Sinopian Archers
Missile Infantry(0.6.7)Side / Back
Short description
Sinopian Archers, armed with a composite bow as well as a pelte for protection, are excellent skirmishers.
Description
Sinopian archers are semi-strong archers (toxotai). With their composite bows, they outrange basic Greek archers. To defend themselves they carry small bronze pelte shields. These, combined with their xiphos swords, gives them some durability when caught in a melee. However, they lack linothorax armour, making them less durable skirmishers than, for instance, Cretan archers. Half of these men wear bronze Phrygians helmets that shade the eyes, others wear Phrygian caps made of wool or soft leather. Sinopian archers can open the battle and decimate unarmoured opponents, preferably from the high ground. Afterwards, they will fall back and hide between the shields of the hoplites. Their protection makes them unable to swim in rivers.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The city of Sinope (Σινώπη) was founded in the late 7th century BC by Ionian settlers from Miletos (Strab. XII.3.11). Before this undertaking, Greeks and wandering Cimmerians had settled there, as it was a strategic location on the thin neck of a peninsula. The peninsula made for two valuable natural harbours. The eastern harbour, still in use today, shields ships from storms on the Euxine (Black Sea). Sinope is, furthermore, situated at the point of Asia Minor closest to Tauris (Crimea).
No wonder that Sinope became the biggest colony on the Pontic coast. It had one of the largest navies in the Euxine and controlled fishing and trade together with Byzantion (Polyaen VII.21.2; Xen. Anab. V.6.1). Sinope itself founded colonies (Armene, Kerasous, Kotyora and Trapezous) along the coast (Diod. XIV.31.1). A valuable dark reddish-brown pigment for painting, mined in Cappadocia, was traded through the harbour of Sinope, over time becoming known as ‘Sinopia’ (Plin: HN XXXV.31). Strabo, the Pontic Greek geographer from nearby Amaseia, tells us that the land ‘furnishes timber of excellent quality for ship-building, and is easily conveyed away. The territory of Sinope produces the maple, and the mountain nut tree, from which wood for tables is cut. The whole country is planted with the olive, and cultivation begins a little above the seacoast’ (Strab. XII.3.12). Aside from tables, maple trees were vital for constructing composite bows (Rausing, The Bow (1967), pp. 155-162).
Skilled archers were used for internal security. In battle, they often shot from a semi-kneeled position in between a hoplite formation (parentaxis). Or they could fire indirectly from behind the hoplites (epitaxis). Greek fleets also used a limited number of archers. In the 5th century archer tactics changed to a moving skirmishing role (Kambouris et al., Archery in ancient Greece (2016), p. 163). While many Greek city states long neglected archery as a rule of war, it is probable that Sinope – interacting with both Scythians and Persians – had to adapt to archer warfare. Many Sinopians painted their shields with a local sea eagle and/or a dolphin, as attested on coins. As a trading state, the Sinopians had many exchanges with Thracians and Phrygians, as reflected in the clothing of this unit.
Despite Iranian and Anatolian political influences, Sinopian cults and institutions remained Milesian. In 400 BC, Xenophon and the ten thousand mercenaries, among them Cretan archers, received ships from the Sinopians on their way back from the doomed campaign in Babylonia (Xen. Anab. V.5.8.- 5.6.31). The Sinopians wanted to transport the lingering mercenary army away from their trade routes as fast as possible. In 375 BC and 368 BC the Persian satrap of Cappadocia besieged the city twice in order to gain a degree of influence over it. Sinope was not integrated in the empire of Alexander the Great, always retaining its independence.
In 220 BC, Mithridates II of Pontos tested the formidable defences of Sinope. Polybius writes that the city ‘is built upon a peninsula jutting out into the sea: it is on the neck of this peninsula, connecting it with Asia, which is not more than two stades wide, that the city is so placed as to entirely close it up from sea to sea; the rest of the peninsula stretches out into the open sea,—a piece of flat land from which the town is easily accessible, but surrounded by a steep coast offering very bad harbourage, and having exceedingly few spots admitting of disembarkation. The Sinopians then were dreadfully alarmed lest Mithridates should blockade them, by throwing up works against their town on the side towards Asia, and by making a descent on the opposite side upon the low ground in front of the town: and they accordingly determined to strengthen the line of the peninsula, where it was washed by the sea, by putting up wooden defences and erecting palisades round the places accessible from the sea; and at the same time by storing weapons and stationing guards at all points open to attack: for the whole area is not large, but is capable of being easily defended and by a moderate force’ (Polyb. IV, 56, 5-8). These steep cliffs and choke points made any attackers prime targets for archers. The Rhodians sent ‘a hundred talents of prepared bow-string (Greek: neure) and three hundred talents of prepared hair to make bowstrings and ropes’ (Polyb. IV, 56, 3). The Rhodians also sent a thousand suits of linothorax armour, but this was probably used for the hoplites. The Sinopians, with the help from others such as Koans, repulsed the siege (SEG 48.1097).
Pharnakes I of Pontos eventually captured the city by surprise in 183 BC. Their Rhodian allies pleaded with the Romans to help Sinope (Livy XL.2.6, 9, 1). Under Pontic rule, Sinope became the capital city of the kingdom (Memn. XXVI, 3). The Roman consul Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus conquered and greatly damaged Sinope in 70 BC (Memn. XXXVII, 8). Under Roman rule Sinope lost its dominant commercial position, as it was too remote from the Roman highway system that directed trade to the Ionic coast to remain competitive (Robinson, Ancient Sinope (1906), p. 138).