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Headword: Agrianes
Adler number: alpha,354
Translated headword: Agrianes, Agrianians
Vetting Status: high
Translation:
A military unit.
Greek Original:
Agrianes: taxis stratiôtikê.
Notes:
Same entry, according to Adler, in the Ambrosian Lexicon.
The Paeonian Agrianes inhabited the headwaters of the R. Strymon, in present-day Bulgaria (Herodotus, Strabo, et al.; Barrington Atlas map 49 grid E1). The present gloss, however, highlights their military role: they were a small but nevertheless important light-infantry unit in the armies of Alexander and his successors; present at, for instance, the battles of Raphia and Kynoskephalai. See Arrian, Anabasis 1.5 and passim; also Diodorus, Quintus Curtius Rufus, Polybius and Livy. Although originally from the Agriania, the term may have denoted a troop-type in the armies of Antiochos III and Philip V.
'Taxis' is a term that could denote various sizes of unit. (In Alexander's invading army of 334 the Agrianes were perhaps 500 strong; see Diodorus 17.17.4, where they and the 'archers' together number 1000. Further discussion in Bosworth [below] 263-264.)
Reference:
A.B. Bosworth, Conquest and Empire: the reign of Alexander the Great (Cambridge 1988)
Keywords: definition; geography; historiography; history; military affairs
Translated by: Anne Mahoney on 28 August 1998@16:38:12.
Vetted by:
David Whitehead (added note and keyword; cosmetics) on 16 July 2001@07:23:46.
Nicholas Fincher (Added comments on location and military context) on 6 July 2003@02:44:46.
Nicholas Fincher (Added headword and 'Antiochos') on 6 July 2003@03:57:17.
David Whitehead (augmented and tweaked notes; more keywords) on 8 January 2012@07:24:12.
David Whitehead (tweaked note) on 9 April 2015@10:45:07.
Catharine Roth (typo, coding) on 9 April 2015@22:26:31.

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