedonian Phalangites”, and though not protected by any body armour proved superior to the Hoplites of the Greek Poleis due to the length of their Sarissa pikes. Under Alexander, the term Pezhetairoi increasingly began to refer to the whole phalanx (Anaximenes FGrH 72 F 4), while the guard became known as Hypaspistai or Argyraspides. The Pezhetairoi were recruited from among the landowning peasants of the kingdom and formed six Taxeis (“regiments”) of 1500 men each on Alexander’s famous campaign to the East (Arr. an. 4,23,1).

In Hellenistic times, the term Pezhetairoi disappeared. Why, then, does this Epirote unit bear the name of a unit dated to the period of Philip II and Alexander, you may ask. Let us first have a look at the makeup of the army of the great Pyrrhos in Italy: “King Pyrrhus gave the Macedonian phalanx the first place on the right wing and placed next to it the Italiot mercenaries from Taras; [2] then the troops from Ambrakia and after them the phalanx of Tarantines equipped with white shields, followed by the allied force of Bruttians and Lucanians; in the middle of the battle-line he stationed the Thesprotians and Chaonians; next to them the mercenaries of the Aetolians, Acarnanians and Athamanians, and finally the Samnites, who constituted the left wing” (Dion. Hal. XX, 1, 1-2). The Macedonian Phalanx is thus divided into three parts: The “Macedonian phalanx”, the Ambrakiote Phalangites and the Leukaspides from Taras. The latter are represented by the Deuteroi (“Second ones”) in our mod: men from allied cities who have been levied as Phalangites, while RIS has its own unit for the Ambrakiote Phalangites.

That leaves “the Macedonian phalanx”. We do not know how the Epirotes themselves called this unit, but their position on the ultimate right of the Epirote line must mean that Pyrrhos saw them as the best troops at his disposal (the Romans, conversely, put their best men on the left wing). This is further reinforced by the fact that they are distinguished not only from the Tarantine Leukaspides, but also from the Ambrakiotes. Furthermore, Pyrrhos was the second cousin of Alexander the Great and by 270 BC one of the last surviving representatives of his royal Argead house. He tried to attach himself to Alexander and the Alexandrian tradition wherever possible, becoming known as a “second Alexander” (Plut. Pyrrhos 8,2 seq.; 11,4 seq.; 11,9). It is thus not unlikely that he adopted Alexander’s initial name for the elite phalangites to be used for his own men.