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A Macedonian shield and Macedonian measures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

N. G. L. Hammond
Affiliation:
Clare College Cambridge

Abstract

The bronze cover of a phalanx-man's shield, found in Upper Macedonia and published by P. Adam-Veleni, was inscribed ‘of king—’, the name being illegible. From the inscription and the decoration one can estimate that the Macedonian ‘foot’ was in the upper category of length. It is suggested that the king—probably Antigonus Gonatas—had these shields manufactured, and that he issued them to his infantry guard.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1996

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References

1 Liampi, K., ‘Der makedonische Schild als propagandistiches Mittel’, Meletemata, 10 (1990), 157–71Google Scholar; Adam-Veleni, P., ‘Χάλϰινη ασπίδα από τή Βεγόρα τής Φλωρίνας’, in Ancient Macedonia, v.1 (Thessaloniki, 1993), 1728.Google Scholar I am most grateful to Polyxene Adam-Veleni, who sent me a photographic replica of the shield 1 : 1 and helped me with this article.

2 τῶν δὲ φάλαγγος ἀσπίδων ἀρίστη ἡ Μαδεϰονιϰὴ χαλϰῆ ὀϰτωπάλαιοτος, οὐ λίαν ϰοιλή. So too Ael. Tact. 12. Aelian drew on Asklepiodotos, or both drew on a common source.

3 See also Arr. Tact. xii. 6–9, with measurements in cubits and in feet.

4 See OCD 2 659.

5 Adam-Veleni (n. 1), 19, gives the diameter more precisely as 0.656 m.

6 This size for the Macedonian ‘foot’ agrees with deductions made from military fortifications at Dion and Thessaloniki and from the heroön at Yiannitsa. See Το αρχαιολογιχόν έργον στη Μαχεδονία χαι Θράχη 1 (1987), 154, giving the ‘foot’ as 0.328 m, and Ibid. 191 n. 10 as a little less than 0.33 m. Sculpted shields on the Heroon near Yiannitsa in the reign of Antigonos Gonatas had a diameter of 62 cm (Ibid. 159 fig. 5).

7 Tarn, W. W., Alexander the Great, ii (Cambridge, 1948; repr. 1979), 169 ff.Google Scholar

8 Ponger, C. S., Katalog der griechischen und römischen Skulpturen im Allard Pierson Museum zu Amsterdam (Amsterdam, 1942), 180, with pl. 40.Google Scholar

9 Adam-Veleni (n. 1), 18, 23.

10 Sylloge nummorum Graecorum, v.3 (London, 1976), pl. 67. 3257–61.

11 Dakaris, S. in PAE (1968), fig. 2 and pl. 42 γGoogle Scholar. See also Garoufallias, P., Πύρρος (Athens, 1972), pl. following p. 286.Google Scholar

12 Quoted by Walbank, F. W. in Hammond, N. G. L. and Walbank, F. W., A History of Macedonia, iii (Oxford, 1988), 262 n. 1.Google Scholar

13 See my remarks in Antichthon, 14 (1980), 56, and now in Philip of Macedon (London, 1994), 25–6 with n. 18. The supposition in CAH vi2 (Cambridge, 1994), 735, that the Macedonian infantrymen had to provide their own equipment and were therefore of well-to-do farmer status, is contrary to the literary evidence.

14 The source of Curtius is uncertain. One of Justin's sources was probably Kleitarchos. See Hammond, N. G. L., Three Historians of Alexander the Great (Cambridge, 1983), 104, 147–8.Google Scholar

15 See my remarks in Green, P. (ed.), Hellenistic History and Culture (Berkeley, 1993), 21–2, citing Plut. Eum. 8. 6–7.Google Scholar

16 In PAE (1968) Dakaris showed in fig. 2 and pl. 42 γ six letters on the shield which he completed to read βα[σι]λεὺς [Πύρρος χαὶ ᾿Ηπειῶται . . . Διὶ Ναίωι] Pyrrhus issued a bronze coinage with his monogram in the centre of a simple Macedonian shield which was decorated only with circles. See Lévèque, P., Pyrrhos (Paris, 1957), pl. 7. 17.Google Scholar

17 Justin 13. 3. 1; see Hammond and Walbank (n. 12), 102 and n. 1.

18 App. Syr. 54 ἀνεῖπε δὲ χαὶ Πτολεμαῖον ὁ οἰχεῖος αὐτοῦ στρατὸς βασιλέα Justin xv. 2. 11.

19 For the posting of this guard near the ‘palace’ see my article in Historia, 40 (1991), 399, 405, repr. Collected Studies, ii (Amsterdam, 1993), 182, 188.