Unit Preview : Independant City Units - Part 1
As we get further with this mod we have less time to donate to things such as a complete faction previews but we are well aware that people like to see that we are both making progress and also they like to see pictures of units. With this in mind we have decided to move to the warriors from indepedant cities of which we will release a new one every week with some extras inserted from time to time. These warriors will be recruitable by factions who hold the correct city and have the appropriate structures.
Independant City Units:
The Greek Rebel Faction icon in Hegemonia is a torch and two crossed swords, both symbols that are associated with the Greek war-god Ares
1. Thespian Hoplites
The Thespian "Melanochitones" (or "Black Cloaks") are the hoplites of the city of Thespiai, they are some of the bravest hoplites of Hellas who not only fought to the last man in Thermopylai but also took part in the battle of Plataia, with no shields of their own, as their city was destroyed by the Persians during their advance. They used the Boeotian shield which had a crescent moon painted on it which is the symbol of Artemis their patron goddess and along with the black cloak, their equipment is also dark. They are known to be specialists using the "kopis/machaira" sword but they are not professional soldiers. Tradition suggests that they exchanged cloaks with the Spartans of Leonidas as a sign of respect to their decision to stay with them and make a last stand.
Map of the region around Thespia
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Updated (04/10/06)
2. Akragas Hoplites
The Greek city of Akragas (modern Agrigento) in Sicily, was a colony of settlers mainly from Rhodes and Crete who, having initially settled in Gela, decided to move west, partly in an attempt to stem the ambitious advances of Selinunte and partly because the land in the area was ideal for cultivating olives, grapes and cereal. The city, supposedly founded in 582 BC, soon became prosperous and, in its glory days, was one of the most important and most culturally-advanced Greek cities in the Mediterranean.
However, as it grew more and more successful, so did its rivalries with other Greek colonies, especially that of Siracusa (Syracuse). In 406 BC Hannibal and the Carthaginians, working in cahoots with Dionysius of Siracusa, laid siege to the city. After holding out for eight months, Akragas finally fell and its citizens were removed to Gela. Later, they were allowed to return, but were prohibited from fortifying their town and had to pay taxes to Carthage.
Map of the region around Akragas
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Updated (15/10/06)
3. Rhegion Hoplites
The city of Rhegion was founded by Chalkideans in approximately 730 BC. The intended founders of the city recieved an oracle that it should be founded where a male and female embraced; the Rhegonites founded the city where a grape vine had grown around a fig tree (in ancient Greek, the word vine declined in the masculine tense and was therefore male, while the word fig declined in the feminine), on the toe of Italy. As one of the oldest cities in Magna Grecia, Rhegion enjoyed the prosperity of the land to be found there, especially through the goods they could export back to Greece, mainly in wine, timber and ores. The wealth attained by Rhegion gave them a powerful navy, making them an even party in any alliance they cared to form. Ironically, it was this even footing which was their downfall, as the many alliances they extended conflicted in various wars. Through wars with the Italian Locrians, conflicts they were forced to join on behalf of their many allies (particularly Athens and Syracuse), and later the Romans during the Punic conflict, the treasury of Rhegion was depleted and the city eventually ravaged.
These Hoplites are armed in the traditional gear of those on the mainland, but with a slightly archaic twist: the closed-Corinthian helmet. The closed Corinthian offered the greatest protection of any design, but had been mostly phased out of use in favor of Corinthian models with greater visiblity. We equiped them with this old style helmet to show their affinity for tradition. As one of the oldest cities in Magna Graecia, Rhegion has been seperate from mainland culture for the longest period of time, hence the older designs on the armor. On their shields they bear the head of a lion in profile, the badge of their city.
Map of the area around Rhegion
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(20/10/06)
4. Maroneian Hoplites
Maroneia was a farming and trade center founded at the foot of Mt. Ismaros on the southern coast of Thrace, about 30 miles east of Abdera, in the 7th century B.C. by colonists from the island of Chios. The place was named for Maron, a legendary priest of Apollo, who features in the Odyssey as the bestower of gifts on Odysseus and was also the the mythical founder (oikistes) of the city.
Maroneia was renowned for the excellent quality of its wine and vines feature prominently on its coinage, and thus we used the vine on our units shield. Mythology tells us that Odysseus got the Cyclops drunk on red wine from Ismaros. Homer describes Maron's hospitality and the gifts that he offered to Ulysses when he visited the land of the Kikones. The horse appears to have been the special emblem of the city though its precise significance is uncertain. This uncertain nature is why we prefered the Vine for the units shield emblem.
The City reached its zenith in the 5th century B.C. and, together with Abdera and Aino, was considered the most prosperous city-state in Thrace. During the Classical period the city had a strong fortification wall, 10 km. long, enclosing an area of 4 sq.km., which extended from the coast up to the top of Ismaros.
Map of the area around Maroneia (because of the lack of identifiable landmarks in this region we include the mini-map so you can see where the city lies)
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(25/10/06)
5. Naxos Hoplites
According to mythology, Zeus, king of gods, grew up in Naxos, hidden away from the ferocity of his father, Cronus, by his mother; Naxos is also the place where Dionysus, god of wine and feast, son of Zeus, was born and raised by some nymphs. Reputedly Dionysus loved Naxos so much that he made it a fertile land, full of vineyards, producing a wine of excellent taste and fine quality. Naxos is where, according to another myth, Theseus, after killing the Minotaur of Crete, abandoned Ariadne. She was the daughter of the Cretan King, Minos, and helped Theseus find his way in the labyrinth where the Minotaur was kept.
Thracians were the first inhabitants of the island and stayed there for two centuries, until the Careans took control; it is believed that the island owes its name to their leader, Naxos. The Island of Naxos was later dominated by the Ionians, who apparently civilized it. Its Ionian inhabitants became very wealthy by sea trade; Naxos made an excellent stop over while crossing the southern Aegean.
During the Persian War, Naxos fought alongside the Athenians. Unfortunately their allies saw the possibilities of Naxos as a naval base, and absorbed the island into their empire after the defeat of Persia. Thucydides speaks in great detail of a revolt on Naxos during the Athenian Hegemony, which the Athenians crushed. As a result of the eventual Athenian defeat in the Peleponesian War, Sparta captured the island in turn.
Naxos would spend the next few centuries under the control of different powers: the Macedonian Empire, the Ptolemaic Empire, the Rhodians and, from 41 BC, the Roman Empire.
Map of the area surrounding Naxos
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10/11/06
6. Larissa Hoplites
The city of Larissa:
The name Larissa, was common to many Pelasgian towns and comes from the Greek nymph Larissa.
Larissa, sometimes written Larisa on ancient coins and inscriptions, is near the site of the Homeric Argissa. The city appears to be fairly important from an early date, when Thessaly was mainly governed by a few aristocratic families, as an important city under the rule of the Aleuadae, whose authority extended over the whole district of Pelasgiotis. This powerful family possessed for many generations, before 369 BC, the privilege of furnishing the "Tagus" title, the "supreme commander" of the combined Thessalian forces. The principal-rivals of the Aleuadae were the Scopadac of Crannon, about 14 miles south west. These baronial families organized a federation across the Thessaly region, later went on to control the Amphictyonic League in northern Greece. The area around Larissa was extremely fruitful - it was agriculturally important and in antiquity was known for its horses. The Thessalians were renowned for their cavalry skills.
During the Persian Wars the Aleuadae sided with the Persian invaders, probably owing to the smaller matter of the fact that they were directly in Xerxes path. The inhabitants of Larissa later sided with Athens during the Peloponnesian War.
In later periods Thessaly would be a vassel state of Macedonia and during the Roman invasion their city was of considerable importance.
Map of the area surrounding Larissa
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(13/11/06)
6. Byzantine Hoplites
Located on the Bosporus, the city of Byzantion was founded in approximately 660 BC by Megarians under Byzas, from whom the city takes its name. The colonists were advised by an oracle to build their colony across from 'the land of the blind'. They founded it across from the Phoenician colony of Chalkedon, reasoning that the Phoencian settlers must be blind to have missed such an ideal spot as the one the Megarians chose.
Like many far abroad Greek colonies Byzantion changed hands based on the fortunes of its mainland patrons. With the decline of Megara, Byzantion was captured by the Persians in 513 (the year before the mod begins). The Spartan general Pausanius liberated the city in 479 BC, only to have it annexed by the Athenians after the war. After the Athenian defeat the city was surrendered to the Spartans once again. Later, the city would be broken by Phillip of Macedon and governed by Alexander.
Ultimately Byzantion would pass to the Romans, under whom the city had its golden age. Although not precisely the same city as the Byzantion of our mod (the Roman emperor Septimus Severus had the city destroyed after a rebellion), the Emperor Constantine rebuilt Byzantion on the old site, renaming it Constantinople after himself and making it the Empire's second capital in about 325 BC.
Map of the region around Byzantion
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Updated (04/01/07)
7. Sybaris Hoplites
Sybaris, the principle rival of Croton in antiquity, was founded by Achaeans in the 7th century BC. Owing to the remarkable fertility of the land on which it was founded, Sybaris grew to prosperity very quickly. By 580 BC, Sybaris was described as being one of the most prominent cities of Magna Graecia. It warred principally with Croton, its major economic rival, and was as significant as Taras in its heyday. Unfortunately, the city's prosperity was cut short by a Crotoniat conquest, which was clearly so complete that records are scarce as to how it happened or even much about the city itself.
According to surviving Sybarites- as recorded by Herodotus- the Crotoniats were assisted by Dorieus of Sparta (the general who had requested the right to colonize in Sicily because of his misgivings for the current king, Cleomenes), in what was to be an equal war. They and their king Telys prepared to engage a tradition Croton force, were vastly outnumbered and utterly massacred. The Crotoniats claimed they were unassisted and that the cause for war was past grievance rather than present. In any case the same force that defeated the Sybarites laid waste to the city of Sybaris itself. The site was never truly rebuilt, although according to Pausanius it was resettled as Lupiae long after the massacre by the Romans. Even the location of that city is not entirely clear.
The truth behind the city's fall is likely more akin to the Crotoniat telling. Sybaris had continued to prosper economically but had been overshadowed by the alliances of Magna Graecia with the mainland for decades, having formed no such bonds of its own. Although the land was well suited to support a larger population, Sybaris no longer saw the arrival of mainland immigrants as the other Italian colonies did. By the time of the Crotoniat domination, raising adequate men to defend the city was likely quite difficult; despite the continued expertise of Sybarite troops, their population was no longer sufficient to compete with the rest of Magna Graecia.
Map of the region around Sybaris
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8. Kyme Hoplites
Kyme, founded by Euboeans in the 8th century BC, is perhaps the oldest Magna Graecian colony. The settlers were from Chalkis and Euboean Kyme, from which the city took its name, and carved out a section of campagnian territory to call their own. Kyme would later be latinized to Cumae, the site of the Cumean oracle, who divined by the 'voices of the cave'. The priestess' home was a large oddly shaped cave with hundreds of subordinate tunnels, each of which supposidely had its own opinion the priestess had to sort through. With its growing influence, Cumae became the outlet for Greek trade with the Etruscans, and therefore the point of diffusion for Greek culture. Eventually, Cumae's maritime activity grew to the extent that her fleet defeated the enormous Etruscan one in 474 BC, resulting in a maritime alliance with Syracuse. Cumae's newfound military power allowed the founding of Neapolis (Naples) four years later.
Cumae's influence declined only with the rise of Rome. Ironically, the primary site for Greek culture's entrance into Italy was among the first Greek cities to be latinized.
Map of the region around Kymi
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(Updated 08/01/07)
9. Megara Hoplites
Megara is an ancient city in Attica, Greece. It lies on the Saronic Gulf opposite the island of Salamis, which it hotly contested with Athens around 570 BC (about the same time Perachora was lost to Corinth). Megara was built on an arid strip of land between two rocks in order to allow the city two ports, on the Saronic Gulf and the Gulf of Corinth respectively. Megara was one of the four districts of Attica, embodied in the four mythic sons of King Pandion II, of whom Nisos was the ruler of Megara.
In historical times, Megara was early a dependency of Corinth, in which capacity colonists from Megara founded Megara Hyblaea, a small polis north of Syracuse in Sicily. Megara then fought a war of independence with Corinth, and afterwards founded (c. 667 BC) Byzantium, as well as Chalcedon, Selinus, Selymbria, Astakos and Pontic Heraclea.
In the Persian Wars Megara stood against Persia. Megarians fought at Plataea, sending 3000 troops, and it was at Megara that the Persians stopped, unable to continue past the Isthmus.
Before the Peloponnesian War, Megara sided with Athens and the Athenians built long walls from the town down to the port of Nisaea. But they soon turned on the Athenians and in 432 BC , Pericles' famous Megarian Decree helped to provoke the Peloponnesian War by barring all Megarians from Attic markets and harbors.
During the war{ 431 BC-404 BC}, Megara was an ally of Sparta; the Athenians invaded Megara's lands often and even blockaded the city from the sea. Though the Athenians managed to take the port of Nisaea, they never managed to break into the city itself.
The Megarian territory, already very poor, was then ravaged year after year, and in 427 Nicias even established a permanent post in the island of Minoa to hold Nisaea.
The most famous citizen of Megara in antiquity was Byzas. The 6th-century poet Theognis also came from Megara. The Megarans were proverbial for their generosity in building and endowing temples. St.Jerome, in 409 AD (letter cxxiii.15 [1]) reports "There is a common saying about the Megarians... 'They build as if they are to live forever; they live as if they are to die tomorrow.'"
Megara was also the birthplace of the Sophist, Eucleides, a follower of Socrates, who, about the year 400 BC, founded the philosophic school of Megara, chiefly famous for the cultivation of dialectic.
Map of the region around Megara
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(Updated 08/01/07)
10 Thasos Hoplites
Thassos has been inhabited since prehistoric times. Neolithic tools and crude pottery, similar to those discovered on Lemnos and Samothrace, have been found at various sites on the island. The early inhabitants were likely Thracians.
The island was colonized at an early date by Phoenicians, attracted probably by its gold mines; they founded a temple to the god Melqart, whom the Greeks identified as "Tyrian Heracles", and whose cult was merged with Heracles in the course of the island's Hellenization;[1] the temple still existed in the time of Herodotus.[2] An eponymous Thasos, son of Phoenix— or of Agenor, as Pausanias reported— is said to have been the leader of the Phoenicians, and to have given his name to the island.
In 720 708 BC, Thasos received a Greek colony from Paros. It was in a war which the Parian colonists waged with the Saians, a Thracian tribe, that the poet Archilochus threw away his shield. The Greeks extended their power to the mainland, where they owned gold mines which were even more valuable than those on the island. From these sources the Thasians drew great wealth, their annual revenues amounting to 200 or even 300 talents. Herodotus, who visited Thasos, says that the best mines on the island were those which had been opened by the Phoenicians on the east side of the island facing Samothrace.
The island was also important during the Ionian Revolt against Persia. After the capture of Miletus (494 BC) Histiaeus, the Ionian leader, laid siege to Thasos. The attack failed, but, warned by the danger, the Thasians employed their revenues to build war ships and strengthen their fortifications. This excited the suspicions of the Persians, and Darius compelled them to surrender their ships and pull down their walls. After the defeat of Xerxes the Thasians joined the Delian confederacy; but afterwards, on account of a difference about the mines and marts on the mainland, they revolted.
The Athenians defeated them by sea, and, after a siege that lasted more than two years, took the capital, Thasos (probably in 463 BC), and compelled the Thasians to destroy their walls, surrender their ships, pay an indemnity and an annual contribution (in 449 BC this was 21 talents, from 445 BC about 30 talents), and resign their possessions on the mainland. One might observe that these terms were even more harsh than those of the Persians. In 411 BC, at the time of the oligarchical revolution at Athens, Thasos again revolted from Athens and received a Lacedaemonian governor; but in 407 BC the partisans of Lacedaemon were expelled, and the Athenians under Thrasybulus were admitted.
After the Battle of Aegospotami (405 BC), Thasos again fell into the hands of the Lacedaemonians under Lysander who formed a decarchy there; but the Athenians must have recovered it, for it eventually became a subject of dispute between them and Philip II of Macedon.
Map of the region around Thasos
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This thread will be regularly updated.
We hope you have enjoyed this unit preview
The Hegemonia Team
Originally Posted by spirit_of_rob
