Kyrenaian Triakatioi

Description

The Triakatioi were 300 picked young Kyrenaian noblemen, trained in the city’s gymnasium to fight as lancer cavalry in the style of Xystophoroi. These men are well-mounted on strong horses, testimony to Kyrene’s cavalry tradition, and lavishly equipped with a metal cuirass, greaves, as well as Boiotian or Phrygian helmets. The Triakatioi charge home with a typical one-handed cavalry lance: the xyston. This spear was about seven to ten feet in length, made of tough cornel wood, and generally used to stab and thrust at the enemy. The bravery and eagerness of youth displayed by these mounted Kyrenaian nobles will, if handled wisely, be a most powerful tool in the hands of any commander!

Historical background

Throughout the Hellenistic world, cities knew an institution called ‘ephebeia’, which entailed the general education of elite and upper middle-class youngsters in gymnasia. While during the Roman era, the original military aspect dwindled or transformed into para-military ceremonies, the academic consensus is that in the third century BC the focus of ephebes’ training was clearly athletic and military. Intellectual pursuits seem to have been present, but of comparatively minor importance. Since riding on horseback was ‘an eminently upper-class occupation’, Pleket argues that this naturally fit in with the nature of the ephebeia (Ephebes and Horses (2012), pp. 324-325).

In the third century BC, the city of Kyrene is reported to have known a special brigade of 300 elite-horsemen, ‘triakatioi’. Cordiano (‘Ginnasiarchia ed evergetismo a Cirene’, in: Curty, ed. (2009), pp. 277-296) has convincingly argued that their training was embedded in the ephebic system. Their commanders, called ‘triakatiarchoi’, were closely related to the local gymnasium, both physically and administratively situated in the centre of the polis. The boys would have been trained by ‘those who teach in archery, horse riding, and training with weapons’ (SEG 9.1 Il. 43-5). As Pleket (2012, p. 325) argues, it ‘is clear that these horsemen had a military function’. The triakatioi would originally have been commanded by 17 triakatiarchoi, and formed a valuable military asset over which Kyrene’s city council could exercise direct control (Paganini, Gymnasia and Greek Identity (2022), p. 130).

From the time of Ptolemy I, Cyrenaica had been a crucial supplier of mercenaries and cleruchs (military settlers) to the Ptolemaic army. After Kyrene’s short-lived independence under Magas and Demetrius the Fair (276-246 BC), the Ptolemaic kings had to balance the need to control its potentially dangerous military capacity without losing this valuable pool of mercenaries. It is probably for this reason that the number of triakatiarchoi was reduced to four and their office to a predominantly civic status, and four gymnasiarchs were placed besides them (Paganini (2022), p. 130). Paganini thinks this already happened under Ptolemy I, but given the aforementioned arguments of Pleket it should rather be interpreted as a consequence of Magas’ fall. An inscription from the beginning of the second century BC mentions ‘the leaders of the triakatioi’ together with ‘the master of riding Apollonidas son of Damatrios’ and various gymnasiarchs, clearly pointing at the continued military importance of both ephebeia and triakatioi in RIS’ timeframe (SEG 49.2361, see: Dobias-Lalou, Éléments (1997) pp. 325-329). In our mod, we have opted to depict the Triakatioi as a slightly less opulently dressed variant on the elite hetairoi: without their iconic leopard skins, but otherwise lavishly equipped.