Slitherine

I'm looking at incorporating standard bearers, officers and musicians into battle groups in my still-under-construction Macedonian Successor army. If I have it correctly, Hellenistic phalanxes did not employ unit banners or standards, but they were used by looser formations as a rallying point, so it would be reasonable to give Thureophoroi and Thracian battlegroups a standard bearer, prettying them up and making it easier to identify the unit. Which raises the question, what standards or banners , if any, were used by Thracians. My uninformed guess would a Draco, which was used by Dacians a little later, but it is just a guess.

peteratjet wrote:what standards or banners , if any, were used by Thracians. My uninformed guess would a Draco, which was used by Dacians a little later, but it is just a guess.

Sorry, there is no indication that any such standards were used. The Foundry figures are pure fantasy, although you could use some of them eg the wine drinkers. There were definitely musicians. My feeling is that the Draco came from the east (eg via the Sarmatians) not from the south so it wasn't used by the Thracians. I think that for Thracian warriors their leader/chieftan/king was their standard.

I thought any enemy head on the end of your romphaia was sufficient. Osprey shows trumpeters with the general. Trying to figure out the best way to convert OG Tracian command foot trumpeters to mounted.

The Osprey shows a trumpeter with the general in Plate E because Xenophon says that the Thracian king's trumpeter rode up, blowing it loudly to help scare away the Thyni attackers

Crusader Miniatures (28mm) have just released a Thracian range which has a quite atmospheric standard bearer with a half moon on a pole (garlanded by some 'trophy' heads). Maybe an email to Crusader might elicit some information about the provenance of this!

Might just be a flight of fancy of course!

Garry

Mithridates wrote:Crusader Miniatures (28mm) have just released a Thracian range which has a quite atmospheric standard bearer with a half moon on a pole (garlanded by some 'trophy' heads). Maybe an email to Crusader might elicit some information about the provenance of this!

Might just be a flight of fancy of course!

Garry

They are quite nice figures, and more are due to be released next month. As far as I know the standard is a flight of fancy. There's a nicely painted Foundry Thracian standard (also a flight of fancy) at http://www.littlebigmenstudios.com/cata ... H_INF1.jpg