Wednesday 4 September 2019

15mm Carthaginian Sacred Band

One of the few units to be made up of actual Carthaginians as opposed to mercenaries, the Sacred Band were well-armoured citizen spearmen who fought in a spear phalanx. They were highly-regarded troops but were wiped out twice, once in Sicily against the Greek Timoleon who surprised them while crossing the Crimissus River and the second time in Tunis, after which they were never reformed. Consequently they are only included in early army lists, but are a more than useful addition for Carthaginian armies of that period:


















The citizens forming the Sacred Band apparently equipped themselves with expensive armour, so I depicted them all with bronze armour and shields which is in line with some interpretations of what they may have worn:


















The command figures were drawn from the usual Xyston Carthaginian command pack, although I selected those which looked earlier appearance:




































The figures are as usual Xyston, with eight stands and thirty-two figures in all:


















Next up will be some citizen spearmen, and then the cavalry, elephants and chariots to complete the army.

13 comments:

  1. A wonderful painting for a famous unit, congrats!

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    1. Thanks Phil. Their history would suggest that they didn't have a lot of luck.

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  2. Nice work! Being wiped out twice is not something one wants to read in a recruiting brochure.

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    1. I'm not sure I would have bothered reforming after the first one, but the Carthaginians do seem to have been a persistent lot.

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  3. Great looking,if unlucky,sacred band!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks Iain. Hopefully mine won't get wiped out when they see action.

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  4. Yep, gotta have the Sacred Band if you do Carthage, and these are a very nice version of same, Lawrence!

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    1. Thanks Peter. I'm looking forward to giving the early Carthaginians a run against some other armies of the era, as opposed to the Second Punic War variations we usually play.

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  5. That is a significant sized unit there Lawrence. Well done.

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    1. Thanks Mark. They all seem to be quite large units in the Carthaginian army, and I'm rushing to get a few more done before part of it takes the field for the first time in a couple of weeks.

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  6. Nice work although the classical sources, notably Plutarch, do state that the sacred band had white shields

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