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Mithradates’ foot soldiers at the Battle of Chaeronea
1. Preamble
crisTiAN EMiliAN Ghiţă
on the plain of Chaeronea, in 86 BC, on what must have been a
beautiful day of late spring, there stood, facing each other, two armies.
the smaller one was led by Sulla. Most of them were Italians, Sulla’s
old and loyal soldiers, who stubbornly followed their general, although
back home, in rome, he had been declared an enemy of the state by his
political enemies. to these were added some Macedonians and some
Greeks who supported the cause of rome. opposite them was the army
of the pontic general Archelaos. And what an amazing sight it presented!
Among them, Appian says, “there were thracians, people from pontus,
Scythians, Cappadocians, Bithynians, Galatians and phrygians, as well as
others from the territories Mithridates had recently acquired, in all about
one hundred and twenty thousand men” 1 . plutarch adds to the description:
“the atmosphere could barely hold the cacophony of shouts issued by so
many peoples ordered in a line of battle. At the same time the boastfulness
and haughtiness of their extravagant equipment was quite useful in causing
fear: their sparkling weaponry, richly adorned with gold and silver, their
colourful Median and Scythian tunics, mingled with shining bronze and
iron offered a fiery and daunting spectacle, in their continuous motion.” 2
1 “Θρᾷκές τε ὄντες καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ Πόντου καὶ Σκύθαι καὶ Καππαδόκαι Βιθυνοί τε καὶ
Γαλάται καὶ Φρύγες καὶ ὅσα ἄλλα τῷ Μιθριδάτῃ νεόκτητα γένοιτο, πάντες ἐς δυώδεκα
μυριάδας ἀνδρῶν”, Appian, Bellum Mithridaticum (henceforth App., Mithr.), 158. All
translations belong to the author, unless otherwise stated.
2 “τὴν δὲ κραυγὴν καὶ ἀλαλαγμὸν οὐκ ἔστεγεν ὁ ἀὴρ ἐθνῶν τοσούτων
ἅμακαθισταμένων εἰς τάξιν. ἦν δὲ ἅμα καὶ τὸ κομπῶδες καὶ σοβαρὸν αὐτῶν τῆς
πολυτελείας οὐκ ἀργὸν οὐδὲ ἄχρηστον εἰς ἔκπληξιν, ἀλλ᾽ αἵ τε μαρμαρυγαὶ τῶν ὅπλων
ἠσκημένων χρυσῷ τε καὶ ἀργύρῳ διαπρεπῶς, αἵ τε βαφαὶ τῶν Μηδικῶν καὶ Σκυθικῶν