Ooft, that's what you get for missing a few days
My exam went well today, though, so I should have a bit more time now.
Now on the topic, at first I'll answer your questions, ahowl, and then Bercor's:
Katakoi- do you mean Katoikoi? A similar term as Metoikoi (metics), which usually described foreign residents in a Greek polis (e.g. Athenian traders living in Corinth), but during Hellenism it was assigned to Greek/Macedonian military settlers in the East, often in cleruchies (citizen colonies), which were used to control the local population. Katoikoi as a unit would probably be phalanx pikemen? To be honest I don't really see why they should be different from Pezhetairoi. Just looked at your roster and saw you already got Kleruchoi pikemen, Kleruchoi and Katoikoi might had have a different tax status, but I don't really see the differences between Pezhetairoi, Kleruchoi and Katoikoi pikemen.
(Ptolemies) However, there's a book about the
katoikoi hippeis , a rare instance of cavalry recruited from the cleruchs. Apparently they were also mixed with Egyptians later on. So, get this, KATOIKOI are the richer part of the KLERUCHOI, but so far historians/archaelogists etc. have only proven this for Egypt. So we could give them the Katoikoi cavalry. In one book about the Seleucid army the author describes the Katoikoi as phalangites as Magnesia, but I'm still not sure how we would differentiate them from the normal Pezhetairoi (the difference was probably rather social than military).
Aspidophoroi- what kind of units are they supposed to be? I saw that EB and another mod have them as pikemen with Aspis shields and skirmisher companion cavalry (Hetairoi Aspidophoroi). The name just means Apis bearers, but I've never heard about them apart from mods for RTW and google also only finds results from mods. Our uni library search doesn't know them either so I can't say anything else here.
Lonchophoroi- Ah, I remember seeing those on RTR 6 and thinking that the name is funny. What are they supposed to be? The names seems to mean something like javelinmen
Thorakitai Argyraspides - there seems to be no final conclusion if they existed or not. They are obscure and if they existed, not more than 1000 may exer have existed so we might leave them out altogether
Elephants: Yeah, agreed, even Rome II added the Syrian elephants (among a number of silly wardogs) so we also need them
On to the rosters in general:
SELEUCID EMPIRE:
Slingers- Yes
Skirmishers (Psiloi(Peltasts)- Yes
Archers- Yes
Gastaphretes- Crossbows? We could also use the English name, although they were very rare so that might speak for a Greek name, not sure. AND the Seleucids almost never used them, only in the Greek world itself did they appear sometimes (AOR in Greece then or scrap)
Levy hoplites- can't we just call them hoplites or Greek hoplites or so? This always annoyed me since hoplites are by definition levies. Sure, not short-term levies, but they are militia troops in all cases but Sparta and Thebes
Pantodopoi- what are these?
Pezhetairoi- Yes
Chalkaspides- Yes
Chrysaspides- Yes
Argyraspides- Yes. Actually I think the Argyraspides ARE the hypaspists with pikes. Often recruited from settlers and always at a strength of about 10 000. They are also called peltasts sometimes (also see below), but only because the Phalanx shield was often also called pelte
Kleruchoi *AOR Syria- Yes (see above)
Allied Phalangites- Yes. They were called: Hypaithroi (mercenary phalangites deployed by the satraps of Sardes and Persia are named as that by Polybios)
Hypaspists- Yes. They should definitely be elite foot troops and we don't need a phalanx version, that would be the Argyraspides
There were also the ''Agema of the hypaspists'', elite hypaspists, a very small corps of foot bodyguards. I finally understood everything now:
The Agema (only Macedon), part of the hypaspists > hypaspists - part of the Argyraspides. All taken together they formed the Seleucid infantry guard
AGEMA (NEW)- However, the Seleucids HAD an unit called Agema, 1000 elite horsemen formed of oriental riders, similar to the Hetairoi, but of a different social status
Thureophoroi- Yes
Thorakitai- Yes
Thorakitai Argyraspides- No, see above
Machairophoroi- No, this is only the name given to the ''elite'' part of the native Egyptian troops, who were also used as police forces
Hippakontistai *AOR Greece- Yes I guess
Prodromoi- Yes
Lonchophoroi?- see above
Xystophoroi (NEW)- standard spear cavalry with lighter armour than the companions
Hetairoi- Yes
Hellenic Cataphracts- Yes
Indian War Elephants- see above for elephants
Armoured Indian War Elephants
NEW Scythed Chariots- were definitely used by the Seleucids, more than every other nation at the time probably (apart from Celtic chariots, but they are fundamentally different)
