This drives me crazy about video games in general, but particularly Skyrim. Spears are the oldest and most widely used melee weapons on Earth, yet they are nearly absent in video games. Medieval Scandinavia and especially the Vikings used spears far more than any other weapon, yet Skyrim aka the "Medieval Scandinavia emulator", has no spears. Maybe spears aren't seen in video games because they haven't been prestige like swords, or because the physics/mechanics of spears are hard to implement in video games, but recently, Assassin's Creed Odyssey did a great job with spears, and it shows because spears are the best weapon class in that game.
@@averongodoffire7344 Let's just hope Hammerfell decides to take spears seriously: Seriously, how the fuck could you make a game about a fantasy region which emulates the Middle East/Africa, and not feature spears?!
@@Wasserkaktus None of the Elder Scrolls games have ever featured spears! Hell, Oblivion didn't and yet it's based on ROME!!! It's a pure travesty that Bethesda overlooks these amazing weapons.
@@annatarlordofgifts2442 true. But unless you plan to draw one hpl for each of the 900gazillion speartypes,Axe heads, shield- and helmet variants, you will have to chose one set of gear and use that as a standard...
@@szarekhthesilent2047 no you don't have to what you have to do is clearly state that. Not everyone is a history buff and will just buy it. Also his drawings look a bit fantasy-ish with the colors and stuff ( alot of gold i guess they wore gold armour lol)
For Frankie, fellow Hellenophile. The evolution of the Greek heavy trooper from Bronze Age days to Byzantium. By order of appearance: Mycenaean (0:09), Geometric Period (0:47), Archaic Period (1:17), Thespian (1:47), Spartan (2:11), Theban (3:01), Iphikratid (3:24), Hypaspist (3:47), Silver Shield officer (4:11), Thorakites (4:32), Silver Shields 'legionary' (4:51), Pontic (5:08), Indo-Greek (5:32), 'Spartan' legionary (5:56), 'Phalangarius' (6:19), Romano-Byzantine (6:40), Byzantine cataphract (7:07) Check out Xenophon's Hellenica 7.5.20 for the club symbol on the Theban shield, and Cassius Dio 78.7.1-2 for the description of the phalangarius. Check out upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/1837__-Archaeological_Museum%2C_Athens-__Stele_for_Marcus_Aurelius_Alexis_-_Photo_by_Giovanni_Dall%27Orto%2C_N.jpg for the gravestone of Marcus Aurelius Alexys. Support more videos like this www.patreon.com/foojer, or visit us at Redbubble rdbl.co/2kG0iAw for t shirts, phone cases, prints, and more. Audio tracks are the Greek Ancient, Medieval, and Industrial themes from the Civilization 6 soundtrack, I do not own the rights to the track.
Seeing as all their neighbours were armoured like crabs (or lobsters as we say in greece) I'm inclined to think that these accounts of spartans wearing minimal body armour was probably exaggerations for effect by the contemporary historians of the time; since everybody admired their courage and martial prowess,they might as well have been fighting naked! I doubt that a soldier who was training his entire life, and whose life was too precious as well (Spartan hoplites were also Spartan citizens, which in that particular city-state meant a population of around 10000 in its best of days) would not be outfitted with the best armour offered at the time.
It would need to be reexamined of course. We have to also look at where we get the sources from. Most records of Spartan warriors probably comes from historians of the same timeline and have knowledge of their existence. This can be from other Greek states, whom are not exactly admirers of the Spartans and their way of life. If for example the records/paintings come from Spartan artifacts then there can be some romanticization bias. If it came from Athens, then there can be derogatory bias.
Depends on the scale and the type of warfare, i guess. Their war against Athens wasn't exactly a phalanx vs phalanx thing... They did catch each other off guard quiet a lot, after all.
The fact that they used minimal body armour is because in their style of fitgh, the phalanx, thei make shields walls, that creates a very good protection that decrease the nesecit of a huge body armour.
@@coca_0146 Kinda debatable. Thield is useful for as long as the enemy spear is at a distance. As combat draws closer, Spears will get past the shields thru edges and weakspots and whoever is behind that shield is gonna get jabbed real bad.
I visited Greece some years ago. Stunning, unforgettable tour to the cradle of European civilization! So many things to see and to learn! And, particularly, that Greek soldiers are still called hoplites officially. Visit Greece, you won't regret, ever!
@Unusual Stranger If you knew the history of Ancient Greece, you wouldn't be so proud. Those warriors depicted in the video spent their time killing other Greeks. After centuries of civil wars, the Hellenic world was militarily spent and utterly divided. When the Romans came to invade them, they barely put up a fight.. all those centuries of accumulated knowledge, skill and glory counted for very little.
proud to be Greek we used to be everywhere, from southern France (Massalia), to Sicily and southern italy (Syracuse and Epirus), to the middle east (Ptolemaic Kingdom, Seleucid Empire, Bactria)
Peltasts were known as "gymnites" or "psiloi" in Greek meaning "naked" and "small in numbers" . They were light infantry, armed with slingshots, maybe bows and small javelins.They wore no armor, or linen pads and carried a small crescent shaped shield. They were used to either lure the enemy's cavalary to heavier infantry to be wiped out, for fighting in forested areas where movement of heavier troops was cumbersome, or harassing heavy infantry from afar. A common finding in battlefields were thumb shaped, lead projectiles with greek insults inscribed on them.Before the battle, peltasts would go to the beach, and poke with their thumb, holes in the sand. Then they would pour molten lead in them, and let them cool down. That's how they made ammunition for their slingshots.
That's not how I was taught about it. Peltasts were originally Thracian troops, and named after their shields, the Pelta, which was shaped like a fat crescent moon. This shield was very lightweight and more often than not only had a single center grip, and after a while a great number of other light shields were named Pelta too. Peltasts were also javelin throwers, using a leather string during the throwing of the javelin which gave it greater force, higher speed and a spin, stabilizing it. Depending on where they came from they may have more lighter javelins or fewer but heavier ones, but they also carried a long knife or short sword, although they were not expected to fight up close with the enemy. Other skirmisher types were not referred to as Peltasts. Greek archers were called Toxotai and slingers were called Sphendonetai. The three together were Psiloi, which were essentially a term used for skirmishers, the same way Hoplitai was the term for heavy infantry. The archers of Kreta (Crete) were particularly well known and sought after, although they were not able to outshine other top tier archers of the time. The slingers of Rodos (Rhodes) however were the single best of the time.
RU-vid randomly recommended me this video, and damn, it's one of the best things I have seen in a while. It shows the evolution of greek warfare perfectly and the style of drawing is so aesthetic and awesome. I also opened your channel and seen that there are many more. I wish you could have more subscribers because your work is awesome, keep it going brother
Dendra and the Cataphract were my favourite, I love it when ancient/medieval soldiers have a lot of armor. Great job on drawing these greek soldiers, great vid. I recommend drawing a history of persian, or perhaps egyptian armor.
Thanks mate. I’ve done a video on Achaemenid soldiers and one on Persian cataphracts down the ages, so probably not going to do a Persian panoply video anytime soon. Egyptian... maybe someday:)
I liked the fact that you talked on this video and commented a little in each drawing. I've seen other videos of your channel but they bored me after some time. Now that I discovered your channel once more and seen this video I say it's super entertaining and you should keep narrating the drawings, it makes the difference 😁
North of Greece lies Bulgaria. North of Bulgaria lies my country. We lubed the anus with butter, place the pole next to the hole, and the other against a heavy rock, tied the feet to a horse, and then we mushed the horse. Half way through we erected the pole. Should have seen the face of Sinan Pasa when he saw 10000 muslim warriors up on poles like that. We never ware conquered.
Very well done! By the commentary it’s easy to see the research on you put into this video. The artwork is as always amazing, keep up the great videos!
Great video bud! Only thing I can suggest since you specified the beards of some soldiers: the Spartans wore beards with no mustache and low on the chin, very similar to today's amish beards!
Great video and great work here ! Any chance to have some scientific references about the Pontic guy ? It's the first time I see this and it's absolutely badass.
I could find nothing concrete:/ Here's a website with a whole bunch of primary sources mentioning him www.attalus.org/names/m/mithridates.html (look under the Mithridates VI entry) but i don't think there's much there about Pontic archer-spearmen
2:40- Actually, I checked out the comic version. All of them are buck-naked. Still no fantastic monsters though, just panels of Spartans Phalanx steamrolling Persian infantry multiple times like a train.
Good work. Nice drawings. Interesting history! Keep it up! If I see more work of quality like this by you I will subscribe. A very impressive first look!
The Greeks actually embraced Romanism or the Latin culture more than their Greek heritage. In the Byzantine period, the Eastern Roman legionaries were after all an evolution of the classical Roman legions. Cataphracts were also Roman as it was adopted by the Romans after encountering the powerful Parthian and Sassanid heavy cavalry. By the late 3rd century and early 4th century, these units were already in use with the Roman military with Cataphracts as the lance wielding cavalrymen and the Clibinarii as the mace wielding heavy cavalry that are specifically trained to take on heavily armored legionaries and heavily armored cavalrymen with blunt edged weapons
Very nice work as always! Would you be kind to provide us with some sources that prove the existence of phalangarius? :D(if it's possible of course :))
Thanks man. Check the vid description, there’s a reference for Cassius Dio. Hard to prove they were really distinctive, tho I’m guessing they probably existed. But probably were just regular legionaries with fancy names. Or possibly some kind of fancier lanciarii
The Caucasian helmet was made from one piece, had no rivetted plates; and the rivetted (made from 4 pieces) that you made was Kipchak helmet, often with one metal piece meing from steel and next from bronze/brass; that type of helmet spread southwards into Caucasus only after 11th century being employed and settled into K of Georgia. Those helmets were a bit taller, pointier, while "Caucasian" helmet was made from one piece and had a little bit of dome shape and then having that pointy top - just like in your picture (with the point made drom separate piece is correct)
7:30 is actually the unique unit of the Parthians in Latin is called "Cataphractary" in persian "Catágam" meaning "quick step" ,the historical records of armored cavalry goes back to ancient Achamenid empire, heavy cataphract dates back to (2th century B.C.)the nomads called "Árkhşkania" the mightiest of the Parthians, this unit been represented to west after manynroman looses against the parthians. after fall of Parthia to Persia the Catagami style horseback was quickly adopted by the Shah of Persia and massively in use of the sasanian military. Bysantium replaced their traditional armor and helmets with those of persians if you wanna be historically currect! The first cataohracts of bysantium date back to 3th century A.D. during the reign of emperor Augustus.
I'm curious where the sourcing specifically for the cataphract comes from. Phokas in his Praecepta Militaria and the anonymous Sylloge Tacticorum mention very little of what you've represented. Further, Phokas mentions that the klibania should end at the waist and that kremesmata skirting should be added although it's not clear if he means maille or lamellar is added. Two points involving the extremities is that we doubt there would have been gauntlets and certainly were no pauldrons. Considering no other unit used gauntlets in the military, I find it immensely unlikely that they were used by cataphracts. We don't even see gauntlets as we know them until maille mittens have come into the fold. For the pauldrons, both Phokas and Nikephoros Ouranos in his later Taktica prescribe cataphracts using sleeved klibania, simply to cover the upper arm. For the lower arm to the wrist, Phokas says to gather coarse silk or cotton stitched as thick as possible together and then have "zabai", likely a maille layer stitched onto that, over it. There are lots of other small things like the validity of splinted greaves and the shape of the shields, but this is already dragging on long. Either way, fantastic video and please keep up the good work.
Thanks mate. Cards on the table Osprey was my primary reference here, tho the book references an ‘anonymous 10th century treatise’ which I assume is the Sylloge. But you’re right, the Sylloge doesn’t have a complete list of cataphract gear
There is actually a theory that the dendra panoply was used by charot riders, so the full cirble comment you made might have been more accurate than you thought
I would really like to know your opinnion about the way bronze age Greek warriors held their shields .Do you believe they were boss/center gripped ( like most European of this era ) , or strapped ( like the aspis ) ? Thanks in advance.
Depends on the shield right? Round shields that look like they have bosses, like the ones on the Egyptian reliefs showing the Sea Peoples, probably had bossed grips. Otherwise tower shields like the one shown in the video probably had a combination of straps and grips
