Slitherine

Are the Argyraspides "from 166" in the Later Seleucid list (pg. 43 Rise of Rome) imitation legionaires or something else? I was wondering how they would be modeled.

Polybios's account of the review of the Seleucid guard at Daphne in 165BC mentions 12000 guards. Most modern authors agree 2000 were mounted, 10000 were infantry and half of these were said to be armed in the Roman style. Thats about all we can be certain of!

Whether this makes them "imitation legionaries" is a moot point. They weren't pikemen, 'cos that's what the other foot guards were. What made the Romans distictive was a heavy throwing spear...the triarii were like hoplites in arms and the velites javelinmen, so these were not distinctive Roman styles...hence the conjecture these guards were armed with a heavy throwing spear, a short sword and a roman-style shield. Whether they were trained to use them effectively is another point!

I would use a Hellenic-dressed figure, maybe in partial mail, cut down the length of their sword if it looks long then arm them with an early-style pilum and a Republican Roman style shield. Maybe the shield should be (decorated with) silver.

Martin

Donnington does very nice Later Argyraspids (aka imitation legionaries). They have all the later Seleucid troops (based on the Dapnae parade), the sculptures themselves are heavily inspired by the colour plates of the book "The Seleucid Army" by Nick Sekunda.

http://shop.ancient-modern.co.uk/hf17-s ... -167-p.asp

PS: For the Later Seleucid cavalry though, I recommend Freikorps (now Feudal Castings) above Donnington.