Horse archers of Alexander the Great

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Horse archers, although not very common among the Greeks, were one of the most effective and maneuverable branches of the army in the army of Alexander the Great.

The era of antiquity: the bow is my friend

In the classical era in Greece, the bow, although it was known from ancient times, was little used by both the Greeks themselves and their allies, being considered a weapon of little worth for a real warrior and less effective than a throwing dart and sling.

More than the rest were known Cretan archers, who were hired for the service of anyone who was willing to pay for hard currency, but in the polis armies the number of such archers numbered tens or hundreds of people.

Horse archers were an even more exotic branch of troops for the Greeks - in the most developed regions of Hellas, even melee cavalry was very limited and played an auxiliary role, what can we say about horsemen-archers?

On the other hand, this method of fighting was well known to the Greeks from their contacts with the Persian satraps and especially to the nomads of the Black Sea region, and if the stereotypical Greek was presented in the form of a hoplite infantryman, then the opposite happens to horse archers: the word "Scythian" is used to denote shooters in Greece, although the rider could be a completely different clan-tribe.

Nevertheless, the number of these soldiers, even in Athens, was relatively small - during the Peloponnesian War, there were only two hundred of them in the entire state.

Fight of the Scythians with the Greeks. Source: printerst.com

The main weapon of the Scythian-Massagetae was a composite bow of a characteristic W-shape, specially adapted for horseback shooting up to 90 centimeters long. For shooting, arrows with bronze, less often iron, bone and horn tips were used, judging by the shape of which it can be concluded that the "hippotoxats" preferred to fight at a long distance against an enemy that did not have heavy protective weapons.

Most riders were equipped with daggers and short swords, suitable for self-defense rather than melee, the more wealthy could afford a long straight sword like a spatha or a hammer-swing. Most of the horsemen traditionally did not use armor, but the most noble did not disdain scaly or lamellar elements of armor, the less wealthy used felt or leather armor and light shields.

However, although the weapons of the Massagetae influenced their tactics, the main thing for which these horsemen were valued was their excellent organization and high efficiency both on the battlefield and in the campaign.

Campaigns of Alexander the Great - were there any "Scythians"?

Traditionally for the Iranian peoples, the "Scythians" were divided into tens, hundreds and thousands - in the Macedonian army they retained the same structure, and from the most noble and courageous horsemen, a separate detachment of "horse archers" or "hippotaxots" Alexander's campaign.

Scythians in the army of the great commander did not appear immediately: the Macedonian cavalry of the initial period of the reign preferred to fight in close combat, small detachments recruited from the Thracians practiced the tactics of the Tarentines or Numidians, that is, they used javelins and pursued the fleeing enemy. Archers were exclusively on foot, hired in Crete or recruited in Greece.

Faced with horse archers in the army of Darius, Alexander quickly appreciated the usefulness of these soldiers, who could either start a battle or cover the enemy flanks or make a forced march, which was especially important in the second stage of Alexander's campaigns.

Massagetan equestrian archer. Source: printerst.com

After becoming the Persian king, Alexander called on the nomads who lived in the borderlands to abide by the allied treaties concluded with the previous shahinshahs. The "Scythians", in turn, were much impressed by Alexander's military successes and his personal prowess, which was highly valued among the warlike equestrian peoples.

The revolt of Spitamen, which was joined by part of the nomadic tribes, and its rapid suppression by Alexander, also played a role: the steppe people who wanted to try their luck on campaigns willingly went to the service of Iskander the Great. Mostly under the banner of the king, the Dahis and Massagets fought, who showed themselves splendidly in the Indian campaigns.

Having formed a select corps of Iranians, Alexander repeatedly included them in his "flying corps" - operational formations formed from the most maneuverable and combat-ready units of his army, whose forces achieved decisive superiority at strategically important points of the contact line.

Sources of

• Head, D. Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars 359 BC to 146 BC London, 1982.
• Sidnell, Ph. Warhorse: Cavalry in Ancient Warfare London, 2008.
• Aleksinsky D. P., Zhukov K. A., Butyagin A. M., Korovkin D. S. Horsemen of War. Cavalry of Europe, St. Petersburg, 2005.
• Denison D. T. Cavalry History M., 2014.
• Svechin A. A. Evolution of military art M.-L., 1928.
• Fore P. Daily life of the army of Alexander the Great M., 2008.
• Sheppard, R. Macedonians versus Persians: Confrontation between East and West M., 2014.

Vladimir Shishov