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Short description

Machimoi swordsmen are a heavily armoured unit, acting as mobile shock infantry that can easily outflank enemy forces.

Description

The Machimoi Swordsmen are a well-armoured, but lightly armed Ptolemaic infantry unit. Their light weaponry, consisting simply of swords and small rectangular shields, gives these warriors the ability to act as mobile shock troops that can outflank the enemy, while their mail armour allows them to survive in combat on their own for a while. Since they are recruited from the machimoi, they are mostly made up of native Egyptians, and operate as reserves for the main army. Though this unit is a viable option as a main line infantry unit, this spot should rather be reserved for the phalangites, whereas these swordsmen should be positioned at the flanks or in the reserves.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Egyptian warriors had been recruited by the Ptolemaic pharaohs since the start of their dynasty. They fought at the Battle of Gaza in 312 BC (Diod. XIX.80), in Greece during the Chremonidean War in 266 BC (Paus. 3.6.5), and as a phalanx of 20,000 men at the Battle of Raphia in 217 BC (Polyb. V.65.9). Most of them were known as machimoi (μάχιμοι, ‘the pugnacious’, or ‘troops fit for action’). During the Ptolemaic era, machimoi may have been native Egyptians, employed as reserves, guards and police units (Burckhardt, s.v. ‘‘Machimoi’’, in: Brill’s New Pauly (2006)). However, their true nature remains an element of debate in the academic literature.

Machimoi received allottments of 5, 7, or 10 arouras for their service in the military or police. In the 2nd century BC Egyptians and Greco-Egyptians became more prominent among the active forces and were better integrated into the cleruchic army. It is in this period where the difference of plot sizes between the machimoi and the cleruchs decreased and the social boundaries were loosened (Fischer-Bovet, Army and Society (2014), p. 121-122; 162). As with all other troops in the Ptolemaic army, the equipment of the machimoi would have been state-funded (Polyb. V.63.11).

A terracotta figurine with religious function dated to the late 2nd century BC or 1st century BC, found in the Fayoum (probably) shows Harpokrates, the son of Horus and Osiris, armed as a soldier. The equipment reflects contemporary usage (Sekunda, Nicholas, The Ptolemaic Army (1998), fig. 95). It includes mail armour, which was introduced to the Hellenic world through contact with Celtic invaders and subsequently by Celtic mercenaries in the 3rd century BC. These Galatians had also served in the Ptolemaic army at Raphia in 217 BC, and some of them had already been settled in Egypt by this time - largely in the Fayoum (Polyb. V.65.10). Not all of them wore chainmail, but its great merits may have convinced others who served in the Ptolemaic army to adopt the armour themselves, too. One of the soldiers in the Sidon garrison of the early 2nd century BC is also depicted with chainmail (Van Wees, Review of: Sekunda, Ptolemaic Army, 1998), and in the course of the Great Revolt of the Egyptians (205-186 BC), the Ptolemies introduced Thorakitai to counter the guerrillas of Lower Egypt (attested, for instance, in the papyrus P. Mich. inv. 6947). Flavius Josephus probably referred to these soldiers when he described "hundred fighters" (hekatontamachoi, i.e., fighting in formations of a hundred men, not in a phalanx) with Thureos shields in both the Ptolemaic and the Hasmonean army at the Battle of Asophon in 103-101 BC (Ios. ant. Iud. 13.339).

In light of such developments, it is no surprise to see Egyptians adopting chainmail and sword as their primary equipment. Covering the shoulders and upper part of the chest of the figurine is a wesekh, or ‘wide collar’, which had been worn in Egypt ever since the Old Kingdom, and which remained in use until the Graeco-Roman period. Sekunda’s and McBride’s reconstruction of a warrior based on this figurine, who might possibly have worn this kind of equipment, is helmetless; though at least some bronze helmets could possibly have been worn by such soldiers (Sekunda,1998, fig. 96). In our mod, we have decided to opt for a mixed representation, in which some swordsmen wear crested Konos or cheekless Thracian type helmets, and some are bare-headed.