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Short description

These versatile Sicilian natives fight in the style of Greek Thureophoroi, and are both capable of skirmishing and standing in the line of battle.

Description

Sicel Thureophoroi are flexible infantry, not only adept as skirmishers and ambushers, but also able to form a tighter formation and serve in the main battle line. Their principal weapon is a bundle of javelins, but they also carry spears and swords as secondary weapons. Thureophoroi carry the oval thureos shield, from which they derive their name. These men are all equipped with linothorax armour (a sturdy linen cuirass) with pteryges, topped off by a combination of (plumed) Ascalon, Chalcidian or Thracian helmets. In addition, some wear greaves.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The Sicel or Sikeloi are believed to have migrated to the island named after them in the course of the second millennium BC. Dionysios of Halikarnassos believed them to have been the original inhabitants of the place where the city of Rome would later be founded (Roman Antiquities, 2.1.1). According to Theophrastes, Andron, the flute-player of the Sicilian city Katane, was the first to add rhythmical motions of the body to the playing of the flute; hence, "to do the Sicel" meant "to dance" among the ancients (Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae, 1.22C). During the first half of the fifth century BC, the Sicel people had united under Ducetius in order to try to establish their own, independent state, but at the Battle of Nomai (450 BC) their army was crushed by Greeks from poleis such as Akragas and Syracuse. Ironically, the most enduring effect of the Sicel movement was the Sicel’s definitive Hellenization, with their native language disappearing from the written record (Cambridge Ancient History V (1992), pp. 161-165). Situated on the frontier between Italic, Punic, and Greek influences, Sicily saw the early adoption of mixed, more versatile army compositions that relied on large numbers of horsemen and missile infantry, in contrast to Greece proper (Wrightson, Greek and Near Eastern Warfare (2012), pp. 179-181). This, combined with the hilly landscape in which the Sicel pastoralists made a living, led to RIS opting to represent them as Thureophoroi.

At the centre of the scholarly debate on Thureophoroi has always been the question if they evolved from Peltasts or Hoplites. While authors like Gabriele Esposito (Armies (2019), repeated mentions), Duncan Head (Armies (1982), p. 113) or Simon Elliot (Greeks at War (2021), p. 21) interpret them as light skirmishers who used their pace and agility to their advantage, others like Richard Taylor (Hoplite Phalanx (2021), p. 472) Edward Anson (Land Warfare (2021), p. 51) or Myke Cole (The Bronze Lie (2021), p. 351) assume that they replaced the traditional Hoplite and offered more flexibility as the main heavy infantry of Greek armies. The question cannot ultimately be resolved, but Serrati (World at War (2017), p. 186) is right in pointing at their double function: since Thureophoroi were able to fight both as mobile spearmen who defended the flanks of the phalanx and as skirmishers who could support quick attacks, they were an extremely valuable asset on the battlefield.