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Short description

Well-trained pike phalanx made up of wealthier Ptolemaic land owners (Klerouchoi).

Description

Klerouchoi and katoikoi are landowners and settlers, primarily of Greek and Macedonian heritage, who have been given portions of land to settle in return for military service, should the king call upon them. Though not professional soldiers in the sense of a standing army, they are included in all the major campaigns of the kingdom and are therefore experienced fighters. Accordingly, the kleruchoi are more privileged than the Egyptian natives, and so is their training, pay and equipment. Their armour and weaponry consists of a small shield (pelte); leg guards (knemides); linothorax armour; and helmets. As with all phalanxes, their primary strength is simple: cohesion, and maintaining a solid formation. When the Klerouchoi Phalangites fight, they are usually unaware of what is going on around them and behind their position. Because of this, they need to be protected from attacks against their flanks or their rear, otherwise they might lose their solid formation and run from the battlefield.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The institution of klerouchoi (landowners) predates the Ptolemaic period by a margin. As early as the late archaic period, Athens had founded overseas colonies with military settlers to strengthen its position vis-a-vis other maritime powers of the Aegean (Igelbrink, Die Kleruchien und Apoikien Athens, 2015). Ptolemy I and his successors settled Macedonians, Greeks, Carians, Thracians, and Semites on Egyptian land to finance, control, and supply parts of the army. Thus, klerouchoi constituted an important part of the Ptolemaic armed forces, functioning as reserves, garrisons, and farmers; as well as constituting a means to Hellenise Egypt and its society (Welwei & Ameling, “Kleroûchoi”, in: Brill’s New Pauly, 2006).

The size of the kleroi that were allotted to the klerouchoi varied in size, depending on the rank and type of troops. Infantrymen usually received 10-30 arouras of land, cavalrymen up to 100. Though the kleroi were initially property of the king, this situation changed drastically during the second half of the 3rd century BC (Welwei & Ameling, 2006). After Egyptians had decisively contributed to the victory over the Seleucids at the Battle of Raphia in 217 BC, they demanded a greater say in the running of their homeland. As a reaction to the Great Revolt (205-186 BC), the natives received the chance to also become kleruchoi, and both they and the foreigners were now allowed to actually own the lands they had settled (cf. Clarysse, Great Revolt (2004), pp. 12-13). In response to this development, the Greek and Macedonian land holders, and perhaps other European settlers like Celts and Thracians, increasingly chose to be called katoikoi, not kleruchoi, to distinguish themselves from native kleruchoi (Fischer-Bovet, Army and Society in Ptolemaic Egypt (2014), p. 139; 165-166).