Agrianes

They were crack javelin throwers and an elite unit of Alexander the Great's light infantry, who fought under the command of General Attalus.

[2] Irwin L. Merker considers it purely Hellenic, and lists certain Greek cognates such as the ethnonym of the Doric tribe Agraioi in Aetolia and the month Agrianos,[3][4] which is found throughout the Dorian and Aeolian worlds.

[8] Their country was centered at Upper Strymon, in present-day westernmost Bulgaria, and also held areas of southeasternmost Serbia,[9] at the time situated north of the Dentheletae.

[14] Peltasts were armed with a number of javelins and a sword, carried a light shield but wore no armour, though they sometimes had helmets; they were adept at skirmishing and were often used to guard the flanks of more heavily equipped infantry.

They could throw their javelins at will at the enemy and, unencumbered by armour or heavy shields, easily evade any counter-charges made by heavily equipped hoplites.

[18] They fought under king Langarus with the Macedonians against the Triballians in 335 BC[19][better source needed] and succeeded in protecting the lands of Alexander and were thus rewarded with the right to govern themselves, a move that led to a long-lasting and most reliable alliance.

At the Battle of Gaugamela (331 BC), during Alexander the Great's conquest of Persia, their contingent of peltasts numbered 1,000 men.