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Ancient Armies

Ancient Spanish (240-20 BC)
(DBA 53)

By Stephen Montague

The following is a brief sketch of Spanish history before it became totally absorbed into the Roman Empire. The native people of Spain were the Iberians. These had a tribal organisation and were therefore split up into various tribal groups. The Iberians had strong contact with the classical world as both the Greeks and Phoenicians traded with them and had settlements in Spain. Iberians also provided mercenaries to various countries around the Mediterranean by the fifth century BC. Another source of outside influence was the Celts, these had moved into Spain during the eighth to sixth century's BC. The Celts had blended in with the native Iberians to produce the Celtiberians.

After Carthaginians had lost the first Punic war they were looking for a place to expand and Spain is where they chose. The Romans inevitably followed and the second Punic war started when the Carthaginians attacked a Greek city that the Romans claimed was part of their territory in Spain. Rome and Carthage fought each other in Spain with Spaniards providing troops to both sides. The Spanish provided Hannibal with a lot of his best troops. When the Romans had beaten the Carthaginians they took over their Spanish territories and over the next couple of centuries expanded to conquer the rest of the peninsular. The last part of Spain to be absorbed was the north west corner in 19 BC.

Enemies

Later Carthaginian (31b), Gallic (35), Polybian Roman (46b), Ancient Spanish (52), Marian Roman (59).

Army lists

The official DBA list represents an amalgam of Iberian and Lusitanian armies, both with Celtiberian allies/mercenaries. A third possible army, the Celtiberians has been ignored all together, as well as the Roman-Spanish army led by Sertorius against Pompey. The following are specific variant lists for each of these armies (note: 52b-d are based upon DBM conversions):

Sertorian Romano-Spanish Variant

(52b) Iberian

1x3Cv, 1x2LH, 6x3Aux, 1x3Wb (Celtiberians) or 2xPs, 3x2Ps.

(52c) Lusitanian

1x3Cv, 1x2LH, 3x3Aux, 1x3Wb (Celtiberians) or 2xPs, 6x2Ps.

(52d) Celtiberians

1x3Cv, 1x2LH, 5x3Wb, 4x2Ps, 1x3Wb or 1x2Ps.

Notes

One Ps can be (Baleric) slingers.

The 1x3Wb or 1x2Ps in the Celtiberian list is there because there are slightly more Wb than Ps in the DBM list but not quite enough for the 6:4 split in the variant DBA list. I would say however that a 6:4 split should be taken rather than 5:5.

Painting guide

I will start by shamelessly plagiarising Jonathan Lim's Guide to Painting Carthaginians. A quote from Polybios:

The shields used by the Spaniards and Celts were very similar to one another, but their swords were quite different. The point of the Spanish sword was no less effective for wounding than the edge...the troops were drawn up in alternate companies, the Celts naked, the Spanish with their short linen tunics bordered with purple - their national dress - so their line presented a strange and terrifying appearance." (Penguin Translation 1979, p271)

There we have it. The only uniform army I know of that is confirmed by an ancient writer - and one of the few mentions of uniform colours in ANY ancient source. The Spanish wore white tunics with a ten centimetre purple border along the lower edge, along the sleeves, and along the tunic neck, which was not rounded but pointed, like a bathrobe. They wore a bronze helmet.

All I have to add to that is that Osprey's Armies of the Carthaginian wars claims that the borders were crimson not purple. Helmets could be made of sinew which is a creamy off white to very light khaki colour. Helmet crests were probably black but could also have been purple, which again may mean crimson. Cavalry could have black or red cloaks.

Celtiberians, as the name suggests, sport a mixture of styles. According to WRG's Armies of the Macedonian and Punic wars, they dressed in Spanish style tunics and had Celtic style helmets and swords. They also favoured black cloaks and red helmet crests; note the cloaks may have been Gallic stye notjust black. The more important Spanish and Celtiberians could wear Celtic style mail armour. Note Lusitanians only used small round shields.

What colours were used on shields I don't know since none are mentioned in the sources I have used. The colours in the accompanying diagrams are chosen for effect only. Note the grey represents iron and yellow bronze as these are the metal parts of the shields either metal could be used. Spaniards also used Celtic style patterns and repeating s shapes that had been turned on their sides along the edge of the shields.

Tactics

I will start with the least important part of the Spanish army, the cavalry. Since you have only one Cv and one LH the best use for these may be flank guards. Alternatively you could anchor one of your flanks on bad going or a table edge and put them both on the other flank to give you a chance to use them more aggressively. I think the LH are perhaps wasted as flank guards and should be used to hover threateningly on your opponents flanks to keep him off balance. However you can only do that if your opponent doesn't have much cavalry.

The Celtiberians should use typical Gallic tactics, i.e. form up and charge! Unfortunately you don't have the cavalry the Gauls have to provide flank cover so your Ps will have to do the best they can to fill the role.

The Iberian and Lusitanian armies both suggest using bad going since this is the natural home of Aux and Ps. I would certainly recommend using such terrain to its fullest advantage. If however the terrain is open don't despair against heavier infantry, use your Ps to pin them down while the Aux go for the flanks. You should try and combine your Ps and Aux against warband. Use the Ps to get the impetuous warband to advance after them they fall back through the Aux who now can attack the Wb and claim overlaps.

Against their historical opponents try the following tactics:

Romans: As described above use bad going as much as possible. Try to pin the Romans Bd with Ps and try to get around their flanks. Don't try going head to head with them.

Gauls: Again use the advice above try to use the Wb impetuosity against them. The main threat from this army is its cavalry. These are far more numerous and can therefore swamp yours and they will certainly be a threat to your flanks. Try anchoring one or both of your flanks to stop this.

Carthage: Cavalry again will be your main worry especially the fast moving Numidians. Despite having a few Aux of their own the Carthaginians will want to fight in the open don't let them, make them fight were you want to.

Spanish Armies of the Fanatici

• Chris Brantley's Ancient Spanish (15mm POTN)
• Dan Thompson's Ancient Spanish (25mm RAFM)

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Last Updated: Jan. 10, 2001

My thanks to Stephen Montague for contributing these notes. Comments, questions or suggested additions to this page can be sent to Chris Brantley, brant@erols.com.