Phrygian army

[martin goddard]

Phrygian army
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrygia

This might be a nice army.
King Midas (Gordius, he of the Gordian knot) and his later successors.

If this army were built in the Alexandrian (roughly) period it would be an owned by Persia country (a Satrap).
Greek and Persian influences combined.
e.g trousers, bows and colours.
Anyone know a good book about the Phrygian army 4th and 5h century BC?

Maybe as a satrap of Persia, it might as well be a Persian army?

Just some thoughts not the promise of a new army as AK is suing all the oil at the moment.


martin

[Sean Clark]

I must say I know vry little abot them. But if the Persians, especially the Achaemenid Persians are anything to go by they are a colourful bunch.

[SimonC]

I suspect not much is known .. you could extrapolate from their Anatolian neighbours . So Lydia is mentioned in Herodotus. Cappadocian is ethnically Greek. Bithynia is mentioned in Xenophon

Thanks
simon

[Panzer21]

I suspect not much is known .. you could extrapolate from their Anatolian neighbours . So Lydia is mentioned in Herodotus. Cappadocian is ethnically Greek. Bithynia is mentioned in Xenophon

Thanks
simon

That's the first time I've heard Cappadocia / Kappadocia as "ethnically Greek". Are you perchance think of the later post-Successor / Seleucid kingdom? By then most of Asia Minor was a mix of Greek, Persian and native peoples.

At the time of the Persian empire pre-Alexander, they were a distinct ethnic group.
Phyrigia, Lydia etc had some Greek influences from settlements along the coast, but again were not Greeks.

Bithynia was peopled by a Thracian offshoot.

The best books are by Duncan Head - WRG Armies of Macedonian and Punic Wars and his Persia army book for Montvert (probablly rare, expensive).

Neil

[SimonC]

The OP was 5-4c bce. My view would be that most of Anatolia (certainly in the west) would ethnically be Greek. This would the founding for the Ionian Revolt (against Persian tyrants)

My view would be that armies would be 'more Greek' than  Persian. But it would be a mix of Greek , Persian and indigenous types. Herodotus  mentions that the Lydians had excellent cavalry. But Ionian Greeks suffered against Persian cavalry at the Battle of Ephesus.

Thanks
Simo

[Martin Smith]

Phrygian army
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrygia

This might be a nice army.
King Midas (Gordius, he of the Gordian knot) and his later successors.

If this army were built in the Alexandrian (roughly) period it would be an owned by Persia country (a Satrap).
Greek and Persian influences combined.
e.g trousers, bows and colours.
Anyone know a good book about the Phrygian army 4th and 5h century BC?

Maybe as a satrap of Persia, it might as well be a Persian army?

Just some thoughts not the promise of a new army as AK is suing all the oil at the moment.


martin

It would almost certainly be worth asking on the SoA forum, Martin. Duncan Head et al are active on there, and if there IS anything known about Phrygian armies that would be a good point of contact.

[martin goddard]

Thank you for all the information folks.

martin