Greek Army Names

[Chenni]

Historically, do Greek Armies have names similar to how Roman Legions have theirs (i.e. Legio XII Fulminata, Lgio XIII - Gemina, Legio X - Fretensis)?

During my Sparta play through I just named them Legio # - (followed by name of Greek Heroes).

Now I'm on Bactria and thinking of other naming scheme. I'd use other legion names (Luna Wolves, Blood Angels, Salamanders) but I'd rather asks first. =)

[Sebasta]

As Sparta, use 'Mora'. Greeks didn't have legions as such, but Mora is a good way to make some historically accurate-ish name.

[BIGDOJO]

Alexanders army gives us some clues, the divisions of his armies, generally grouped by weapons separated into "Companions" for royal horse lancers, "Foot companions" for his main pike infantry, "hypaspists" or "shield-bearers" the elite hoplites that guarded his left and right flanks. Mercenary companies were many and probably had their own unique names similar to the names of armies in the game, just in their own languages. People were proud of their home territories and probably wanted to advertise that in the names of their regiments, or the gods of their land. Like the Cretan archers. But I know very little, and I can find very little other than that written on this subject. The Iliad gives us a clue of what one king may have seen an enemy's army identified as: perhaps the name of their territory, simply "The Macedonians" or the name of a dynasty to identify them. Inter-family warfare was common for domination of Greek kingdoms.

[Seraphim Sword]

I probably haven't looked as deeply into it as Bigdojo, but from what I have read, I would repeat everything he has said. I usually name them after the family ruling them, or if its my Heir or Basilius. For authenticy, you could name them via a greek word - Etaireia is greek for Company/firm; or Parea - party/companionship. And you could use the greek alphabet instead of Roman numerals, for example: Etaireia - Alpha which would be Alpha Company.

[Sebasta]

I would rather stick to armies that refer to the region they were created, along with the 'Mora' prefix I suggested.

Hetairia (mind the /h\, Ancient Greek did have a spiritus asper, or h-sound, for a word starting with a vowel), is more a part of the army rather than the army itself. Most notably, Alexander's special bodyguard unit were called the Hetairoi, or Companions, but not his entire army. His army in fact did not have a proper name to my knoweledge. Just 'Alexander's army', but I need to dig deeper in the sources to give a definitive answer. For those interested: look for Ploutarchos, Arrianos and Diodoros.

Final note: although a 'mora' is technically also a part of the Spartan army, this is the largest independent unit which can be a force on its own. In times of a campaign or war, the kings of Sparta would command multiple morai to battle, which means full force military power. However, as you will probably not send your full scale army force to the same battle, but rather spread around the campaign map, the term seems pretty accurate to me.

[Chenni]

Wow you guys are amazing. I never knew anything about greek names until now.

That's very informative, thank you all.

[Seraphim Sword]

I agree, very informative for me too. Thanks for that second post sebasta. I didn't know about the silent "H' . On my next Greek faction campaign (probably Massila), I'll be using Mora.