Mercenary Lyttian Agelai

Description

This military unit is a so-called agela (literally "herd") and consists of teenagers who have sworn their life to their leader, a young man from the elite of Doric Crete. This erastes or philetor (literally “lover”) founded the unit when he ritually abducted a boy from the lower classes, the kleinos (“the famous”) or parastathentes (“by-stander”). The friends of the kleinos would have defended him, and after their staged defeat, they eventually joined philetor and kleinos in hunting wild goats in the barren mountains of Crete. This institution forces the sons of Cretan citizens to learn to survive in the wild and learn how to fight with bow, sling and spear. Somewhat similar to the Spartan Krypteia, it shapes male Cretans into warriors at a young age. In battle, they fight as archers and use the superior Cretan composite bow, but they are also skilled in defending themselves in melee with spear and round Pelte shield. Though some of these teenage boys only wear a chiton (tunic) or exomis (half tunic), others can afford a linothorax (linen cuirass) and all are additionally protected by Phrygian or Attic helmets as well as greaves. They are thus much better armed and better prepared for battle than other ephebes in the Greek world.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUNDn

Ancient Crete, pretty much like modern Crete, was a land of old and peculiar traditions. One of these traditions was the ritual kidnapping of young men, which fulfilled an important role in forging networks and binding the different classes of Cretan society together. A young man from the highest class, the erastes or philetor (literally “lover”), chose a younger boy from the lower classes, the kleinos (“the famous”) or parastathentes (“by-stander”), for his good character, not for his looks (Strab. 10.4.21C483=Ephoros FGrHist 70 F149.21). Both the boy and his friends would usually be 17 years old at this point (Hesych. s.v. apagelos). If family and friends of the kleinos considered the erastes an honourable man, they decided that the boy's mates would only offer token resistance (Dynes and Donny, Homosexuality in Ancient Greece (1992), p. 129). The erastes took his ‘victim’ to the mountains and spent time with him to forge a relationship that often involved drinking, physical training, and sex. Eventually, the kleinos received as presents an ox, a drinking cup and a soldier’s cloak (Aristot. fr. 611.15, Dynes/Donny (1992), p. 129). Afterwards, the friends of the kleinos would join the pair and, once the kleinos had sacrificed the oxen to the gods and given the meat to his erastes and companions, they would form a hunting party together (Seelentag, Der Abschluß der Ephebie (2009), p. 157). Their usual prey were wild goats, the most popular target for Cretans ever since the Minoan period (Eiring, The Knossos Hunt, 2004). The Ptolemaic poet Kallimachos of Kyrene (Epigr. 62/63) mentions that Cretan hunters had brought the goats on the holy island of Delos near extinction by the 3rd century BC!

Thus, the teenagers learned to fight with spear and bow and formed a bond: later in life, the boy and his mates would follow the former erastes as their leader, fighting as both archers and hoplites (Ael. De Nat. An. 4.1, Ephoros F149.21; Chrimes, Ancient Sparta (1999), pp. 224-226). The erastes was a member of the Hippeis class and could fight on horseback (Chrimes (1999), p. 227), but while they were young, the whole band would fight as infantry (Perlman, Imagining Crete (2005), p. 308). Their regiments were called agelai (“herds”) and each agela was commanded by the erstwhile erastes (Chaniotis, Age of Conquest (2018), p. 331). The boys would still return to their hetaireia, the family group of their fathers, at the end of the two year-experience to complete their education. In a grand festival called Periblemaia in Lyttos, they were made full citizens (Seelentag (2009), pp. 154-157). The festival always took place in the month Hyperboios (as is already described in an inscription from Dreros, the arch-rival of Lyttos, dated to the 7th century BC: Van Effenterre, bilingue (1946), p. 597), which was consecrated to Zeus (Seelentag (2009), pp. 154-155). The Lyttian boys now became hetairoi (companions) within the same hetaireia, sharing public meals (syssitia) and forming smaller military units (agelai) with the greater regiment, the hetaireia (see the description of the Lyttian hetairoi). Carolyn Schofield aptly sums up the whole training process (Kretan cult and customs (2011), p. 154): "The boys were enrolled into agelai, and brought up accustomed to physical hardship and fighting, practising archery, war-dances and songs, wearing military dress, and bearing arms."

Since they trained while hunting, we have designed the agela as a mixed archer/light Hoplite unit, with Cretan composite bows, Phrygian and Attic helmets, Linothorakes, round Pelte shields, spears, and greaves. Various depictions of Cretan youths at war are known and help to inspire this unit, among them an ephebe from the 1st century BC who mourns the death of his comrades (now in the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion) and a fallen Knossian archer from the 5th century BC, who is depicted on his grave stela in heroic nudity (also in the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion). Therefore, some of the soldiers of the Agela in RIS wear a chiton, some only an exomis, but considering that they were still somewhat of an elite corps, a few are also protected by the linen cuirasses. They will need them to face their enemies, of which there are many. Worst among them are the inhabitants of Dreros (to Lyttos’ northeast), whose own agelai once took an oath to kill all Lyttians (I. Cret. I IX 1). More powerful still is Gortyn, which pushed for the destruction of Lyttos and brought about the Lyttian War in 221/220 BC (Polyb. 4.53.4), and Gortyn’s rival Knossos, the home of the legendary king Minos and his son-in-law (oh yes), the Minotaur. In 220 BC, the Knossians would conquer and raze the ancient city of Lyttos while its adult citizens were away on campaign (Polyb. 4.54.1-6). Yet, most of the citizens including the agelai would survive, and in 203 BC, Lyttos was rebuilt (Driessen, Destruction (2013), p. 287). The institution of the Agelai and of the ritual kidnapping was retained and eventually survived into Roman times as a vital marker of Lyttian identity (SEG 61.722, Strab. 10.4.21C483-484).

Stats

Weapons

Defence

Condition and terrain

In battle: Very good stamina