The rearming of Persians before Guagamela

[Jim Webster]

I was reading one modern source (Alexander the Great, lessons in strategy) and came across a comment set just before Gaugamela.
"Darius had made some technological progress since his first meeting with Alexander at Issus. His cavalry were no longer armed with javelins , but instead wielded longer swords and thrusting spears. There had been changes on the defensive front as well. His infantrymen were equipped with larger shields and some of his cavalry had link-armour."

I remembered the spears, but the infantry shields came as a surprise, so I went to the sources.

Arrian mentions levelling the ground.

Arrian. An. 3.8.6
With these forces Darius had encamped at Gaugamela, near the river Bumodus, about 600 stades distant from the city of Arbela, in a district everywhere level;[398] for whatever ground thereabouts was unlevel and unfit for the evolutions of cavalry, had long before been levelled by the Persians, and made fit for the easy rolling of chariots and for the galloping of horses.

Diodorus mentions swords and lances
 
"By the time he heard of his arrival, Dareius had already assembled his forces from all directions and made everything ready for the battle. He had fashioned swords and lances much longer than his earlier types because it was thought that Alexander had had a great advantage in this respect in the battle in Cilicia. He had also constructed two hundred scythe-bearing chariots well designed to astonish and terrify the enemy."
Diod. 17.53.1

And it was Curtis who gets even more expansive.

Curtis 4.9.3
https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Curtius/4*.html

since the army was about half as large as it had been in Cilicia, many lacked arms, which were being prepared with the greatest care. The horsemen and horses had shields made of iron plates connected together in a series: who had previously given nothing but spears, shields and swords were added. 4  And the herds of horses to be tamed were distributed to the footmen, so that the cavalry would be greater than before:

I found another translation of the same bit

You cannot view this attachment.

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008158415&seq=285

So the cavalry got longer spears and longer swords. The former I knew.
Some seem to have got horse armour. At least at the front.
The bit that intrigued me was "who had previously given nothing but spears, shields and swords were added"
Spears appear as javelins in other accounts.
Now it could be cavalry again, but the shields threw me because Shielded Persian cavalry don't seem to be supported by anything else.
So he could have given shields and swords to infantry. But to infantry armed only with javelins or spears alone.
I was left wondering who these might be, or whether Curtis has just got his wires crossed or other translations make it more clear.

Given Darius had nearly two years to build his army, Diodorus comments, "4 He had in mind to deploy for battle in the vicinity of Nineveh, since the plains there were well suited to his purpose and afforded ample manoeuvre room for the huge forces at his disposal. Pitching camp at a village named Arbela, he drilled his troops daily and made them well disciplined by continued training and practice. He was most concerned lest some confusion should arise in the battle from the numerous peoples assembled who differed in speech."

So he had plenty of time to train them with new weaponry.

[Duncan Head]

It's intriguing, though of course with two accounts that say different things, and our best source (Arrian) not mentioning it at all, one does wonder if this re-equipment actually happened. The horse-armour for one thing is already mentioned at Issos.

Spears appear as javelins in other accounts.

It's iacula, so javelins.

[Jim Webster]

Thanks for that. I will remain intrigued, and just keep an eye open 

[DBS]

I read it as giving shields and swords to hitherto very lightly equipped infantry.  It makes no sense for cavalry, as we know from the Babylonian tablets and even Herodotos that they were usually well equipped from the start of the empire.  My assumption is that it probably refers to levies who in more normal circumstances come along as labourers, etc, with no need for anything other than a couple of pointy sticks, but now need to be able to take on Agrianes and Cretans.

[Jim Webster]

The problem is that I'm not sure there were many levies who came along as labourers. But that has got me thinking about conscription and logistics and exactly who was there 

[DBS]

Sorry, I worded that a little poorly.  I meant levies who, in normal times, would only be levied for employment in very auxiliary roles such as labouring.  But for Gaugamela, Darius wants them for combat duties, and therefore makes an effort to equip them accordingly.

[Jim Webster]

Hi David
It is a tricky one. We know from Babylonia that men (and women) could be conscripted for labouring work in much the same way that they could be conscripted for anything else. So it is possible that labourers could be gathered. Indeed we know that there was a shortage of labour (land went uncultivated in places) and Satraps and others would move craftsmen, herdsmen, and labourers considerable distances between their estates in different satrapies.
My suspicion is that a lot of the work in levelling the ground etc might well be done by men sent as part of military contingents. They were there, they were being fed anyway, and OK it might mean breaking off from drill. Issus was fought on the 5th November 333BC and Gaugamela on the 1st October 331BC (The dates are wiki so I'd be happy to say they were about two years apart). Thus there was plenty of time to gather an army, train it and suchlike.

[Jim Webster]

It's all David's fault, as he started me thinking.

Anyway I dug down and found The Arrows of the Sun. Armed Forces in Sippar in the First Millennium BC
John MacGinnis

It does look at various ways troops were raised and equipped and mentions 'lances'. MacGinnis comments

"We could then, following Bongenaar, propose the following for the lexicography of the equipment of the Neo-Babylonian soldier:
 
This offers the translation, "We could then, following Bongenaar, propose the following for the lexicography of
the equipment of the Neo-Babylonian soldier:?

This offers the translation, "asmarti    lance"
 
As for the issue of these asmarti we have the tablet, No.49 BM 68702 (32-9-18,8701) which is dated year 9 Cyrus / 1 Cambyses (530-528 BC)

I include a screen shot. It does rather look as if they're infantry equipment. I assume the water bottles are not individual issue, but large containers carried by the donkeys?

You cannot view this attachment.

[DBS]

MacGinnis in his short paper:
https://www.academia.edu/1229221/Role_of_Babylonian_Temples_in_contributing_to_the_Army_in_the_Early_Achaemenid_Empire

specifically hypothesises (presumably in part because of this tablet) that the Ebabbara temple's normal maximum levy contribution was around fifty archers.  No mention of shields.  "Lances" may be a typical non-military specialist's common mistake that it is a straight forward synonym for "spear" and applicable to infantry armament.

And apologies for making you think!!!

[Adrian Nayler]

Anyway I dug down and found The Arrows of the Sun. Armed Forces in Sippar in the First Millennium BC
John MacGinnis

For anyone interested, this book has been digitised and is available here:    https://dlib.nyu.edu/ancientworld/books/isaw_islet000004/1
(Download options are available in the 'i' menu, top left.)

[Jim Webster]

John MacGinnis has a page here

https://bassing.academia.edu/JohnMacGinnis


Scroll down to find all sorts of interesting stuff
 
Arrows of the Sun isn't on there but is a pdf at https://mc.dlib.nyu.edu/files/books/isaw_islet000004/isaw_islet000004_lo.pdf

[Duncan Head]

"Lances" may be a typical non-military specialist's common mistake that it is a straight forward synonym for "spear" and applicable to infantry armament.

It's Akkadian azmarû, used for the weapons of both temple conscript infantry and Gadal-Iama's cavalry spears, possibly equating with the Greek palton in that case since he carries a pair, and at earlier periods used for Assyrian spears.

[Jim Webster]

Interesting that I've found two examples, one where azmaru has been translated lance and another as spear. Both with infantry
Both in The Arrows of the Sun. Armed Forces in Sippar in the First Millennium BC
John MacGinnis
One (lances ) in BM 68702  Year 9 Cyrus, 1 Cambyses 530-528BC
One  (Spears)  in BM 62472 Year 2 Cambyses 527BC

In both cases the word translated is azmaru so it's translator preference.

In 3 Darius 518BC there are men with bows only but they also seem to have spades and hoes and have been sent to Elam
There are others (with no date preserved) which send higher officers appear to buy equipment for archers without needing spears.

The men sent to Elam might well be more along the lines of armed labourers as suggested by David

Or a shortish handy spear would be a reasonable side arm and more usually a walking stick when on the march