Mercenary Bosporan Heavy Spearmen

Description

Over centuries of development, the spearmen of the Bosporan army have absorbed Greek, Sarmatian, Pontic, Celtic, and Roman influences. Scale, muscle, or chainmail cuirasses protect their bodies, while the long sleeves of their chitones keep out the merciless cold of the north during winter. Trousers attest the impact of Celtic mercenaries and Scythian allies, while their belts and boots are of the standard types found all across the Hellenistic world. These men’s main weapon is the traditional Greek hoplite spear, while ring pommel daggers are worn as a decoration and status symbol. Perhaps the mightiest arm of the Bosporan spearman is his gigantic oval or hexagonal shield, made of thick wood reinforced with metal and a big iron boss. Unique in the ancient world are the one-piece conical metal helmets, while others resemble the Roman imperial type known as the Coolus Mannheim. Beautifully painted laurel wreaths, symbolising the monarchy’s close relationship to Rome, and the bright stars of the Mithridatic dynasty adorn their shields. The Bosporans have survived half a millennium, and with these ironclad spearmen as the backbone of their army, they might well live for another five hundred years.

Historical background

In 38 AD, Aspourgos the Great, king of the Kimmerian Bosporos, great king, king of kings, died (Barrett, Claudius, Gaius and the Client Kings (1990), p. 286). He had been very successful. After a period of strife and trouble, he stabilised relations with the Roman Empire, and received both the title philokaisar (“friend of Caesar”) and Roman citizenship from Tiberius when visiting the imperial capital in 14 AD (CIRB 39, CIRB 40 = IOSPE II, 36; Braund, Friendly King (1984), pp. 41, 113). At the same time, recurring conflicts within the kingdom were ended, and both Greeks and non-Greeks loyally supported him (Saprykin, Ebratorov zakon o nasledovanii’ i yevo znachenie v istorii pontiiskovo tsarstv [1991]). Aspourgos had probably been the leader of the Aspourgians, a Sarmatian group which overthrew the Roman client king of the Bosporos, Polemon I, in 9 BC (Strab. 11.2.11C495), as suggested by Sarmatian military symbols on his royal coins (MacDonald, Coins of the Kingdom of the Bosporus (2005), type 303). The king bettered this victory thirty-two years later, in 23 AD, when he invaded central Crimea and defeated the Crimean Scythians and those Taurians outside Bosporan control (CIRB 39, 40; Heinen, Antike am Rande der Steppe (2006), pp. 35-36). For the first time, all of Taurike (Crimea) had become part of the Bosporan Kingdom.

As a clever statesman, Aspourgos also married a new wife in Gepaipyris, the granddaughter of his erstwhile enemy Polemon, and princess of Thrace (Ustinova, The Supreme Gods of the Bosporan Kingdom (2015), p. 6). Together, they had two sons, Mithridates, born either 21 AD or 23 AD, and Kotys, who was two or three years younger. When Aspourgos finally passed away in 38 AD, Gepaipyris reigned on behalf of her eldest son until he came of age the following year (MacDonald (2005), types 306–307; Cass. Dio 60.8.2). The new king had strong ties to Rome: having inherited citizenship from his father, he also adopted the honorary epithet philogermanikos (“friend of Germanicus”) to please Claudius, whose full name was Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (CIRB 1123). Perhaps, he even established the imperial cult in the Bosporan Kingdom – the veneration of the Roman emperors and their families as gods and goddesses (Braund (1984), pp. 41, 113). With this in mind, it comes as a surprise that the historian Cassius Dio (ca. 165-235 AD) tells us that Mithridates III planned a war against Rome to secure independence from the Imperium (Cass. Dio. 60.28.7). The fact is confirmed by Tacitus, who lived much closer to the events (* ca. 57 AD, Tac. ann. 12.18.1), but only Dio informs us about the details. Mithridates had sent his brother Kotys to Rome on a diplomatic mission in 44 AD, and while there, the young man betrayed the alleged conspiracy to Claudius. Perhaps, the true conspiracy had been between Kotys and his mother Gepaipyris, in an effort to get rid of Mithridates, but we will never know for sure.

In any case, the Romans chose Aulus Didius Gallus as the commander of an expeditionary force that had the mission to bring Kotys on the throne. The invasion in 45 AD ended in a quick victory, suggesting that the native elites perhaps did not support Mithridates to a great degree (Tac. ann. 12.15.1). He found more allies in the Sarmatian east, where the Siraces helped him to seize a region called Dandarika in 49 AD. Kotys reacted quickly, gathering the royal troops as well as the Roman contingents still in situ and auxiliaries from his Sarmatian allies, the Aorsoi. Together, they defeated the Siraces in the field and proceeded to their capital Uspe, which they eventually sacked (Tac. ann. 12.15–18). Without his allies, Mithridates lost hope. Trying to avoid being killed by his brother or the Romans, he instead opted to travel to the court of Eunones, king of the Aorsi. Eunones agreed to Mithridates' request to send a letter to Claudius in which he asked the emperor to spare the Bosporan's life. Claudius agreed, and Mithridates was handed over to the Romans (Tac. ann. 12.18-21).

The most interesting detail of the Bosporan Civil War of 45-49 AD for RIS is a sentence in Tacitus’ description of the campaign against the Siraces: “They (Kotys’ army) then advanced with combined forces, the front and rear held by the Aorsi, the centre by the cohorts and by Bosporan troops armed on our model” (Tac. Ann. 12.16.1). Archaeological evidence backs him up: a painting from the southern wall of Stasov’s catacomb, a royal tomb in Pantikapaion erected in the 2nd century AD, depicts two foot soldiers with almost unidentifiable helmets, oval shields, chainmail, and spears (Gajdukevič, Das Bosporanische Reich (1971), fig. 133). Similar soldiers are depicted in a niche in the same tomb (fig. 134), but only two of them are protected by chainmail (or scale cuirasses?), while some wear muscle cuirasses. Bosporan grave stelae from the imperial period in general often show spearmen wearing rectangular or oval shields with round umbos in a circle (as on the Stele of Dionysios, Son of Nikandros, 2nd century: Gajdukevič (1971), p. 418, fig. 112-115). Conical helmets resembling the Hellenistic pilos type are common as well (Mielczarek, Army of the Bosporan Kingdom (1999), pls. XXI, XXIV). These also show that the neck guards are made of leather plates, sometimes of braids of mail armour, and that some have cheek pieces. Only the stele of Rhodon, the son of Helios (Mielczarek (1999), p. 96, pl. XV) has a different, exceptional helmet, perhaps a Sarmatian framed helmet, while the strategos Tryphon (163 AD, Mielczarek (1999), pl. XVIII) wears a helmet made of a single piece of metal.

A limestone figure found on the shore of Akhtanizovskii liman near ancient Tyrambe from much earlier, the beginning of the first century BC, wears chlamys, possibly scale or mail armour, trousers, military boots, spear, and an oval shield (Mielczarek (1999), pl. X), indicating that the development from the thureophoroi and machairophoroi (see their descriptions) to the later heavy swordsmen and spearmen units had already begun before the Roman interventions in the northern Black Sea area. Daggers with ring pommels were worn mainly as a decoration and can also be clearly made out on some stelae – for instance, that of Chrestion, who died in Pantikaipaion, perhaps around the time of the Bosporan Civil War (OIbrycht, M.J., Daggers in Parthian Iran (2020), p. 240).

Spears, body armour, helmets, and clothes are rounded off with some Celtic torques around the necks of the warriors. These can be seen on several Bosporan statues from the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD (Heinen, Antike am Rand der Steppe (2006), pp. 43-48). They were probably symbols of wealth and bravery, and fit the diverse blend of cultural influences reflected in the armament of the Bosporan infantry in the 1st to 3rd century AD. Shaped by Celts, Sarmatians, and Romans in particular, the old Greek hoplites have evolved into a powerful, new unit of spearmen which can withstand the charges of even the most dangerous enemies.

Stats

Weapons

Defence

Condition and terrain

In battle: Can sap · Good stamina