New Releases for May 2020 - The Ancients Collection (1 Viewer)

[Julie]

NEW RELEASES FOR MAY 2020
THE ANCIENTS COLLECTION
ARMIES AND ENEMIES OF ANCIENT ROME
REPUBLICAN ROMANS

The Roman Republic was the era of classical Roman civilization beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom, traditionally dated to 509 BC, and ending in 27 BC with the establishment of the Roman Empire. It was during this period that Rome's control expanded from the city's immediate surroundings to hegemony over the entire Mediterranean world.

Roman government was headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and advised by a senate composed of appointed magistrates. As Roman society was very hierarchical by modern standards, the evolution of the Roman government was heavily influenced by the struggle between the patricians, Rome's land-holding aristocracy, who traced their ancestry to the founding of Rome, and the plebeians, the far more numerous citizen-commoners. Over time, the laws that gave patricians exclusive rights to Rome's highest offices were repealed or weakened, and leading plebeian families became full members of the aristocracy. The leaders of the Republic developed a strong tradition and morality requiring public service and patronage in peace and war, making military and political success inextricably linked. Many of Rome's legal and legislative structures (later codified into the Justinian Code, and again into the Napoleonic Code) can still be observed throughout Europe and much of the world in modern nation states and international organizations.

THE VELITES
Velites were the youngest and usually the poorest (being fifth class citizens, with property worth 400–2,500 denarii) soldiers in the legion, and could rarely afford much equipment. They were armed with veretum, light javelins, each with a 90 cm (3 ft) wooden shaft the diameter of a finger, with a c. 10-inch (25 cm) narrow metal point, and tips designed to bend on impact to prevent them being thrown back, similar to the heavier pila of other legionaries. Livy says that they each carried seven javelins, however Roman satirist Lucilius says that they carried five, suggesting that the amount may have changed. The hastati and principes carried gladii, relatively short thrusting swords 74 centimetres (29 inches) in length, as their main weapons, and the velites carried them as backup weapons. They fought in a very loose, staggered formation like most irregular troops, and carried small round shields called parma, 90 cm (3 feet) in diameter.
The velites were placed at the front of the maniples, so that the velites had the chance to prove themselves and win glory by seeking out single combat with an enemy. This is also why they wore highly identifiable wolfskin headdresses

The velites were placed at the front of the maniples, so that the velites had the chance to prove themselves and win glory by seeking out single combat with an enemy. This is also why they wore highly identifiable wolfskin headdresses

VMRR-06R
ARMIES AND ENEMIES OF ANCIENT ROME,
THE ROMAN ARMY OF THE MID REPUBLIC,
VELES.
(2 pcs)

In the legion, the velites were attached to each maniple of hastati, principes and triarii. They usually formed up at the front of the legion before battle to harass the enemy with javelin throws and to prevent the enemy doing the same before retiring behind the lines to allow the heavier infantry to attack. After they had fallen back, they would move up behind the attacking troops and throw darts at the enemy. They also sometimes carried wounded back to the rear, however usually a corps of deportates did this. In a pitched battle, the velites would form up at the front of the legion and cover the advance of the hastati, who were armed with swords.

In the standard legion around the time of the Second Punic War (218 -201 BC) there were 10 maniples of hastati, each having 120 hastati, with 40 velites attached.
The maniples were further split into centuries, of 60 hastati and 20 velites, with the centurion of the hastati century commanding the velites as well

VMRR-06Y
ARMIES AND ENEMIES OF ANCIENT ROME,
THE ROMAN ARMY OF THE MID REPUBLIC,
VELES.
(2 pcs)

When the Romans set up a temporary castra, two maniples (without their velites) were selected to pitch the tents of the headquarters and officers, and details were made for fatigue duty, to get wood and water, and to give food and water to the animals accompanying them. The rest of the men, excepting velites and officers, set up the tents of the soldiers. During this time the velites would guard the outside of the wall and the wall itself, while the rest of the troops would guard the interior. The watch, which was composed of eight men led by a decurion, ran from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm, and was divided into four shifts, each of three hours


**CORRECTED PICTURES FOR VMRR-02R AND VMRR-02Y**

**PLEASE NOTE THESE ARE THE FINAL SETS FOR THE VELITES**

**PLEASE NOTE THAT THE CREWS FOR THE ROMAN AND CARTHAGINIAN WARSHIPS WILL NOW START TO BE AVAILABLE FROM AUGUST**

 

[Julie]

ARMIES AND ENEMIES OF ANCIENT ROME
THE CARTHAGINIANS

Ancient Carthage was a Phoenician state founded in 814BC. The Carthaginian Empire was to extend over much of the coast of Northwest Africa as well as substantial parts of coastal Iberia and the islands of the western Mediterranean sea.
At its height, the city state served as a major hub of trade, which brought it into conflict with the Greeks in Sicily, and with the Roman Republic, which led to a series of conflicts known as the Punic Wars.

CTM-03
ARMIES AND ENEMIES OF ANCIENT ROME,
THE CARTHAGINIANS,
CARTHAGINIAN INFANTRY MUSICIAN.
(1 pc)

THE NUMIDIANS

The Numidians were the Berber population of Numidia (present day Algeria and in a smaller part of Tunisia). The Numidians were one of the earliest Berber tribes to trade with the settlers of Carthage, and as Carthage grew , the relationship with the Numidians blossomed. Carthage’s military used the Numidian cavalry as mercenaries. Numidia provided some of the highest quality cavalry of the second Punic war, and the Numidian cavalry played a key role in a number of battles, both early on in support of Hannibal and later in the war after switching allegiances, to the Roman Republic.

CTNUM-05A
ARMIES AND ENEMIES OF ANCIENT ROME,
THE NUMIDIANS,
NUMIDIAN LIGHT CAVALRY.
(3 pcs)

CTNUM-05B
ARMIES AND ENEMIES OF ANCIENT ROME,
THE NUMIDIANS,
NUMIDIAN LIGHT CAVALRY.
(3 pcs)

 

[Julie]

THE SPANISH

There is some confusion over the precise identity of the Spanish troops that fought in the Punic Wars. The original inhabitants of the Iberian peninsula were the Iberians, a Caucasoid people who were famed as warriors, and who served as mercenaries in many parts of the Mediterranean world. They served as mercenaries in the Carthaginian armies from at least 342BC.

By the 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] Century BC the Celts,9who had invaded from the North) and Iberians had merged to form a distinctive new people in the north east and central plateau of the peninsula, known as the Celt-Iberians.
The Celt-Iberians fought for the Carthaginians and by the time of the 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] Punic War it is thought that both soldiers were similar in appearance and equipment.

CTSP-05
ARMIES AND ENEMIES OF ANCIENT ROME,
THE SPANISH,
IBERIAN LIGHT CAVALRY.
(2 pcs)

**PLEASE NOTE THAT THE CREWS FOR THE ROMAN AND CARTHAGINIAN WARSHIPS WILL NOW START TO BE AVAILABLE FROM AUGUST**

 

[Julie]

THE ANCIENTS COLLECTION
ARMIES AND ENEMIES OF ANCIENT GREECE AND MACEDONIA
THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR (431-404BC)
THE SPARTAN ARMY

The Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) was an ancient Greek war fought by the Delian League led by Athens against the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. Historians have traditionally divided the war into three phases. In the first phase, the Archidamian War, Sparta launched repeated invasions of Attica, while Athens took advantage of its naval supremacy to raid the coast of the Peloponnese and attempt to suppress signs of unrest in its empire. This period of the war was concluded in 421 BC, with the signing of the Peace of Nicias. That treaty, however, was soon undermined by renewed fighting in the Peloponnese. In 415 BC, Athens dispatched a massive expeditionary force to attack Syracuse, Sicily; the attack failed disastrously, with the destruction of the entire force in 413 BC. This ushered in the final phase of the war, generally referred to either as the Decelean War, or the Ionian War. In this phase, Sparta, now receiving support from the Achaemenid Empire, supported rebellions in Athens's subject states in the Aegean Sea and Ionia, undermining Athens's empire, and, eventually, depriving the city of naval supremacy. The destruction of Athens's fleet in the Battle of Aegospotami effectively ended the war, and Athens surrendered in the following year. Corinth and Thebes demanded that Athens should be destroyed and all its citizens should be enslaved, but Sparta refused.

The Peloponnesian War reshaped the ancient Greek world. On the level of international relations, Athens, the strongest city-state in Greece prior to the war's beginning, was reduced to a state of near-complete subjection, while Sparta became established as the leading power of Greece. The economic costs of the war were felt all across Greece; poverty became widespread in the Peloponnese, while Athens found itself completely devastated, and never regained its pre-war prosperity.

Ancient Greek warfare, meanwhile, originally a limited and formalized form of conflict, was transformed into an all-out struggle between city-states, complete with atrocities on a large scale. Shattering religious and cultural taboos, devastating vast swathes of countryside, and destroying whole cities, the Peloponnesian War marked the dramatic end to the fifth century BC and the golden age of Greece.

The city of Sparta was just one of the cities located in the ancient Greek state called Lakedaimon. Most of the other cities of Lakedaimon by this time had become subjects of Sparta.

Around the middle of the 5[SUP]th[/SUP] Century BC the Lakedaimonians started to lighten the equipment of their holpites. The traditional greaves and cuirass were discarded, and the closed Corinthian helmet was replaced by the open-faced “Pilos Helmet”.
A crimson short sleeved tunic, the “exomis” was commonly worn, with the right shoulder unpinned and allowed to fall leaving the right arm and shoulder free for action. In the 4[SUP]th[/SUP] Century the army of Agesilaos was clad entirely in Crimson. This had become the colour of the soldier and especially of the Lakedaimonian soldier. Apparently the Lakedaimonian soldier was even buried in his crimson robe.

During this period the Lakedaimonians were allowed to grow their hair and beard when on campaign, a style which had fallen out of fashion elsewhere in Greece at this time.

SPT-06A
ARMIES AND ENEMIES OF ANCIENT GREECE
AND MACEDONIA,
THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 431-404BC,
THE SPARTAN ARMY,
SPARTAN WARRIORS
(3 pcs)

SPT-06B
ARMIES AND ENEMIES OF ANCIENT GREECE
AND MACEDONIA,
THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 431-404BC,
THE SPARTAN ARMY,
SPARTAN WARRIORS
(3 pcs)

 

[Julie]

THRACIANS

Thracians were a group of Indo-European tribes inhabiting a large area in Eastern and Southeastern Europe
The Thracians in classical times were broken up into a large number of groups and tribes (over 200), though a number of powerful Thracian states were organized, such as the Odrysian kingdom of Thrace and the Dacian kingdom of Burebista.

In the first decade of the sixth century BC, the Persians conquered Thrace and made it part of their satrapy Skudra. Thracians were forced to join the invasions of European Scythia and Greece. According to Herodotus, the Bithynian Thracians also had to contribute a large contingent to Xerxes' invasion of Greece in 480 BC.

The Thracians were a warrior people, known as both horsemen, but mainly as lightly armed skirmishers with javelins, which were known as peltasts. They were regarded by other peoples as warlike, ferocious, and bloodthirsty.

The peltast, was a type of soldier of the ancient period, which probably originated in Thrace.
Thracian peltasts were to have a notable influence in Ancient Greece.
A Thracian Peltast carried a crescent-shaped wicker shield and was armed with several javelins (akontia).
The style of fighting used by peltasts probably originated in Thrace and the first peltasts used by Greek armies were recruited from the Greek cities of the Thracian coast.
They are generally depicted on Greek vases and in other images as wearing the typical Thracian costume, which includes the distinctive Phrygian cap made of fox-skin, with ear flaps. They also usually wore a patterned tunic, fawnskin boots and a long cloak, called a zeira, which was decorated with a bright, geometric, pattern.
Peltasts gradually became more important in Greek warfare, in particular during the Peloponnesian War.
They became the main type of Greek mercenary infantry in the 4th century BC. Their equipment was less expensive than that of traditional hoplites and would have been more readily available to poorer members of society.

When faced by hoplites, peltasts operated by throwing javelins at short range.
If the hoplites charged, the peltasts would retreat. As they carried considerably lighter equipment than the hoplites, they were usually able to evade successfully, especially in difficult terrain.

They would then return to the attack once the pursuit ended, if possible, taking advantage of any disorder created in the hoplites' ranks.
The Athenian general Iphicrates destroyed a Spartanphalanx in the Battle of Lechaeum in 390 BC, using mostly Thracian peltasts.

In the first decade of the sixth century BC, the Persians conquered Thrace and made it part of their satrapy Skudra. Thracians were forced to join the invasions of European Scythia and Greece

According to Herodotus, the Bithynian Thracians also had to contribute a large contingent to Xerxes' invasion of Greece in 480 BC.

Later the conquest of the southern part of Thrace by Philip II of Macedon in the fourth century BC made the largest Thracian state, the Odrysian kingdom extinct for several years. After the kingdom had been reestablished, it was a vassal state of Macedon for several decades under generals such as Lysimachus of the Diadochi.

TH-15A
ARMIES AND ENEMIES OF ANCIENT GREECE
AND MACEDONIA,
THRACIAN CAVALRY, 4[SUP]th[/SUP] CENTURY BC.
(3 pcs)

TH-15B
ARMIES AND ENEMIES OF ANCIENT GREECE
AND MACEDONIA,
THRACIAN CAVALRY, 4[SUP]th[/SUP] CENTURY BC.
(3 pcs)

**PLEASE NOTE THESE ARE THE FINAL SETS FOR THE THRACIANS**

 

[jazzeum]

THE SPANISH

There is some confusion over the precise identity of the Spanish troops that fought in the Punic Wars. The original inhabitants of the Iberian peninsula were the Iberians, a Caucasoid people who were famed as warriors, and who served as mercenaries in many parts of the Mediterranean world. They served as mercenaries in the Carthaginian armies from at least 342BC.

By the 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] Century BC the Celts,9who had invaded from the North) and Iberians had merged to form a distinctive new people in the north east and central plateau of the peninsula, known as the Celt-Iberians.
The Celt-Iberians fought for the Carthaginians and by the time of the 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] Punic War it is thought that both soldiers were similar in appearance and equipment.

CTSP-05
ARMIES AND ENEMIES OF ANCIENT ROME,
THE SPANISH,
IBERIAN LIGHT CAVALRY.
(2 pcs)

**PLEASE NOTE THAT THE CREWS FOR THE ROMAN AND CARTHAGINIAN WARSHIPS WILL NOW START TO BE AVAILABLE FROM AUGUST**

Now, this is an interesting twist. I don’t collect this range but may have to pick up a few of these.

 

[mikemiller1955]

THRACIANS

TH-15A
ARMIES AND ENEMIES OF ANCIENT GREECE
AND MACEDONIA,
THRACIAN CAVALRY, 4[SUP]th[/SUP] CENTURY BC.
(3 pcs)

TH-15B
ARMIES AND ENEMIES OF ANCIENT GREECE
AND MACEDONIA,
THRACIAN CAVALRY, 4[SUP]th[/SUP] CENTURY BC.
(3 pcs)

**PLEASE NOTE THESE ARE THE FINAL SETS FOR THE THRACIANS**

love these Thracians...I think they are some of John's best work ever!

 

[villagehorse]

John is going all out on this series. Plenty to consider in this offering. Robin.

 

[Dragoon]

Happy to see the Ancients Collection continuing to expand - But I'll be happiest when John releases the fighting Roman command sets. :smile2: