Hypaspists
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A hypaspist (
Now the horse which
A similar usage occurs in
The word may have had Homeric and heroic connotations that led
In contrast, the main Macedonian Phalanx consisted of the pikemen known as
In set piece battles, the Macedonian Hypaspists were positioned on the flanks of the
All the references to a unit called "Hypaspists" are much later than the period of Philip, and modern historians have to assume[citation needed] that later sources, like Diodorus Siculus[7] (1st century BC) and Arrian,[8] had access to earlier records.
Arrian's phrase tous kouphotatous te kai ama euoplotatous[9]) has frequently been rendered as 'lightest armed', although Brunt [10] concedes it is more properly translated as 'nimblest' or 'most agile'.
There has been a great deal of speculation by military historians ever since the late Hellenistic period about the elite units of Philip's army. The hypaspists may have been[citation needed] raised from the whole kingdom 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, hypaspists apparently continued to exist, albeit in different capacities and under different names. The name lived on in the Seleucid, Ptolemaic 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, after his defeat at the Battle of Cynoscephalae in 197 BC, to Larissa to burn state papers.[11]
The actual fighting unit of hypaspists seems to have lived on in Macedonia as the corps of
See also
References
- ^ Iliad. Book 13, line 158
- ^ Herodotus, Histories, 5.111
- ^ Euripides. Rhesus, line 2
- ^ Xenophon, Anabasis. 4.2.20
- ISBN 978-1-84176-950-9,2006
- ^ Gabriel, Richard A. (2010). Philip II of Macedonia: Greater Than Alexander. Washington, DC: Potomac Books. pp. 62–72
- ^ Diodorus Siculus. Book 19.40
- ^ Arrian's Anabasis. Book 2, line 4 and following
- ^ The Campaigns of Alexander. Book IV, 28, viii
- ^ The Campaigns of Alexander. Appendix XIX, paragraph 9
- ^ Polybius. XVIII.33.1–7
- ^ Polybius. V.26.8
- ^ Polybius. V.25.1
Further reading
- Kambouris Manousos Dr, "The Hypaspist Corps, One identity three units and many functions", koryvantesstudies.org