Greek Peltasts
Missile Infantry(0.6.7)Side / Back
Short description
Peltasts are a professional, flexible light infantry unit. They are an excellent choice for first engagements with the enemy and able to support the cavalry in flanking manoeuvres.
Description
The Greek Peltasts are an all-round skirmisher unit. Most of them are unarmoured, except for a rare Linothorax; their main form of protection being Konos or Pilos helmets, while a few wear Chalcidian helmets or simple Petasos hats. Peltasts were named after their typical round or crescent-shaped light (wicker) shield: the "pelte". Their principal weapon is the javelin. They are armed with a bundle of these, which are thrown with great force and accuracy, aided by a javelin thong. The thong was fixed onto the javelin with a temporary hitch knot, and formed a loop which was hooked around the index finger; it fell off the javelin when it was thrown, and was retained in the hand. The peltasts are also equipped with spears, as secondary weapons, for use in close combat. Historically, some would carry swords instead, but RTW:R's limitations do not allow this.
Peltasts are best used either in a skirmishing role, going ahead of the main force and weakening the resolve of the enemy, or in flanking manoeuvres, throwing javelins at the sides and back of the enemy to break their morale.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The peltasts, like many other units across the Greek world, get their name from the type of shield they carried. This skirmisher unit is not to be confused with the Macedonian elite ‘Royal Peltasts’, who fought in the style of Alexander’s phalangites or Hypaspists depending on the circumstances. The shield could be round according to literary sources, but various examples of contemporary art suggest that it was usually crescent-shaped (Connolly, ‘Greece and Rome’ (2006), p. 48). According to Aristotle, the pelte was covered in goat- or sheepskin and was rimless (Aristot. Fr 498 Rose). This RIS unit has been given a combination of crescent-shaped goatskin and round-shaped bronze covered shields.
The equipment and fighting style of the Peltasts originated in Thrace. They first appear in Greece on vases of the late 6th century (e.g., Attic Cup Universität Leipzig 48.159) , but it was only during the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) that peltasts became a regular feature on Greek battlefields. The victory of a band of Athenian peltasts, recruited from Thrace and the Aegean Islands, over an outnumbered, yet formidable force of Spartiates on the island of Sphakteria in 425 BC (Thuc. 4.13-21; 26-41) was a turning point in this regard. It demonstrated the superior mobility and flexibility of light troops, and by the fourth century BC Peltasts had become the characteristic mercenary infantry of Greek armies. While the hoplite as mercenary was in great demand especially by foreign paymasters overseas, in Greece itself specialist troops like peltasts were highly sought after by the city-states. Regions such as Achaea and Aitolia, mountainous and poor, were renowned for their peltasts; men who were skilled with the javelin from boyhood.
When faced with hoplites, peltasts would throw javelins at short range. If the hoplites charged, the peltasts would fall back. As they carried considerably lighter equipment than the hoplites, they would generally evade successfully, especially in difficult terrain. They would then return to the attack once the pursuit ended, if possible, taking advantage of any disorder created in the hoplites' ranks (Thuc. 4.33.2).
Peltasts tended to be deployed on the flanks of the phalanx, providing a link with any cavalry, or in rough or broken ground. As Xenophon relates:
'When Derkylidas learned [that the Persian army was near], he told the commanders of divisions and the captains to form their men in line, eight deep, as quickly as possible, and to station the peltasts on either wing and likewise the cavalry — all that he chanced to have and such as it was; meanwhile he himself offered sacrifice’ (Xen. Hell. 3.2.16).
While the role of peltasts was increasingly overtaken by Thureos armed skirmishers in the Hellenistic period, they nonetheless endured among the poleis of central and southern Greece, as well as among many traditionalist Greek poleis of Asia Minor and the littoral of the Black Sea.