Plutarch's Wars: Successor Generals

There were a number of interesting characters in the Successor Wars. Some had held high office under Alexander whereas others made a meteoric rise in the confusion of shifting alliances or only attained maturity as the wars raged.

The careers of these men is covered in many places, so I won't go into detail. If you are interested, then reading the appropriate Lives by Plutarch is a good place to start although by his own admission he is interested in the moral aspects rather than straightforward history.

For my Successor armies, I painted a variety of generals. I wanted at least 6 so I can field two armies at once, plus some on foot. With so many theoretical elements, I decided to add a few details to give a bit of differentiation.

 This is one of the foot generals. Figures are by Xyston. For the phalangites shields I made some transfers. The general's aspis was inspired the the decoration in the Tomb of the Erotes. 










The picture at the beginning of this post shows some of the mounted generals I use. All figures are by Xyston.

The central figure wears a helmet as shown on some depictions of Alexander. He gets used as Alex and as various others of the Successors.

I use this as Eumenes of Kardia. He raised a large number of Kappadokian cavalry and some of these may have formed his personal agema. I have kept them on armoured horses as may have been used by Kappadokians at Gaugamela a decade earlier.
The Xyston Kappadokian figures are a little bigger than their Macedonians which makes Eumenes look quite young!

This rear view is the figure I use for Peukestes. He was an enthusiastic supporter of Alexander's move towards mixing the Persians and Macedonians and is noted for wearing Persian dress. For these figures I used the Xyston xystophoroi figures. These are larger than most others - the cloak and feathers add to this impression. As can be seen, I removed the feathers from all except the general. I also added some sleeves and a collar to turn his cloak into the distinctive Persian coat. This is shown in Achaemenid art, is worn by Easterners in Roman art and continues to show up in the area even today - Hamid Karzai frequently wears a coat in this fashion.

I know a lot of visitors to my blog are interested in the comparison shots. Here are some Xyston cavalry alongside Old Glory 15s Seleucids.

Here are, from left, Black Hat (ex-Gladiator) Kappadokians, Essex Companions and Xyston Companions.