Assault Hexeres, Numidian Noble Infantry

Description

As centuries passed, naval tactics and needs changed across the Mediterranean. There was a move towards larger ships, partly as an expression of national or dynastic power: the Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt were particularly fond of large ships to show their wealth and influence in a physical way. These 'polyremes', a term meaning many oared, were not suitable for ramming work in battle. In practice many of them had no more oars than smaller ships; what they had were more rowers per oar than smaller ships. A Roman hexareme or Greek hexeres would have a couple of banks of oars with three men per oar, and appear to be an over-sized version of a smaller ship. Even so, thanks to being tremendously heavy and strongly constructed, they were slow moving, and hardly capable of the quick turns needed to take advantage of enemy mistakes. Instead the large ships made use of their wide decks and plentiful carrying capacities and became fighting platforms for infantry and artillery. Boarding or long-range bombardment were the methods to be used to defeat the enemy; naval warfare had come full circle in terms of fighting methods, even if ships had grown significantly.

Numidia had a fierce warrior tradition, partly because the eastern Massylii and western Masaesylis had a tradition of bitter feuding and internal warfare. They took, and changed, sides in the Punic Wars to suit their own agenda, and only emerged as a single state after the Battle of Zama in 202BC. The fall of Carthage allowed the Numidians to expand their lands, and this led to the Jugurthine War of 112-105BC against Rome. Numidia’s king, Jugurtha, was only defeated when he was betrayed by his father-in-law, Bocchus. While the Numidians were famed as cavalrymen, their infantry forces were also quite effective. The historian Suetonius mentions that there were 'Numidian legions', a term normally used in Roman writings for Roman troops, when passing comment on Julius Caesar’s speech about Juba’s march to aid Scipio before the Battle of Thapsus in 46BC. This suggests that some Numidians were fighting in Roman style, and were possibly equipped in the same manner. The Numidians also adopted other tactics and war gear, such as the thureos-style shield and hoplite-like spears.