It was quite a long time ago that I received the following question from a Σparta’s reader: what the Thespian hoplites looked like? I must confess the question is interesting and should be of importance for a great number of reenactors (sic) and modelists (sic). At the same time the question is difficult to be answered regardless of its easiness and simplicity. It is, thus, a good idea to limit the question’s time broadness to a specific time of period, and we can do that by asking what the Thespian hoplite looked like in 450 to 420 B.C.E?
As you can realize my attempt to reconstruct the uniform used by the Thespiae’s hoplites starts thirty years later of Thermopylae. It was a time of period in which Thespiae had the right to construct its coins. We have two examples of coins; the one c. 456 – 446 in which the one side represents a Boeotian shield and the other an amphora with a crescent at its lower right. The other c. 431-424 has representations of a Boeotian shield, on its one side, and an inscription ΘΕΣ above a crescent. The question that must be answered before we try to draw some conclusions of the potential and more likely symbols of the Thespian’s shield, is as follows: can we trust the iconography representation available in coins?
More Related Stories: Σparta magazine forum now online|Zack Snyder and the 300|Who will watch the 300|What Roz Kaveney thinks about the Spartans?|Warriors' Graves of the Peloponnesian War in display|Tomorrow opens the permanent collection of Cypriot antiquities at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens|This Day in Ancient History: The start of the Peloponnesian War and Socrates Death|The Tegean Army|Statue Project Planned for Sparta, Greece|Sparta’s Carnival (Oct. 2006)
In my opinion the answer of the above question is no. Unfortunately we cannot take in granted and drive into conclusions of the equipment and symbolism used on hoplite’s shield devices from coins’ and pottery’s iconography (see foo.1). However, iconography can generate different conclusions, such as the religious practices, mythological concepts, general artistic attitudes, trade and financial wealth and even political/governmental stability and/or independence. These are also the conclusions that can be drawn from the already mentioned Thespian coins. There is no evidence, therefore, that can support – or definitely discard – that coins portrait shield devices and/or shield shapes. Thus, we cannot claim that a unified common blazon was in place on Thespians’ shields. We can claim that the Boeotian shield design should have been a common shield blazon as easy as to claim that the crescent was a common blazon.
Boeotia, Thespiae AR Obolos or Twelfth Stater. c. 431 – 424 BC. Boeotian shield at one side and the inscription ΘΕΣ above a crescent at the other.
Source: wildwinds.com
Copyright: Manchester University Museum.
Most reasonable is to say that the Thespians had in common practice the norm of ‘individual blazons’. We can even suggest that inspiration have been drawn mainly from their allies and neighbors. Most likely, when in the case of the Thespian integration to the Theban governed Boeotian league, in the early 420s, and much later (c.379) with the Spartans, their shield blazon should have been more unified.
1. See a previous article which the ‘theory’ is been discussed here .
