Argyraspides

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The Argyraspides (in Greek Aργυρασπιδες) were a division of the Macedonian army of Alexander the Great, who were so called because they carried shields covered with silver plates. They were picked men, and were commanded by Nicanor, the son of Parmenion, and were held in high honour by Alexander. After the death of Alexander (323 BC) they followed Eumenes. They were veterans, and although most of them were over sixty, they were unvanquished due to their battle skills.

At the Battle of Gabiene they settled with Antigonus when he managed to take possession of their baggage train (consisting in their families and the result of forty years of plunder). They obtained the return of their possessions, but in exchange delivered Eumenes up to him (316 BC).

Antigonus, however, soon broke up the corps, finding it too turbulent to manage. He sent them to Sibyrtius, the Macedonian satrap of Arachosia, with the order to despatch them by small groups of two or three to dangerous missions, so that their numbers would dwindle rapidly.

The Seleucid kings of Syria seem to have had a corps of the same name in their army: Livy mentions them as the royal cohort in the army of Antiochus III the Great. The Emperor Alexander Severus, among other things in which he imitated Alexander the Great, had in his army bodies of men who were called argyroaspides and chrysoaspides.

References

Smith, William (editor); Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, "Argyraspides", Boston, (1870)

Notes

Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca, xvii. 57, 58, 59, xviii. 63, xix. 12, 41, 43, 48; Curtius Rufus, Historiae Alexandri Magni, iv. 13; Plutarch, Parallel Lives, "Eumenes", 13-19 Livy, Ab urbe condita, xxxvii. 40; Polybius, Histories, v. 79 Historia Augusta, "Alexander Severus", 50

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