13 Facts About Hellenistic armies

The limited availability of Greek conscripts in the east led to an increasing dependence on mercenary forces, whereas in the west, Hellenistic armies were continuously involved in wars, which soon exhausted local manpower, paving the way for Roman supremacy.

The major Hellenistic armies states were the Seleucid Empire, Ptolemaic Egypt and the Antigonid kingdom.

However, the size of the Hellenistic armies participating in different campaigns could vary extremely, from a few thousand to over 70, 000.

In fact, the disparity between the manpower reserves available to Rome and to any Hellenistic armies monarch had a profound influence on the way in which the opponents made war.

Complementary arms of the later Hellenistic armies were neglected, fell into disuse, or became the province of unreliable mercenaries and subject peoples.

Related searches

The Roman victories of Magnesia, Cynoscephalae and Pydna were won by Hellenistic armies that included thousands of non-Roman cavalry, elephants, as well as assorted heavy and light infantry.

Thus, the phalanx of the Hellenistic armies used terms such as Chrysaspides, Chalkaspides ('bronze-shields') and Leukaspides ('white-shields') to denote formations within their phalanxes, the two latter being important in the composition of the Antigonid phalanx.

Reforms in the late Seleucid and Ptolemaic Hellenistic armies re-organised them and tried to add some Roman aspects to formations.

Hellenistic armies therefore adapted his own formation to the Roman model, deploying light mobile detachments alongside the phalanx'.

The Ptolemaic army was odd in that, out of all the Hellenistic armies, it was the only army where you could find Romans in Greek service.

Apart from the cavalry types used by the Greeks, the Hellenistic armies kingdoms used cavalry from subordinate and allied barbarian states, which varied in quality, armor and equipment.

Thus, most cavalry types of the Hellenistic armies can be considered heavy, regardless of their armor, as long as they are equipped with lances and act in dense formations.

The Hellenistic armies generals were well aware of this fact and thus did not deploy them before or among their battle line, as was the case in Hydaspes or in Zama, both examples of how routing elephants could cost the battle.