In Ancient Greek warfare

Ancient Greek warfare

With the emergence of Ancient Greece from its 'Dark Age', the population seemed to have significantly risen, allowing restoration of urbanized culture, and the rise of the city-states . Such developments would have consequently restored the possibility of organized warfare between statelets...

, psiloi (Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

 ψιλοί, singular ψιλός, literally “bare, stripped”) were extremely light infantry who acted as skirmishers and missile troops.

Psiloi, often used as a broad term to describe types of unarmored or lightly armored infantry, have often been more explicitly referred to by other names, such as gymnitai

Gymnitai

In Ancient Greek warfare, Gymnitai were extremely light infantry who acted as skirmishers and missile troops. They fought naked or nearly naked and consisted the lightest version of the psiloi....

(naked) or Evzonoi (light armored), Grosfomachoi (swordsmen), Akontistai (javelineers), Sfendonitai (slingers), Toxotai

Toxotai

Toxotai were Greek archers armed with a short Greek bow and a short sword. They carried a little pelte shield. Cretan Greek archers used nearly the same type of equipment except that they used a long bow....

(bowmen) or Lithovoloi (stone throwers). The peltastai

Peltast

A peltast was a type of light infantry in Ancient Thrace who often served as skirmishers.-Description:Peltasts carried a crescent-shaped wicker shield called pelte as their main protection, hence their name. According to Aristotle the pelte was rimless and covered in goat or sheep skin...

(targe bearers) are often categorized as an intermediary infantry type, later grouped either with the psiloi or the heavy infantry, according to their main tactical role.

In Greek and Byzantine literature, the psiloi are light troops equipped with missiles, able to fight irregularly in a loose formation.

Ancient Greece

In ancient Greece, the psiloi usually belonged to the poorest citizen classes; sometimes even unfree conscripts would be employed, such as the Peloponnesian helots

Helots

The helots: / Heílôtes) were an unfree population group that formed the main population of Laconia and the whole of Messenia . Their exact status was already disputed in antiquity: according to Critias, they were "especially slaves" whereas to Pollux, they occupied a status "between free men and...

. They were armed with a variety of missile weapons, such as the bow (toxa), javelin (akontia), sling (sfendonai) or even stones (lithoi). For defense, they had no armor and usually no shield, but would be equipped with a dagger or shortsword.

The psiloi were trained as skirmisher

Skirmisher

Skirmishers are infantry or cavalry soldiers stationed ahead or alongside a larger body of friendly troops. They are usually placed in a skirmish line to harass the enemy.-Pre-modern:...

s. Their task was to harass the enemy phalanx before the clash, to try to provoke disorder and protect their own lines from enemy skirmishers. They would be sent to occupy imposing terrain around and within the battlefield, as well as to disrupt the enemy in any way during his march, deployment or encampment. Just before the charge of the line, the psiloi would be recalled through the phalanx

Phalanx

Phalanx, from Ancient Greek , may refer to:-Military:* Phalanx formation, in ancient Greek warfare* Phalanx CIWS, a U.S. Navy defense system to protect against an anti-ship missile-Politics:...

 and deployed behind it or on its wings. They would avoid close combat with more heavily armed opponents unless they had the advantage of especially favorable terrain.

Byzantine Empire

Byzantine military treatises call all light troops psiloi, regardless of their defensive equipment. They were still used as skirmishers, but they were often deployed in regular lines behind or among the heavy infantry ranks, usually equipped with bows.

Examples of use in battle

The most successful use of psiloi against hoplite

Hoplite

A hoplite was a citizen-soldier of the Ancient Greek city-states. Hoplites were primarily armed as spearmen and fought in a phalanx formation. The word "hoplite" derives from "hoplon" , the type of the shield used by the soldiers, although, as a word, "hopla" could also denote weapons held or even...

s was in the Battle of Sphacteria, where a huge number of Athenian psiloi eliminated a force of Sparta

Sparta

Sparta or Lacedaemon, was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the banks of the River Eurotas in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. It emerged as a political entity around the 10th century BC, when the invading Dorians subjugated the local, non-Dorian population. From c...

n hoplites.