David's or Solomon's Hebrews

 A friend asked me to post some pictures of my 1\72 Hebrew Army. The figures are from the excellent Caesar set.

I organized the army initially for my version of DBA, although for looks purposes I like to use double stands. The lists I used were from DBA, Meshwesh and whatever else I could find at the time.

A few years ago there was a fan site for DBA that provided some basic paint guides. I used some of them for my army.

Chariots were a problem since Caesar, nor any one else made a 1\72 chariot for Hebrews. I reasoned that a Hebrew chariot probably was not much different than an Egyptian chariot or Mesopotamian type. I settled on the Caesar Mitannian set for the chariots.

The DBA lists allow for quite a few Hebrew variants between an early list and a late list. I settled for the list that seemed to be the army at the height of the Israelite united kingdom under David and Solomon.

Two of the Mitanni chariots. Very nice miniatures!

This isn't actually a unit. The set comes with biblical characters. On the left is Samson with Moses on the far right. My guess is the female character in the center is the only female judge in the Book of Judges. Deborah inspired Barak the Israelite general to wage a successful war against a Canaanite kingdom. To Deborah's side a priest uses a shofar (a horn) to call his countrymen to battle. A bodyguard of 3 spearman complete the little diorama.

This is my command chariot.

One list allowed for Phoenician (Tyre) archers. I think the three archers on the left are from the Caesar Philistine set. The other four are from the Hebrew set. Most lists allow Hebrew archers to be massed.

Philistines were a frequent enemy of the united kingdom but they also served as mercenaries under David and Solomon. The Philistine Caesar set is also an excellent set.

These are simply classified as light foot. Israelite armies were primarily militia and their arms and armor could vary quite a lot. On the far right is a slinger. I will be painting a unit of slingers as it was a common Hebrew weapon. I wish the set would have included a young David with a sling and a giant Goliath!

These figures were left over from the Mitanni chariot set. They serve as David's "might men" and whatever served as the small standing army under David or Solomon. Later Hebrew armies would look a bit like Babylonians or even Assyrians.

This figure was the only shielded figure included in the Caesar set with is too bad. Although militia (Gibborim) many would be equipped as light spearmen. The set as a whole is excellent and fills a niche. Most of poses could be used in the Jewish wars of the Maccabees and later in the revolts against Rome.