Thyreophoroi

The Thureophoroi (singular: Thureophoros) was a type of infantry soldier, common in the 3rd to 1st Century BCE, who carried a large oval shield called a thureos which had a type of metal strip boss and a central spine. They were armed with a long thrusting spear, javelins and a sword. They also usually wore an iron or bronze Macedonian helmet. The thureos was probably originally an adapted form of a Celtic shield. Thracian and Ilyrian infantry probably adopted the shield before the Greeks. However it has been suggested that the thureos was brought to Greece after Pyrrhus of Epirus' campaigns in Italy, as his Oscan allies and Roman enemies used the Scutum.

Role

Thureophoroi (or Thyreophoroi) are usually distinguished from both skirmishers and the phalanx and seem to have operated in a role intermediate between the two types. They often supported light troops and seemed to be capable of operating in a similar manner to peltasts. The Thureophoroi were well suited to the tactical needs for smaller states, mainly border defense. They were mobile and could rapidly advance over varied terrain. According to Plutarch, they could fight as skirmishers and then fall back, assume spears and tighten the ranks, forming a phalanx .

Development

In the 4th century BCE, the main type of mercenary infantry was the peltast to the extent that this became a synonym for mercenaries in general. A few illustrations of the early 3rd BC still show a small round peltai shield in use but by the mid 3rd century BCE it has been replaced by the thureos. The thureos was adopted by the Achaean League and by the Boeotians in the 270's BC. Plutarch describes Achaean citizens equipped with the thureos as skirmishing at a distance like peltasts but also as having spears for hand-to-hand combat. Despite their spears, we are told that the thureophoroi were not reliable in hand-to-hand fighting due to their nature as light troops. Mercenary thureophoroi were not only Greek but could be from other areas such as Anatolia. Alongside this form of fighting the thureomachia, fighting with swords and the thureos, was developed into an athletic event in many Greek competitions. The Achaean League under Philopoemen abandoned the thureos around 208-207 BC in favor of the Macedonian sarissa , although the citizens of Megalopolis, an Achaean city, had adopted the Macedonian style in 222 BC after Antigonus III Doson gave the city bronze shields to form a contingent of epilektoi armed as Chalkaspides ('Bronze-Shields'). By the end of the 3rd century BC the thureophoroi was no longer the dominant troop type in the smaller Greek states, having been replaced with the Macedonian style phalanx. A related troop type was the thorakites.

Illustrations

Thureophoroi are frequently illustrated in grave paintings from Alexandria and Sidon. They can also be seen in terracottas from Seleucia on the Tigris.

Sources

• Head, Duncan (1982). Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars. WRG.
• Sabin, Philip & van Wees, Hans & Whitby, Michael (eds.) (2007). "The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Warfare: Volume 1, Greece, The Hellenistic World and the Rise of Rome". Cambridge University Press