Salvete Omnes,
I have been reading novels by Christian Cameron for a while now.
In the past I enjoyed his series Tyrant (Scythia and wars of
diadochoi, and I do hope for more books in the series) and the Killer of Man series(Persian Wars).
I read yesterday that pan Christian is about to publish a new novel taking place in ancient Hellas -
The New Achilles.
This is going to be the story of well forgotten Hellenic commander Philopoemen.
I am looking forward to read this novel - it is not typical to see Hellenistic Greece in the English language novel - even if our esteemed author is 'furiously anit-Spartan.' We have novels of Mrs Helena Schrader to give us a different view of ancient Sparta.
I expect good storytelling, plenty of adventure and a feel of ancient
warriorship all by Christian's skilled pen work.
Being in my usual critical mode, I just wish that they cover would reflect the ancient pottery techniques -
red-figure,
black-figure or
white-ground ones.
Here is link to
Plutarch on this great warrior -
His skill as warrior, horseman, cavalry armament and actual fighting as described by Plutarch(
6.3) during a
battle under king Antigonus III Doson of Macedon against Spartan Cleomenes III (one of my favorite ancient heroic and tragic figures) :
Philopoemen
was stationed among the Macedonian cavalry with his own
fellow-citizens […]
he took matters into his own hands, formed his
fellow-citizens into a wedge, and
charged upon the enemy. [4] At
first the light-armed troops were thrown into confusion,
then put to
rout with great slaughter. And now Philopoemen, wishing to encourage
still further the king's troops and bring them swiftly upon the enemy
thus thrown into
disorder, quitted his horse, and with grievous
difficulty forced his way along on foot,
in his horseman's
breastplate and heavy equipment, towards ground that was irregular
and
full of water-courses and ravines. Here he had both his thighs
pierced through by
a thonged javelin. The wound was not fatal, though
severe, and the head of the weapon
came out on the other side. [5] At
first, then, he was held fast as by a fetter, and was
altogether
helpless; for the fastening of the thong made it difficult to draw
the weapon
back through the wound. But since those about him
hesitated to attempt this, and since,
now that the battle was at its
hottest, the ardour of his ambition made him
impatient to join in the
struggle, by moving his legs backward and forward he broke
the shaft
of the weapon in two in the middle, and then ordered each fragment
to
be drawn out separately. [6] Thus set free, he drew his sword and
made
his way through the front ranks against the enemy, thereby
greatly animating
the combatants and inspiring them with a desire to
emulate his valour.
After his victory, therefore, Antigonus put his
Macedonians to the question,
and asked them why, without his orders,
they had brought the cavalry into action. [7]
They defended
themselves by saying that they had been forced against their will
to
attack the enemy, because a young man of Megalopolis had first led a
charge against
them.
At this, Antigonus gave a laugh and said: ‘Well,
then, that young man behaved
like a great commander.’
 |
| XIX century sculpture |
Nota bene Polybius on this
battle and
Philopoemen.
and
Pausanias giving a bit about Philopoemen.
And from Pausanias description, from the linked page above, comes another interesting story of Philopoemen as cavalry commander and horseman:
Going back to Megalopolis,
he was at once chosen by the Achaeans to
command the cavalry, and he
turned them into the finest cavalry in Greece.
In the battle at the river Larisus between the Achaeans with their
allies
and the Eleans with the Aetolians,2
who were helping the Eleans on
grounds of kinship, Philopoemen first
killed with his own hand
Demophantus, the leader of the opposing
cavalry, and then turned to
Valete!
