Military units and formations of the Hellenistic world

thumb|Historical reenactment of a Sasanian-era cataphract, complete with a full set of [[scale armour for the horse. The rider is covered by extensive mail armour.]]

thumb|Agrianes|Agrianian peltas. This peltast holds three javelins, one in his throwing hand and two in his pelte (shield) hand as additional ammunition. A peltast (, ) was a type of light infantry originating in Thrace and Paeonia and named after the kind of shield they carried. Thucydides mentions the Thracian peltasts, while Xenophon in the Anabasis distinguishes the Thracian and Greek peltast troops.

thumb|A recreation of Roman legionaries wearing the lorica segmentata, 1st–3rd century. Other equipment in view include the galea (helmet), [[pilum (spear) and scutum (shield)]] The Roman legionary (in Latin legionarius; : legionarii) was a citizen soldier of the Roman army. These soldiers would conquer and defend the territories of ancient Rome during the Republic and Principate eras, alongside auxiliary and cavalry detachments. At its height, Roman Legionnaires were viewed as the foremost fighting force in the Roman world, with commentators such as Vegetius praising their fighting effectiven

elite Ancient Macedonian cavalry

ancient infantry formation

right|thumb|220px|Ancient depiction of a Macedonian infantryman (right). He is equipped with an Argive shield, so probably is a Hypaspist. He also wears a linothorax cuirass and a [[Thracian helmet. Alexander Sarcophagus.]] thumb|upright=1.5|A Hypaspist|alt= A hypaspist ( "shield bearer" or "shield covered") is a squire, man at arms, or "shield carrier". In Homer's Iliad, Deiphobos advances "" () or under cover of his shield. By the time of Herodotus (426 BC), the word had come to mean a high status soldier as is strongly suggested by Herodotus in one of the earliest known uses:

thumb|upright=1.37|Coin of Balacrus, somatophylax of Alexander the Great, as [[satrap of Cilicia, with letter "B" next to the shield, standing for B[AΛAKPOI]. Tarsos. 333–323 BC.]]

antique armed force

The Argyraspides () were elite Macedonian soldiers who carried silver-plated shields, hence their name. The original unit were hypaspists serving in the army of Alexander the Great. During the Wars of the Diadochi, they initially served Eumenes, but betrayed him to Antigonus I Monophthalmus at the Battle of Gabiene in 316. After their dispersal under Antigonus, later units of the Seleucid Empire and Roman Empire would be modeled after them.

The pezhetairoi (Greek: , singular: pezhetairos) were the backbone of the Macedonian army and Diadochi kingdoms. They were literally "foot companions" (in Greek, pezos means "pedestrian" and hetairos means "companion" or "friend").

Agema (), plural agemata (αγήματα) is a term to describe a military detachment, used for a special purpose, such as guarding high valued targets. Due to its nature the agema most probably comprises elite troops.

right|thumb|280px|Macedonian battle formation with psiloi at the fore, courtesy of The Department of History, United States Military Academy.

In ancient Greece, the prodromoi (singular: prodromos) were skirmisher light cavalry. Their name (ancient Greek: πρόδρομοι, prοdromoi, lit. "pre-cursors," "runners-before," or "runners-ahead") implies that these cavalry 'moved before the rest of the army' and were therefore intended for scouting and screening missions. They were usually equipped with javelins, and a sword. Sometimes they wore either linen or leather armour, as well as bronze helmets.

thumb|Fresco of an Ancient Macedonian army|ancient Macedonian soldier ([[thorakitai) wearing chainmail armor and bearing a thureos shield; 3rd century BC]] The thyreophoroi or thureophoroi (; : thureophoros/thyreophoros, θυρεοφόρος) were a type of infantry soldier, common in the 3rd to 1st centuries BC, who carried a large oval shield called a thyreos which had a type of metal strip boss and a central spine. They were armed with a long thrusting spear, javelins and a sword. They also usually wore an iron or bronze Macedonian helmet.

thumb|Fresco of an Macedonia (ancient kingdom)|ancient Macedonian soldier (thorakitai) wearing chainmail armor and bearing a thureos shield The thorakitai (; : θωρακίτης, thorakites) were a type of soldier in Hellenistic armies similar to the thureophoroi. The literal translation of the term is "cuirassiers", which suggests that they may have worn a short Celtic mail shirt or possibly a linothorax.

well renown archers who were enlisted by a variety of foreign armies rather than the natives from such armies

Chalkaspides () is a poetic term used by writers of Koine Greek to refer to a Macedonian phalanx. The most notable group called chalkaspides was the main phalanx force of the Antigonid Macedonian army in the Hellenistic period. The group were hoplites who fought in phalanx formation using long sarissas and bronze shields, either a pelta or an aspis. They may have been supplemented by another Antigonid force called the Leukaspides ("White Shields") when more manpower was necessary, although the leukaspides are less well-attested to in ancient sources. The leukaspides may have been very similar

thumb|right|upright=1.3|A damaged 3rd-century BCE painting of a Macedonian cavalryman wielding a spear (perhaps a sarissa or a [[xyston?). Found by K. F. Kinch, with the new painting of the original painting by Oscar Willerup.]] The sarissophoroi (, bearers; singular: sarissophoros ), also called prodromoi, were a unit of light cavalry in the ancient Macedonian army.

The Leukaspides () were a group in the Antigonid Macedonian army. Scholars suggest two main possibilities for what precisely they were. The first is that they were equipped in the style of the Macedonian phalanx and were a counterpart to the Chalkaspides ("Bronze Shields"), a group uncontroversially known to be sarissa-wielding hoplites with bronze shields (the pelta and aspis). In this possibility, they were probably only mustered when the Macedonians needed more manpower as a supplemental corps. The second possibility is that the Leukaspides referred to ethnically non-Macedonian troops hired