Mercenary Elian Hoplites

Description

These Hoplites hail from Elis on the Peloponnese, an ancient and renowned city state that holds control over Olympia and the Olympic Games. Made up of couples of male lovers, these picked warriors have exceptional morale and are heavily armoured. The typical Hoplite equipment of the spear (dory), Aspis shield, a traditional muscle cuirass or metal-reinforced Linothorax, and Kopis or Xiphos sword for melee, is completed with a variety of crested Attic, Pilos, as well as Illyrian helmet types. The chlamys hanging from their shoulders and the thunderbolt of Zeus on some of their shields are testimony to their pride as citizens of Elis. These Elite Hoplites are a force to be reckoned with and will defend their paternal homeland till the very end.

Historical background

Elis (Dorian: Ális, Elian: Wális) was the name of a fertile and flourishing region in the north-western Peloponnese, encompassing the coast of the Ionian sea and its vast hinterland up to the Larisos river in the North, the border with Achaia. In antiquity, it was dominated by a city of the same name, which was founded relatively late in 472/471 BC (Diod. 11.54.1; Strab. 8.3.2). The Elians had, however, already arrived in the times of the Dorian invasion in the late 2nd millenium BC (Paus. 5.1-9 made a whole foundation story out of it) and subsequently established a local hegemony. In the Archaic age, the nobility of Elis successfully subjugated the neighbouring Pisatis around the town of Olympia and in 576 BC, with the support of Sparta, Elis gained control over the Olympic Games (Lafond, s.v. Elis (1), in: DNP). The inhabitants of the landscape Elis supported the Hellenic League in the wars against Achaemenid Persia (Syll.³ 31.27), but it was only in 472 BC, when a democratic revolt after the Athenian role model threw over the old nobility, that the Elians founded and built an eponymous capital.

During the 5th century BC, Triphylia (Hdt. 4.148) and Lepreon (Thuk. 5.31.2) were conquered, and in the Peloponnesian War, Elis stood by its ally Lakedaimon, until a conflict over Lepreon made the Elians join the Delian League. Yet, after Sparta defeated Athens, Elis returned into the Peloponnesian League (Xen. Hell. 14.17.4-12), only to break free once more in 371 BC. In the turbulent period of the 4th century BC, Elis at first supported the foundation of the Arcadian League and then invaded its new ally, which led to a series of defeats and the loss of not only Triphylia, but also Olympia – if only for a short while, during which it headed a new state called Pisa. By 270 BC, the start of the RIS campaign, Elis had become an ally of the Aitolian League and, with their help, regained Triphylia and other areas in 245 BC (Lafond, Elis). Olympia and the organisation of the games had already returned into Elian hands in the decades prior to 270 BC. Yet, more misery was to come: In 219/218 BC, Elis was defeated by Philip V of Macedon and lost Triphylia once more, but the Romans re-added it to Elian territory for good in 146 BC. During all of its history, Elis, after the role model of Sparta, remained free of walls (Strab. 8.3.33; Xen. Hell. 3.2.27).

Instead, Elis’ walls were its Hoplites. In 418 BC, we hear Elis could raise 3,000 Hoplites for major battles (Thuc. 5.58.1; 75.5), and for the campaign of 394 BC Xenophon mentions the same number (Xen. Hell.4.2.16). These Hoplites may have been Epilektoi, a contingent of professional warriors set at a precise size. Xenophon (Symp. 8.34) tells us that these were made up of male lovers like in Thebes, but this may realistically only have been true for a fraction of the 3,000. In the Hellenistic Age, the Elian Hoplites often fought alongside their ally, the Aitolian League (Head, Armies (1982), p. 9).

No detailed description of the equipment of Elian Hoplites survives, but one can take the Aspis, Dory, Kopios/Xiphos sword and body armour for granted. Since the Elians were considered somewhat of an elite, they have been given muscle cuirasses and metal reinforced Linothorakes and coats (chlamys). The helmets are a mix of crested Attic and Pilos helmets, standard equipment in the Hellenistic period (Bardunias/Ray, Hoplites at War (2016), p. 41), and Illyrian helmets the Elians adopted from raiding Illyrians in the 4th or 3rd century BC (Polyb. 2.5.1-2).