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Short description

These hoplites bear the image of Helios on their shields as a symbol of their island.

Description

After the death of Kyros the Younger in 401 BC, the mercenary army he had employed, known as the “Ten Thousand”, found itself stranded in Asia Minor, surrounded by hostile forces and with their Cretan archers outranged by the Persian slingers. Xenophon, the newly elected commander of the Ten Thousand, remembered the Rhodian hoplites in his ranks and their expertise with the sling. He employed 200 of them to produce make-shift slings and lead bullets, which could be shot twice as far as the stones used by the Persians (Xen. Anab. 3.3.16-17). The following days, the Persian slingers and archers now found themselves outranged by the Rhodians and stopped harassing the Ten Thousand from afar (Xen. Anab. 3.4.16).

Though less famous than its slinger counterpart, the island of Rhodes did have a hoplite force. They numbered around 6,000 men during the siege of Rhodes in 305 BC and, much like every other polis, consisted of well-to-do local citizens. Thanks to Rhodes’ status as one of the major trading powers in the Mediterranean, as well as the relatively small number of citizens it could deploy, Rhodian hoplites probably acquired high quality arms and armour for themselves. These would consist of a bronze helmet and cuirass, greaves, the dory (a 2-3m/ 6-9 ft spear), and an aspis, a round shield displaying Helios, the patron god of Rhodes.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Despite Rhodes’ apparent focus on diplomacy and economic success, military and athletic accomplishments were still highly regarded and service in the navy was seen as equally glorious as service in the cavalry in other Greek city-states (Wiemer, Krieg, Handel und Piraterie, 2002, p.31-32). Unlike in other poleis, though, the inhabitants of Rhodes learned to use the sling since their childhood and could use it with deadly precision, which made them popular as mercenaries: 200 Rhodian mercenary hoplites were turned into slingers during the campaign of the Ten Thousand (see above), Athens employed 700 Rhodian slingers as mercenaries during the Sicilian Expedition (Thuc. 6.43), and Egypt sent a force of five hundred men, among whom many Rhodian mercenaries serving in the Ptolemaic army, to help the besieged Rhodes against Demetrios (Diod. 10.88.9). During this siege, the 6,000 Rhodian hoplites defended their city against a force of 40,000 soldiers (Diod. 10. 82.4) and successfully repelled continuous assaults until the siege was abandoned a year later.