The Greek State at War: Part 4 The Greek State at War, Part IV [Reprint 2019 ed.] 9780520341548

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THE GREEK STATE AT WAR Part IV

The Greek State atWar Part IV

by

W. KENDRICK PRITCHETT

U N I V E R S I T Y OF CALIFORNIA PRESS BERKELEY

• L o s ANGELES • LONDON

University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England © 1 9 8 5 by T h e Regents of the University of California

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data (Revised f o r vol. 4) Pritchett, W. Kendrick (William Kendrick), 1909— T h e Greek state at war. Vol. 1 first published in 1 9 7 1 under title: Ancient Greek military practices. Vol. 3 has additional title: Religion. Includes bibliographical references and indexes. 1. Military art and science—History. 2. Greece— History, Military. I. Title. u 33p65 355'°°938 75"3!2653 I S B N O - 5 2 O - O 2 7 5 8 - 2 (V.

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Printed in the United States of America

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CONTENTS Abbreviations Preface I.

II.

T h e Pitched Battle Introduction 1 1. Homeric Warfare 7 2. Warfare in Early Greek Poetry 33 3. Warfare in the Greek Historians 44 Burial of Greek War Dead 1. Origin of the Convention in Myth 97 2. Homeric Customs 100 3. Prothesis and Ekphora 102 4. T h e Athenian 'Aya>v 'E,iriTd(i)v vqv crraSiav pa\T)v tpakkayyj]8öv e-movTu>v. Diodoros (23.2.1) says that in ancient times, when the Romans were using oblong shields, the Etruscans, who fought with round shields of bronze and in phalanx formation, impelled them to adopt similar arms and were in consequence defeated (TO pev •yap TTCxkaiov avrutv dvpeois TETpaywvois xP^^s^wr, Ivpp-qvol Kais

acnricri

tpa\ayyop,axovvTes

Kai

irpoTpExjfäp.Evoi

TÖV

öpoiov

0Trki.crp.6v r)TTr)ür)(rav). In our oldest account of the Roman army, the Servian constitution describes a phalanx: Livy 1.43; cf. E. L. Wheeler, Chiron g (1979) 305. Diodoros (12.64.3), writing under the year 4 2 5 B.C., tells the story of the dictator Aulus Postumius Tubertus, who, observing the ancient custom {rqpovvra TÖ irärpiov ¿'¿>05), put his son to death because he sprang forward from the line and engaged in a victorious duel with an enemy. Cf. Livy 4.29.5 and 8 . 7 . 1 5 . For early Roman hoplites, see also R. Thomsen, King Servius Tullius (Copenhagen 1980) 162—163. Herodotos (7.158) tells us that the early Sikilian army was brigaded into hoplites, cavalry, archers, slingers, and hippodromoi. avakaßsiv

Granted that illustrations of warfare in open terrain are sparse, and disregarding sieges of fortified cities, we find no evidence in Yadin, Stary, and the bibliography cited by these two scholars that would disprove Lang's generalization. In the Greek archaeological literature, where so much attention has

10

The Pitched

Battle

been devoted to the equipment of Homer's combatants, 30 a distinction has been drawn between "hoplite" and "pre-hoplite" warfare which can be traced back at least to Miss Lorimer's article, " T h e Hoplite Phalanx," BSA 42 ( 1 9 4 7 ) 7 6 - 1 3 8 . By this definition the "hoplite" was one who fought with a circular shield fixed in position by a band on the arm, the thrusting-spear, and complete panoply." T. B. L. Webster (From Mycenae to Homer [London 1 9 5 8 ] 214—220) believes that the "hoplite" passages are the work of the latest singer. D. Gray states, "Virtually there are no hoplites in Homer." 3 2 T h e problem of armor is also treated by A . Snodgrass, Early Greek Armour and Weapons (Edinburgh 1964) 1 7 0 — 1 7 9 , with special reference to H. L. Lorimer's massive Homer and the Monuments (London 1950), and in his article " T h e Hoplite Reform in H i s t o r y , J U S 85 (1965) 1 1 0 - 1 2 2 . 3 3 He assembles ten passages which he regards as implying knowledge of "hoplite" warfare. Finally, we have the definitive study of early Kriegswesen by 30. In Hesiod Sc. I 2 2 f f . and in archaic art, Herakles wears hoplite armor. See the seventh-century Korinthian vessel illustrated in F. B r o m m e r , Herakles (Münster 1 9 5 3 ) 36. 3 1 . Herodotos ( 1 . 1 7 1 ) says that the Karians were the first to fasten crests on helmets and to invent handles f o r shields, and that the Greeks borrowed these f r o m the Karians. See also the scholia to Thucydides 1 . 8 . 1 . T h e r e is no reference to shield handles in H o m e r , but crests are often mentioned. "Handles on shields were used by the Shardana in the thirteenth century, when they were represented in reliefs at A b u Simbel. Both round shields and crested helmets are represented on 'Hittite' reliefs of uncertain date f r o m Carchemish": A. W. Lawrence in his commentary on the Herodotos passage. See also Strabo 1 4 . 2 . 2 7 . 6 6 1 . For the tradition of early Karians as a power in the Kyklades, see G . Huxley, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 82.C.7 (1982) 1 9 3 - 1 9 4 . 3 2 . In J . L. Myres, Homer and His Critics (London 1958) 182. In Fifty Years (and Twelve) of Classical Scholarship ( O x f o r d 1968), she offers a catalogue of objects and practices which can be dated f r o m pre-Mycenaean to post-Geometric. She also states (p. 28), " M o r e significant is the curious accuracy of the Iliad in the description of the city of T r o y , " an observation which may require some modification in the light of the geological report of the American excavators in Blegen's Troy. Supplementary Monographs 4 (Princeton 1982), a study which will add fuel to M. Finley's position (JHS 84 [ 1 9 6 4 ] 1—9) that "the Iliad as we have it is full of exaggerations, distortions, p u r e fictions and flagrant contradictions." 33. S o m e of the problems of armor relate to the field of higher criticism. T h u s , in Zenodotos' text of 3 . 3 3 8 the champion was equipped with two spears (cf. 7 . 2 5 5 ) , whereas in the received text with only one. G. M. Boiling, The External Evidence for Interpolation in Homer ( O x f o r d 1 9 2 5 ) 83 and 9 1 , believes that Zenodotos took his lines f r o m a cyclic epic. O n the problem of the spears, see also E. Bethe, Homer 1 (Leipzig 1 9 1 4 ) 260. T h e r e is a similar problem about the iron arrowhead in 4 . 1 2 3 . Arrows elsewhere are always xa^Kijpei?. See Boiling (p. 87), who would reject the line, following Zenodotos. A . Snodgrass, Early Greek Armour and Weapons (Edinburgh 1964) 1 7 5 , regards the iron a r r o w h e a d as an Anatolian feature. Generally, the Iliad has bronze weapons but iron tools. Many, even in pre-Parry days, have inferred that the poem was composed in the Iron A g e with f o r m u l a e f o r weapons inherited f r o m the Bronze A g e .

The Pitched Battle

11

H.-G. Buchholz and his collaborators in Archaeologia Homérica i : E 1 ( i g 7 7 ) a n d 1 : E 2 (ig8o), 34 where we are assured (E 3 1 6 ) , "Die genannte Iliasstellen weisen also nicht auf Hopliten hin." 35 This archaeological distinction beclouds the issue of mass fighting in Homer; it clearly was not made in antiquity. At the battle of Kounaxa Xenophon (Anabasis 1.8.9) c a ^ s oirXirai Egyptians who had wooden shields reaching to their feet, 36 and each oriental division was marshalled in a tight formation. We may approach the Homeric battlescenes, therefore, freed of any preconception about "pre-hoplite" warfare or that a great shelter shield was not portable. 37 T h e r e are four days of battle described in the Iliad. T h e first consumes Books 3 — 7, inclusive. T h e opposing armies are marshalled (3.1), each company under its hegemon. 38 T h e Trojans advance with a sound "as of a flight of cranes," the Achaians "silently, breathing courage, determined to help one another." But before the armies meet, Paris challenges Menelaos to a single combat which would decide the war, a forerunner of the Battle of Champions between the Spartans and Argives on Mount Zavitsa,39 and of various monomachiai discussed below; but Aphrodite snatches up her Trojan favorite after he is dis34. T h e third volume has not appeared at the time of writing. For the correlation of the archaeological evidence with Homer, see E 4 4 - 5 6 (shield), E 5 7 - 6 0 (helmet), E 74—83 (cuirass), E 1 1 9 - 1 2 6 (headband), E 1 4 3 - 1 4 5 (greaves), E 2 4 0 - 2 4 3 (sword), E 3 1 2 - 3 1 9 (javelin and spear), E 3 2 4 - 3 2 6 (club). 3 5 . Oddly, the author refers to Latacz in a footnote. 36. C f . Kyr. 6 . 2 . 1 0 and 7 . 1 . 3 3 ; and A. Bovon, " L a représentation des guerriers perses," BCH 87 ( 1 9 6 3 ) 5 9 5 - 5 9 6 . For Assyrian onkirai, see Anab. 7 . 8 . 1 5 . T h e soldiers o f the phalanxes in the Kyropaideia are r e f e r r e d to as onXirai: 6.3.23. T h e Mycenaean hoplites, or more correctly the epibatai, shown on a fresco f r o m T h e r a , now in the National M u s e u m in Athens, wear an ox-hide body-shield extending below the knee. T h e y carry long naval spears (about 3 m.?) and swords: Marinatos, AAA 6 ( 1 9 7 3 ) 494—497, w h o calls them hoplites. Few would endorse the claim that such a shield was designed f o r single combat. A. Sakellariou, Antike Kunst 1 7 (1974) 3 - 2 0 , has published a silver krater f r o m Mykenai, dated about 1 5 0 0 B.C., portraying a battle-scene which closely parallels the fight over the body of Patroklos ( 1 7 . 2 3 3 - 3 6 5 ) . In addition to the hoplites with figure-of-eight shields and long thrusting-spears, there are two archers and a warrior (no. 8 in fig. lb) who is interpreted by Schefold as hurling a stone. T h e representations of soldiers and battle-scenes on Mykenaian vases are discussed by E. Vermeule and V. Karageorghis, Mycenaean Pictorial Vase Painting (Cambridge, Mass. 1982) in particular 72, 1 0 8 - 1 1 4 , 1 3 0 _ 1 3 6 . 3 7 . R. C a r p e n t e r , Folktale, Fiction and Saga in the Homeric Epics (Berkeley 1946) 87—89, cogently warned against the over-interpretation placed on a r m o r in the study of H o m e r . 38. C f . 2.476. 39. See Topography 3 . 1 1 0 — 1 1 4 . T h r o u g h o u t I r e f e r to my Studies in Ancient Greek Topography 1 (Berkeley 1965), 2 (1969), 3 (1980), 4 (1982), and 5 (forthcoming) as Topography.

12

The Pitched

Battle

abled by Menelaos, and the truce is broken when a Lykian archer sends an arrow at Menelaos. Agamemnon reviews the forces (crrparo?), going on foot from group to group (4.208—422). T h e poet then gives us his first picture of a general battle (4.446—449): oi 8' ore 877 p ¿5 X&Pov &VA ¡¡VVLOVTES LKOVTO, . Polyainos (3.9.26) says that Iphikrates asked his men to indulge him in one request, to be b e f o r e h a n d in attacking the enemy: Trporepov? rj/jLvvavro TOI)? MaKeSom?, virspSsijiov EXOVTES rqv order«'). Diodoros affirms the advantage of higher ground in other encounters. In 378 B.C., after Agesilaos had established his headquarters at Thespiai, he led the Lakedaimonian army out for an assault on Thebes, but found the combined Boiotian and Athenian army u n d e r Chabrias drawn u p on an oblong hill (kdipov Trapap,-r)Krjv, 15.32.3). In the next section, the position is characterized as BK T6TT Trsdiq) TrpoBKaXslTo).221

T u r n i n g from the use of virep&sgios, one may note that, although Herodotos and Thucydides tell us relatively little about battle terrain, we can deduce f r o m Thucydides' account of the battle of Delion that the Boiotians occupied the uphill position, and we can pinpoint the scene of the engagement if my candidates for the pvaKE9 and temple (see Topography 3.295 — 297) are correct. Thucydides (4.93.3) says that the Boiotians appeared over the hill (VTTEpEtpavr\ TOTTOJV avrois ov ¡XLKpa Toirwv /SorwSeis ovTas EfiirkeKEcrdai Toi, Polybios 2.28.8).230 T h e adjective /SarojSTjs, " o v e r g r o w n with thorns," might appropriately be applied today to many areas in Greece where there has been no plowing. A t the battle o f the N e m e a river in 394 B.C., the g r o u n d between the two armies was o v e r g r o w n (kacriov TO \wpiop, X e n o p h o n Hell. 4.2.19). T h e excavations of f u n e r a r y mounds in the plains of Marathon and Chaironeia prove that there has been a considerable change in g r o u n d level over the centuries; and at Chaironeia the burial of the T h e b a n d e a d was m a d e in an area where a stream earlier flowed. B e f o r e the building o f the Marathon dam, an immense volume of water must have flowed t h r o u g h the plain below, and we know of inundations o f villages in the nineteenth century. T h e river Ophis once flowed t h r o u g h Mantineia, 231 and Pausanias f o u n d a copse o f oak trees w h e r e hardly a tree grows today. 232 O n e imagines that in plains given over to f a r m i n g today, the land has been levelled by the plow and bulldozer. T h e piles o f rocks collected around the edges of many fields in G r e e c e contain stones which may once have impeded some hoplite's progress. T h e motif of the influence of the actual g r o u n d on the course o f the battle is introduced by Euripides in the Phoinissai, first when Eteokles stumbles on a stone (1390), then when "through his familiarity with the terrain" (o/xi\£a 1408) he has the advantage of being alert: see Borthwick, JHS 90 (1970) 20—21. In Hellenistic warfare, there were occasions when an army was conf r o n t e d by an enemy well entrenched behind difficult terrain. Despite the negative generalizations of Polybios, the question remains as to w h e t h e r the phalanx did indeed fight on r o u g h g r o u n d . Passages giving conflicting descriptions about the terrain have become cruxes in reconstructing the topography of the battles of Alexander's campaign. For Granikos, A. B. Bosworth, writing in 1980, favors the account o f 229. In 15.14.1, Polybios reports that at the battle of Zama the battlefield was so enc u m b e r e d with corpses covered with blood ( A I I X O I P V P R O I V KAI (TFNPTJHDV TTETTTOIKOTOJV) and with abandoned arms that it was difficult to advance over the ground. 230. For fighting in the nude, see the references in Walbank ad loc. 231. X e n o p h o n Hell. 5.2.4. 232. Pausanias 8 . 1 1 . 1 , 5, and 10.

84

The Pitched Battle

Diodoros, who has the Persians encamped away from the river; 233 whereas N. G. L. Hammond, who has explored the site, in 1 9 8 1 believes that Arrian's account is factual: Alexander made a frontal assault across a river having clay banks three to four meters high (today). 234 Polybios' criticism (12.22.4) of Kallisthenes' description of the terrain at Issos (TT&> Kai /SOTOISTJ;) remains a crux passage in reconstructing the site of the battle. 235 Compare Bosworth's account (203 — 204) with that of Hammond (96—98, with photographs). T h e two scholars o f f e r different stream-beds as candidates for the Pinaros river. 236 Limiting our investigation to the first few pages of Arrian Book 1, we learn that Alexander readily altered the formation of the phalanx to match the ground and the situation, as well as varied the use of supporting cavalry. 237 Arrian (Anab. 3.9.4) says that at Gaugamela, when the two armies were thirty stades apart, Alexander, on the recommendation of Parmenio, stopped the phalanx to survey the terrain in order to see whether there were ditches anywhere or whether the Persians had planted hidden stakes in the soil (ei 7777 rd but editors

irpo(TfjLdxecr& noXè/XCO rà FJ,èv (TTIIFIARA ^¡LOCRICC (TÔai), but nothing f u r t h e r about the rites. T h e phrase "at public expense" was not an

idle one in antiquity. J. M. C. Toynbee, Death and Burial in the Roman World (Ithaca 1971 ) 55, writes with regard to the Romans, " T h e f uneral expenses o f those w h o died on service were paid by their comrades, contributions f r o m the soldiers' pay being set aside for this purpose." 37. C f . Bekker, Anecd. 1.290.

danrre-

Burial of Greek War Dead

107

YVFXVLKOVS Kai LTTTTLKOVIXEVA>V V\O)V, OV EIK0IT,0), o n ¿¡More 8 I T J P X E T O EKEWEV TROTCTFLO';. T h a t a river formerly flowed through the area of the peribolos may be taken as evidence of a shift in the water-channels of the plain. Cf. Soteriades, Ath. Mitt. 28 (1903) 303 n. 2. 136. D. M. Robinson, Excavations at Olynlhus 11 (Baltimore 1942) 202. In the final report (PAE 1880.18), reference is made to rd KTEPIAPARA, a TTEPI avrovs ELXOV OL vEKpoi, (TVVMTTctixBva EK (TTkeyyihoiv (Ti8r)p6>v, KopfHwv ox' o\iy(DV OUTEIVOIV (aSrikov •np6l Hellespont Korinth Olynthos Chaironeia Lamian War War with Cassander Athens: opponents of Lachares A s s a u l t o n M o u s e i o n hill A s s i s t a n c e t o R o m a n s vs. Carthaginians

1 6 1 . Pausanias says that there was a stele representing two horsemen, Melanopos a n d Makartatos, who died fighting the Lakedaimonians and Boiotians at T a n a g r a . T h e stele was assumed by all to date f r o m the battle of Tanagra in 458/7; but a f r a g m e n t f r o m its e p i g r a m , f o u n d in the A g o r a , has been dated on the basis of its Ionic script to ca. 4 1 0 B.c.: Meritt, Hesperia 16 (1947) 1 4 7 - 1 4 8 ; Bradeen, The Athenian Agora 1 7 ( 1 9 7 4 ) no. 3 7 5 ; L. H. J e f f e r y , Stele Kontoleon (Athens 1980) 52; P. A. Hansen, Carmina Epigraphica Graeca (Berlin 1 9 8 3 ) no. 90. Nothing is known of the battle in the historical literature. However, D. Woysch-Méautis, La représentation des animaux . . . sur les monuments funéraires (Lausanne 1982) 25, now supports, against Meritt, a 4 5 7 date f o r the stele. Clairmont (PN 1 4 0 — 1 4 1 ) suggests that the stone is a late-fifth-century replacement o f one which was erected in the 450s. 1 6 2 . Cassander died in 298/7. Pausanias (1.25.6) had earlier r e f e r r e d to his seizure of Panakton and Salamis, which Ferguson (Hellenistic Athens [London 1 9 1 1 ] 36) dates in 3 1 8 B.c., and the fallen may have been f r o m this year. On the other hand, Cassander's d e f e a t of the Athenian navy occurred in 304 B.C. (Ferguson, p. 1 1 6 ) ; so I have tentatively assigned the taphos to this year. 1 6 3 . I follow the chronology of Ferguson, CP 24 (1929) 1 7 . 1 6 4 . Pausanias says that there was a taphos (singular) f o r the small army ((TTpariav

Burial of Greek War Dead

149 TABLE 4

Section of Paus. 1.29

Probable Date

Battle

8 7 6 6 11

457 457 431 414 412

A r g i v e s at T a n a g r a K l e o n a i a n s at T a n a g r a Thessalian cavalry Kretan b o w m e n Plataians

T h e r e are twenty-three monuments f o r Athenian dead dating f r o m 4 9 1 / 0 to the third century B.C., or twenty-two excluding the Melanopos monument. Pausanias (1.29.7) t e ^ s u s l hat there were other graves f r o m various battlefields: e o r i 8e Kal avbpa>v fivrffxara akka>v, 8laipopot 8e