Ile basilike versus agema

[Alexias]

I have a question: what is the difference between the ile basilike (Royal Squadron) and the agema (Royal Bodyguard)?

Cleitus the Black is attested as the commander (illarch) of the Royal Squadron at the Granicus, at Gaugamela, and presumably at Issus. We have a Ptolemy, an Admetus and Hephaestion attested as commander of the agema, so clearly two separate commands. Or was the agema a detachment of the Royal Squadron?

Now at the Granicus, Cleitus saved Alexander's life so he was clearly fighting in his vicinity, but where was the agema at this point? Maybe not mounted? Yet Hephaestion was wounded in the chase after Darius at Gaugamela so he was mounted and fighting in Alexander's vicinity.

I can only conclude that the Royal Squadron was bigger and more static than the agema, and took a central role in battle lines. The agema maybe was smaller, more flexible and its role, perhaps, changed during Alexander's expedition.

Wikipedia definition of the agema:

Agema (Greek: ἄγημα), 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.

Anyone know any more than this? I have searched the internet but there is almost nothing on the ile basilike, and apparently assumptions that the two terms were synonymous, which they don't seem to be. I haven't got any books here to look through.

[marcus]

I have a question: what is the difference between the ile basilike (Royal Squadron) and the agema (Royal Bodyguard)?

I have yet to find anything that has fully answered this question!

I have always worked on the basis that they *were* the same - there was also, I think, an agema of hypaspists.

If there were a difference, then perhaps the agema was a part of the ile basilike, charged with protecting the king's person. One would assume that the seven somatophylakes would have fought within the agema, whether in the saddle or on foot.

[marcus]

Nick Secunda, The Army of Alexander the Great, Osprey, 1984

The regiment was divided into eight squadrons, the first being the Royal Squadron (basilike ile) which was the vangard (agema) squadron of the regiment and the held the position of honour in the battle line.

This indicates that the terms are interchangeable, although it remains possible that the agema was part of the ile basilike which stuck more closely to the king in battle?

[chris_taylor]

I have a question: what is the difference between the ile basilike (Royal Squadron) and the agema (Royal Bodyguard)?

No guarantees as to historical accuracy, but this is what I figured while trying to work out how Alexander formed his cavalry wedge at Gaugamela. apologies for stating the obvious, but IMHO, once you start thinking about it in terms of function, it gets clearer.

Alexanders relied on cavalry charge to win his battles.

To ensure maximum effectiveness of the cavalry charge, he assumed a *dual* command role: in overall charge of the army AND leader of the companion cavalry. Parmenio had that role on the left wing for the Thessalians, so on the right wing under Alexander, the command structure was flatter by 1 tier. that might appear a minor detail, but the psychological impact must have been enormous: the companion cavalry, about 2000 horse and rider, did not follow a second-in-command. They followed the King *personally*.

The companion cavalry were divided into 8 squadrons, each one with a squadron leader.

Alexander designated one of those squadrons as "The Royal Squadron", about 300 horse & rider, ie larger by about 50 - 80 men than the other squadrons. Their role was to follow him as the squadron leading the overall charge, ahead of the 7 others. The squadron was NOT under his personal command, it had a squadron leader just like the other 7 - Cleitus. If Alexander wanted the Royal Squadron to do something, he told Cleitus.

This command structure combined maximum overall cohesiveness with maximum flexibility of the individual units, while leaving Alexander free to deal with strategy instead of detail.

A byproduct of the arrangement is that Cleitus would often have been riding near the King, because he led the squadron forming the tip of the wedge immediately behind its point - Alexander, surrounded by his agema, his personal body guards.

their sole task was to protect the king. If he was fighting, they fought next to him. If he had to move around the battlefield, they rode with him - while the Royal Squadron continued to fight accepting orders from Cleitus. organizationally, they might have been part of the Royal Squadron, but I doubt it. I think they were literally just that, his body guards.

[marcus]

That sounds very reasonable.

The only issue I have is that you have missed out the fact that Philotas (until 330) was in overall command of the Companion Cavalry, and after Philotas' death the command was divided between Hephaestion and Cleitus (before it all went to pot in 328).

[Alexias]

Thanks for the replies, Marcus and Chris.

JFC Fuller "The Generalship of Alexander the Great" says that originally the Royal Squadron, drawn from the lesser nobles, was attached to the Companion cavalry with the specific function of guarding the King in battle. The agema was a foot-guard of household troops charged with guarding the King at all times other than in battle.

This situation works fine in a pitched battle where the King would lead the cavalry charge. The Royal Squadron was thus effectively an agema in terms of a bodyguard for the King. I am wondering whether this situation still held true at the Granicus, and a mounted agema proper came into existence later.

As the army expanded, the foot guard obviously needed to do some combat guarding and ceased being a household guard. Whether they were associated with the hypaspists or not, I haven't looked into, but the commander Ptolemy was killed at the siege of Halicarnassus, and Admetus in the storming of Tyre. Alexander was obviously in the thick of the fighting. Perhaps losing two commanders in under two years might have made him rethink the agema.

Chris, I wonder how big that agema at Guagamela was? 50-100 men? If it was 200-300 men, then they effectively were the Royal Squadron, displacing them in the line. Yet if you placed a smaller number in front of the Royal Squadron, would that not have made them a vulnerable target? I've struggled with the concept of the wedge formation adopted by the cavalry. If you have one man at the apex, he has to be incredibly brave as for a few seconds he is effectively charging the enemy on his own, and is extremely vulnerable. If either of the men at his shoulder fall, he is dead meat, and this should be the commander. I therefore think the wedge must have been blunt edged at the front. So maybe the front rows were taken up by Alexander and the agema, thus augmenting the size of the Royal Squadron. But then where would Cleitus be? I can't resolve this is my own mind how it would work in the charges. Once you engaged with the enemy, then you either followed Alexander or Cleitus to regroup. idk!

[chris_taylor]

That sounds very reasonable.

The only issue I have is that you have missed out the fact that Philotas (until 330) was in overall command of the Companion Cavalry, and after Philotas' death the command was divided between Hephaestion and Cleitus (before it all went to pot in 328).

ah, you're right, I missed that. which takes away my key argument.

[chris_taylor]

Chris, I wonder how big that agema at Guagamela was? 50-100 men? If it was 200-300 men, then they effectively were the Royal Squadron, displacing them in the line.

maybe this is something that was lost in translation: a group fo anywhere between 50 - 300 is too large to act as what I would call "body guards".

protecting someone like Alexander would have been an exceptionally difficult task - the man never stood still and was always in the thick of the fighting. to act as a body guard would have required constant training & practice, as well as having access to his battle plans prior to assignment. so I assumed, probably wrongly, that the somatophylaces were grouped to an "agema" during battle. rather than take it in turns while in camp or on low-key assignment, they all participated as a group, with each of them riding in a specific place relative to the King.

Yet if you placed a smaller number in front of the Royal Squadron, would that not have made them a vulnerable target? I've struggled with the concept of the wedge formation adopted by the cavalry. If you have one man at the apex, he has to be incredibly brave as for a few seconds he is effectively charging the enemy on his own, and is extremely vulnerable.

that is how I understand Alexander's personality. a couple of years ago, I walked the battlefield of the Granicus and I remember standing on the river bank, imagining what it would have looked like: a man on horseback with giant *white* ostrich plumes on his helmet. the area is flat, green and brown, and even if soldiers did wear white, it wouldn't have stayed clean for long. within that colour palette, Alexander would have stood out like a sore thumb.

although at Gaugamela, it was very different: even if there was as little as five hundred meters between the enemy lines, by the time the cavalry got close enough for the final charge, they would have been enveloped in dust. If Alexander himself aimed at the centre of the opening in the enemy lines, he would have been flanked by the front riders of the Royal Squadron on both sides.

[Alexias]

Thanks for that, Chris.

I think we need to separate the Seven Somatophylakes from the agema. The Ptolemy and the Admetus I mentioned above were commanders of the agema, yet they were not members of the Seven. Seven men don't require a commander: Alexander would tell them what to do. Yet at Gaugamela, Hephaestion was both the commander of the agema and a member of the Seven (unless of course he hadn't been appointed at that time as we don't know when he was appointed). The Seven were staff officers and their functions weren't just military. I think maybe all seven of them didn't go into battle together with Alexander. Certainly later on they began to have separate appointments. At the Hydaspes Hephaestion commanded a separate cavalry unit. Was this the agema, and if not, who was commanding the agema? I think this needs a lot more research than I am capable of doing.

that is how I understand Alexander's personality. a couple of years ago, I walked the battlefield of the Granicus and I remember standing on the river bank, imagining what it would have looked like: a man on horseback with giant *white* ostrich plumes on his helmet. the area is flat, green and brown, and even if soldiers did wear white, it wouldn't have stayed clean for long. within that colour palette, Alexander would have stood out like a sore thumb.

Yes, but this required all eight ilarchs to do this and hit the enemy on their own. And the enemy would have seen them coming and someone would have learnt how to pick out the lead man, or preferably the horse, with a spear, bringing down the men following him and blunting the whole charge. The attrition rate would have been too great. I don't think Alexander lost any of his major cavalry commanders in battle, nor took a major injury himself in the initial charges. There would have only been a few seconds delay before the men either side of him hit the enemy, but they too would have been very vulnerable. I just think having a single man at the apex of the wedge was too inefficient.

[chris_taylor]

not sure how reliable this is but the translation of agema as "vanguard" made sense.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/20756716

"the word agema is used of an elite unit which took the lead in any army, and is perhaps best translated
as 'vanguard'. The word first appears used in this sense in Xenophon, where it is given to the lead element
(though not a specific unit) of the Lakedaimonian infantry phalanx when being led by the king.9 In Mace
donia under Alexander the Great the term becomes a regimental title, not just of the 'lead' regiment of the
infantry, but also of the lead' element of the cavalry,10 and even of the elephants.11"

9, 10 & 11 are his sources - Xenophon, Arrian and Athenaeus