Hypaspists
Encyclopedia
Herodotus
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
in one of the earliest known uses:
"Now the horse which Artybius rode was trained to fight with infantrymen by rearing up. Hearing this, Onesilus said to his hypaspist, a Carian of great renown in war and a valiant man..."
A similar usage occurs in Euripides
Euripides
Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him but according to the Suda it was ninety-two at most...
play "Rhesus" and another in his "Phoenissae". Xenophon was deserted by his in a particularly sticky situation. A hypaspist would differ from a skeuophoros
Skeuophoros
A skeuophoros was a slave or servant who carried baggage in Ancient Greece. Herodotus records that every hoplite was followed on campaign by a servant as a skeuophoros. In Aristophanes' play The Frogs, Xanthias, the slave of Dionysus, acts as his skeuophoros:...
in most cases because the "shield bearer" is a free warrior and the "baggage carrier" was probably usually a slave. The word may have had Homeric and heroic connotations that led Phillip and Alexander of Macedon to use it for an elite military unit.
This unit, known as the Hypaspistai, or hypaspists were probably armed as hoplite
Hoplite
A hoplite was a citizen-soldier of the Ancient Greek city-states. Hoplites were primarily armed as spearmen and fought in a phalanx formation. The word "hoplite" derives from "hoplon" , the type of the shield used by the soldiers, although, as a word, "hopla" could also denote weapons held or even...
s rather than as phalangite
Phalangite
Phalangite is the Greek name for*an infantryman deployed in a phalanx of Classical and Hellenistic antiquity. The Macedonian so-called Sarissaphoros had a tactical advantage over other phalangites because of their extremely long pikes known as a sarissa...
s or pikemen in Alexander the Great's Macedonian
Ancient Macedonians
The Macedonians originated from inhabitants of the northeastern part of the Greek peninsula, in the alluvial plain around the rivers Haliacmon and lower Axios...
army. In battle they were probably armed with the Greek aspis
Aspis
"Aspis" is the generic term for the word shield. The aspis, which is carried by Greek infantry of various periods, is often referred to as a hoplon .According to Diodorus Siculus:-Construction:...
shield, spolas
Spolas
A spolas is a thin armour worn by the hypaspists in Ancient Greek battle, often made from linen or leather. It can also be a thickly woven tunic and is also similar to a linothorax. The goal of the spolas was to lighten the hoplite's standard load, down from the standard metal thorax/cuirass....
or linothorax
Linothorax
The linothorax was a type of upper body armor used by the Ancient Greeks, as well as other civilizations, from the Mycenaean Period through the Hellenistic Period. The earliest attested account of a linothorax used for battle is recorded in Book 2 of Homer's Iliad . It is worn by Ajax the lesser...
body-armor, Hoplite
Hoplite
A hoplite was a citizen-soldier of the Ancient Greek city-states. Hoplites were primarily armed as spearmen and fought in a phalanx formation. The word "hoplite" derives from "hoplon" , the type of the shield used by the soldiers, although, as a word, "hopla" could also denote weapons held or even...
's helmet, greave
Greave
A greave is a piece of armour that protects the leg.-Description:...
s, dory
Dory (spear)
The dory or doru - ie not pronounced like the fish - is a spear that was the chief armament of hoplites in Ancient Greece. The word "dory" is first attested in Homer with the meanings of "wood" and "spear". Homeric heroes hold two dorys...
spear and a xiphos or kopis
Kopis
The kopis was a sword with a forward-curving blade, primarily used as a tool for cutting meat, for slaughter and animal sacrifice, but also as a weapon....
sword (though their equipment was likely more ornate than main-line soldiers). In set piece battles the Macedonian Hypaspists were positioned on the flanks of the phalangite
Phalangite
Phalangite is the Greek name for*an infantryman deployed in a phalanx of Classical and Hellenistic antiquity. The Macedonian so-called Sarissaphoros had a tactical advantage over other phalangites because of their extremely long pikes known as a sarissa...
's phalanx, with the light infantry
Light infantry
Traditionally light infantry were soldiers whose job was to provide a skirmishing screen ahead of the main body of infantry, harassing and delaying the enemy advance. Light infantry was distinct from medium, heavy or line infantry. Heavy infantry were dedicated primarily to fighting in tight...
and cavalry
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
, respectively, covering their flanks. Their job was guard the flanks of the large and unwieldy pike phalanx, an armored soldier with a 18-22 ft. Pike
Pike (weapon)
A pike is a pole weapon, a very long thrusting spear used extensively by infantry both for attacks on enemy foot soldiers and as a counter-measure against cavalry assaults. Unlike many similar weapons, the pike is not intended to be thrown. Pikes were used regularly in European warfare from the...
is not particularly agile or able to turn quickly, so they would prevent attacks on the very vulnerable sides of the formation. Their role was vital to the success of Alexander's strategies because the Macedonian Phalanx
Macedonian phalanx
The Macedonian phalanx is an infantry formation developed by Philip II and used by his son Alexander the Great to conquer the Persian Empire and other armies...
is all but invulnerable from the front, with five layers of iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
spikes moving in unison at any one place it was extremely formidable but also extremely inflexible. The pike phalanx was completely vital to the success of Alexander's strategies because he used it as the anvil
Anvil
An anvil is a basic tool, a block with a hard surface on which another object is struck. The inertia of the anvil allows the energy of the striking tool to be transferred to the work piece. In most cases the anvil is used as a forging tool...
in a hammer and anvil
Hammer and anvil
The Hammer and Anvil tactic is a military tactic used since the beginning of organized warfare. It was used mostly in the ancient world, including by Alexander the Great.- The procedure :...
tactic, using his Companion cavalry
Companion cavalry
The Companions were the elite cavalry of the Macedonian army from the time of king Philip II of Macedon and reached the most prestige under Alexander the Great, and have been regarded as the best cavalry in the ancient world and the first shock cavalry...
as the hammer to smash the enemy against an anvil of thousands of inescapable iron spikes. As such an important yet vulnerable part of the Macedonian Army it needed protection for its main vulnerability, the flanks. The protection/remedy for this vulnerability was the Hypastists who were able to conduct maneuvers and use tactics, because of their hoplite
Hoplite
A hoplite was a citizen-soldier of the Ancient Greek city-states. Hoplites were primarily armed as spearmen and fought in a phalanx formation. The word "hoplite" derives from "hoplon" , the type of the shield used by the soldiers, although, as a word, "hopla" could also denote weapons held or even...
panoply of weapons and armor, that would be impossible (or at least much less effective) if performed by the Phalangites.
It is worth noting that all the references to a unit called "Hypaspists" are much later than the period of Alexander, and modern historians have to assume that later sources like Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian who flourished between 60 and 30 BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agyrium in Sicily . With one exception, antiquity affords no further information about Diodorus' life and doings beyond what is to be found in his own work, Bibliotheca...
(1st c. BC) and Arrian
Arrian
Lucius Flavius Arrianus 'Xenophon , known in English as Arrian , and Arrian of Nicomedia, was a Roman historian, public servant, a military commander and a philosopher of the 2nd-century Roman period...
had access to earlier records.
Arrian's phrase tous kouphotatous te kai ama euoplotatous ) has frequently been rendered as 'lightest armed' although Brunt concedes it is more properly translated as 'nimblest' or 'most agile'.
There has been a great deal of speculation by military historians since the late Hellenistic period about the elite units of Alexander's army. The hypaspists may have been raised from the whole kingdom
Monarchy
A monarchy is a form of government in which the office of head of state is usually held until death or abdication and is often hereditary and includes a royal house. In some cases, the monarch is elected...
rather than on a cantonal basis; if so, they were the King's Army rather than the army of the kingdom.
In the Hellenistic period
Hellenistic period
The Hellenistic period or Hellenistic era describes the time which followed the conquests of Alexander the Great. It was so named by the historian J. G. Droysen. During this time, Greek cultural influence and power was at its zenith in Europe and Asia...
the hypaspist apparently continued to exist, yet in different capacities and under different names. The name lived on in the Seleucid, Ptolemaic
Ptolemaic Kingdom
The Ptolemaic Kingdom in and around Egypt began following Alexander the Great's conquest in 332 BC and ended with the death of Cleopatra VII and the Roman conquest in 30 BC. It was founded when Ptolemy I Soter declared himself Pharaoh of Egypt, creating a powerful Hellenistic state stretching from...
and Antigonid kingdoms, yet they were now seen as royal bodyguards and military administrators. Polybius mentions a hypaspist being sent by Philip V of Macedon
Philip V of Macedon
Philip V was King of Macedon from 221 BC to 179 BC. Philip's reign was principally marked by an unsuccessful struggle with the emerging power of Rome. Philip was attractive and charismatic as a young man...
, after his defeat at the Battle of Cynoscephalae
Battle of Cynoscephalae
The Battle of Cynoscephalae was an encounter battle fought in Thessaly in 197 BC between the Roman army, led by Titus Quinctius Flamininus, and the Antigonid dynasty of Macedon, led by Philip V.- Prelude :...
in 197 BC, to Larisa to burn state papers.
The actual fighting unit of hypasists seems to have lived on in Macedonia as the corps of 'Peltasts', whose status, equipment and role seems to be almost exactly the same as that of the hypaspist under Alexander. Originally consisting of 3,000 men by the Third Macedonian War
Third Macedonian War
The Third Macedonian War was a war fought between Rome and King Perseus of Macedon. In 179 BC King Philip V of Macedon died and his talented and ambitious son, Perseus, took his throne. Perseus married Laodike, daughter of King Seleucus IV Keraunos of Asia, and increased the size of his army...
they were 5,000, most likely to accommodate their elite formation, the Agema
Agema
In ancient Macedonia, the Agema, meaning literally "the guards", were the elite guards.They were hypaspists and asthetairoi, and later argyraspids . In the eastern Diadochi States they were the infantry guards of the King...
.