Peltast

Peltasts carried a crescent-shaped wicker shield called a "pelte" (Ancient Greek πέλτη, peltē; Latin: pelta[N 1]) as their main protection, hence their name.

When discharging the arrow, they draw the string by getting a purchase with the left foot planted forward on the lower end of the bow.

[1] They are generally depicted on vases and in other images as wearing the typical Thracian costume, which includes the distinctive Phrygian cap made of fox-skin and with ear flaps.

The Greeks opened their ranks (to allow the Persian cavalry through) and proceeded to deal blows (with swords) and throw javelins at them as they went through.

As no battle accounts describe peltasts using thrusting spears, it may be that they were sometimes carried by individuals by choice (rather than as part of a policy or reform).

The Lykian sarcophagas of Payava from about 400 BC depicts a soldier carrying a round pelte, but using a thrusting spear overarm.

A tradition of fighting with javelins, light shield and sometimes a spear existed in Anatolia and several contingents armed like this appeared in Xerxes I's army that invaded Greece in 480 BC.

[10] From the mid-5th century BC onwards, peltast soldiers began to appear in Greek depictions of Persian troops.

However, at the battle of Pydna in 168 BC, Livy remarks on how the Macedonian peltasts defeated the Paeligni and of how this shows the dangers of going directly at the front of a phalanx.

Though it may seem strange for a unit that would fight in phalanx formation to be called peltasts, pelte would not be an inappropriate name for a Macedonian shield.

For example, in the Hellenica, Xenophon writes 'When Dercylidas learned this (that a Persian army was nearby), he ordered his officers to form their men in line, eight ranks deep (the hoplite phalanx), as quickly as possible, and to station the peltasts on either wing along with the cavalry.

In the absence of a large enough cavalry force, or when otherwise deemed appropriate, peltasts would also pursue retreating enemies at the end of a battle, in order to capture or kill men who had thrown away their weapons or been isolated from their formation during the rout.

Thucydides, in the History of the Peloponnesian War, writes They (the Spartan hoplites) themselves were held up by the weapons shot at them from both flanks by the light troops.

[16]When fighting other types of light troops, peltasts were able to close more aggressively in hand-to-hand combat, as they had the advantage of possessing shields, swords, and helmets.

A type of infantryman called a peltast (peltastēs) is described in the Strategikon, a 6th-century AD military treatise associated with the early Byzantine emperor Maurice.

Although the peltasts of Antiquity were light skirmish infantry armed with javelins, it is not safe to assume that the troops given this name in the Byzantine period were identical in function.

[19] Their arms may have included a shorter version of the kontarion spear employed by contemporary Byzantine heavy infantry.