The Greek State at War: Part 5 [rev. ed., Reprint 2020] 9780520350977

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THE GREEK STATE AT WAR Part V

The Greek State at War Part V

W. Kendrick Pritchett D.H.L. (Hon.) Corresponding Fellow British Academy Honorary Member Royal Irish Academy Corresponding Fellow German Archaeological Institute

U N I V E R S I T Y O F C A L I F O R N I A PRESS BERKELEY • L o s ANGELES • OXFORD

University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England © 1991 by T h e Regents of the University of California Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data (Revised for volume 5) Pritchett, W. Kendrick (William Kendrick), 1909— T h e Greek state at war. Vol. 1 first published 1971 u n d e r title: Ancient Greek military practices. Vol. 3 has additional title: Religion. Includes bibliographical references and indexes, l. Military art and science—Greece—History. 2. Greece—History, Military. I. Title. U33P65 355'.oo938 75'312653 ISBN ISBN ISBN ISBN ISBN

0-520-02758-2 0-520-02565-2 0-520-03781-2 0-520-05379-6 0-520-07374-6

(v. (V. (v. (V. (V.

1) 2) 3) 4) 5)

Printed in the United States of America 08

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9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 The paper used in this publication is both acid-free and totally chlorine-free (TCF). It meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R 1997) {Permanence of Paper). ©

CONTENTS Preface

I. II. III. IV. V. VI.

IX

S T O N E THROWERS A N D SLINGERS IN A N C I E N T GREEK WARFARE l Literary Evidence 3 T h e Sling and Stone-Casters in Mediterranean Art 32 Numismatic Evidence, Including the Kestros 37 Excavations of Stone and Clay Missiles 39 T h e Lead Sling Bullet 43 Conclusions 53 1. Status 53 2. Nationality 54 3. Effectiveness of the Slinger 56 A. Siege Operations 57 B. Mountainous and Difficult Terrain 58 C. Against Elephants 59 D. Against Cavalry 60 E. In Naval Operations 60 4. Deployment of Slingers in Battles 61 5. Stone Throwers 65 A. Organized Corps of Stone-throwers 65 B. Random Casting of Stones 66

BOOTY I. Vocabulary for Booty 73 1. 17 crvkT] 73 2. keia, Xrjt?, kiqirf, kaia 77 3. pvcnov and pvaia^eiv 86 4. (Tvkdw and Cognates 1 1 6 5. cKvkoc and kctfftvpct 132 6. evapa 147 7. wekeia 148 II. Objects of Booty 152 1. Cities 152 2. Camp 157 3. Sanctuaries 160 4. Key Substantives 168 A. aix/td\wro5 169 B. av8pairo8ov 170 [v]

68

vi

Contents C. D. E. F. G. H.

III.

IV.

V.

VI.

OCTTOCTKEVr) 173 SaKTvkioi 174 EKTraifxara a n d irorqpia eiriirka 179 ¿fiaTuriids 181 awfia 182

174

I. Money and Bullion 185 J. Works of Art 193 K. Livestock 198 Fate of Captives 203 1. Death 205 2. Enslavement 223 3. Ransom 245 A. Specific Prices by Head Count 247 B. Other Examples in Historical Authors 255 C. Other Examples in Epigraphical Texts 271 4. General Observations on Ransoming 283 A. Livy 283 B. Private Ransoming 284 C. State Ransoming 288 D. Release without Ransom 290 E. Envoys 292 F. Proxenoi 292 G. Treaties 293 H. Restitutio libertatis 295 5. Release and Hostages 297 Raids and Pirates 3 1 2 1. Chronological List 324 2. Transportation of Persons and Property Prior to Incursions 348 3. Towers in Rural Areas 352 4. Raids in Reprisal 358 Division of Booty 363 1. A Collection of Clauses about Booty in Treaties 363 2. Division among Allies Other Than in Treaties 368 3. Instances of Dissension over Division 373 4. Examples of Booty to Soldiers in Major Greek Authors 375 5. Division to Hegemones 398 Sale of Booty 401 1. Sparta 404 2. Athens 416

vii

Contents

3. Traders in Booty 425 4. Place of Sale 433 VII. Profits of War 438 1. Avowals of Booty as Purpose of War 43g 2. Colonization after Expulsion 445 3. Unplundered Land 453 4. Focus on Athenian Economy of the Fourth Century 456 A. Economic Conditions Relating to Military Employment 458 B. Budgetary Figures for Athens 459 C. Spanositia and the Protection of the Grain Route 465 D. Voluntary Military Contributions 473 E. Review of Selected Campaigns 485 F. Figures for Booty 499 Appendix: Tables of Booty in Greek Historians . . . . Index of Ancient Authors Cited Index of Inscriptions Cited

505 543 575

PREFACE is offered as part of an ongoing series in which material is presented relating to various aspects of ancient Greek warfare not hitherto adequately treated in the modern literature. T h e r e is no particular order of arrangement. Since there has been no study of the stone-thrower and the slinger, in contrast with other members of auxiliary forces such as the archer and the javelin-thrower, an attempt has been made to collect all references to this arm of the military service. Whereas the entire series focuses on the Greek city-state, this chapter has been enlarged to include references in Makedonian and Roman warfare. T h e bulk of this volume, however, has been devoted to the subject of booty; it was undertaken at the suggestion of Moses Finley, who unfortunately did not survive to give me the benefit of his vast learning, particularly in the area of economic history which is closely related to our theme.

T H I S FIFTH V O L U M E

T h e subject of booty proves to be almost intractable since it pervades all aspects of Greek social and economic life. It is well, therefore, to define the limits of this investigation as focusing on five historians, Herodotos, Thucydides, Xenophon, Polybios, and Diodoros (Books 11 [480 B.C.]-finem), although we have included other passages in the literature as they seemed relevant. T h e campaigns of Alexander and his successors in Asia Minor have been largely ignored; they have been ably treated by M.M. Austin. It is my hope to investigate some aspects of the subject in a future volume. In the concluding pages, I treat briefly related aspects of economic life in mid-fourthcentury Athens; but complete application of the material to other periods and states would require a protracted delay. It seems clear that plunder/booty formed at times a virtual line-item in the ancient economy; but it is also true that classical writers had a disinclination to say so, and further study is needed to establish an overall picture, if indeed it becomes possible. T h e modern literature, as known to me through the spring of 1989 when the manuscript was sent to the typist, has been cited. A few references to works appearing after that date have been inserted. Supplementum Epigraphicum, Graecum has been consulted through volume 35, and Marouzeau's L'année philologique through volume 57. T h e work of P. Ducrey has been particularly useful. O f course the ideal of reading everything ever written on the subject is a vain one. Nine centuries ago, the happy Benedict of Clusa could boast in 1028, "I have two large houses filled with books . . . T h e r e is not in the [ix]

X

Preface

whole earth a book that I have not read." Such an ambition today would be fantastic. A detailed table of contents provides an adequate index of the subjects treated. More important for the serious investigator are the indexes of passages and inscriptions cited. Ultimately, crucial terms, particularly those in inscriptions, will be put into a computer databank, and the reader will be able to determine what source material has been omitted. For the study of vocabulary, I have relied on standard indexes of ancient authors. Earlier volumes of my work have been dedicated to my wife and to Professor Barbara Saylor Rodgers. Here I can only renew my appreciation, to the former for having read my manuscripts for forty-seven years, to the latter for undertaking the onerous task of typing since she was a student at Berkeley, taking time from her own scholarly activities to produce camera-ready copy on a computer. To August Fruge, friend and former director of the University of California Press, I give thanks for special advice. To my colleagues, Mark Griffith, Charles Murgia, and Ronald Stroud, I am indebted for discussing with me certain difficult texts. Finally, I am indebted to a reader who clearly read with care the entire five hundred pages.

CHAPTER I

STONE THROWERS AND SLINGERS IN ANCIENT GREEK WARFARE IN LAWS 8.834A, Plato writes that as training for war general peltastic contests should be established, including competition with stones flung both by hand and by sling (kiffi¿> bk x^'po? te xai oji otos adjTOJL (13.716). Leaf comments, " T h e r e is no doubt that the reference here is to slings," noting that Pausanias (1.23.4) so construed it. T h e use of wool for the sling would seem confirmed by the only example of the word cTev86vq in H o m e r

9. T h e poet (or singer) uses the lifting of huge stones as disparagement of his contemporary man, as in 5.304, 12.382, etc.

6

Stone

Throwers

and

Slingers

(13.600), 10 where Agenor binds up his hand in a "bandage," or "sling" of wool fleece." Homer's Lokrian archers were equipped with slings. 12 T Y R T A I O S . Tyrtaios ( 1 1 . 3 6 [West]) exhorts the yv(ivr)TE to throw their great stones (ixeyakois

pakkere

xepp-aS1019). T h e light-armed troops

hurl stones and spears. 13

Writing about a battle with sword play on the island of Euboia, Archilochos (3 West) expresses scorn for fighting with bows and slings. 14 For the same contrast of the bow with hoplite weapons (TO£' EXMV, KGLKKTTOV OTTXOV), see Euripides HF 157-164.15 ARCHILOCHOS.

PINDAR.

Pindar

(P.

s t o n e " (rerpoifievoL

3.49) refers to men "wounded by the far-thrown xepfiddi

nq\e/36Xq)).

4 5 9 - 4 6 0 : On Psyttaleia, the Persians were struck many times by stones thrown from enemy hands: iroXXd P-sv yap SK

A I S C H Y L O S . Persai xep&v

/ TTETpOLCTLV r)pa(T(TOVTO.'6

Septern 158: T h e chorus describes the hail of stones used against the battlements of Thebes. 676: Eteokles calls for greaves to fend off stones (VBTPWV). HERODOTOS. 7.158: T h e catalogue of forces which Herodotos says Gelo of Syracuse offered to the Greek envoys included two thousand a-ev8ovf)TAi. T h e archers and slingers are listed separately, each numbering two thousand. Gelo's army included a large proportion of light-armed troops and cavalry. Commentators suggest that military science had achieved a higher level in the West than in Athens and Sparta, a suggestion often ignored by those who write about early Greek history. On 7.225, a reader suggests that slingers were among oi fiapfSapoi /3dX.kovTB? EK(XVTE974) 34 andfig-46-8-

32

Stone Throwers and Slingers

by the hunter, see Diodoros 3.37.3. T h e s e passages serve as a reminder that a single bullet f o u n d in an isolated context does not prove that it was used in battle. Slings were used for a variety o f purposes. Fougères, in DS, Diet. 2 : 2 (1896) s.v. glans 1609, questioned whether bullets attributed to Marathon were of military significance. C f . C . Foss ,JHS, Archaeological Reports for 1974/75 43. 55 I I . T H E S L I N G AND S T O N E - C A S T E R S IN MEDITERRANEAN A R T

T h e slingman is portrayed early in art depicting warfare in the Mediterranean basin. Y. Yadin, The Art of Warfare in Biblical Lands (Norwich 1963) 10, reproduces a sketch of a slinger portrayed on a wall painting f r o m Egypt dated to the twentieth century B.C. 5 6 T h e early sling, he explains, looks rather like a large eye-patch. It consisted o f a piece o f cloth or leather with two cords attached to opposite edges. T h e stone missile is placed on the material which is held by the left hand and the ends o f the cords held together by the right. T h e instrument is whirled around until, by loosing one end, the missile is let fly with centrifugal force. 5 7 In the first half o f the second millennium, Yadin (p.64) states that the slingmen were used in support o f the archers, as they were in later periods. " T h e y were particularly useful in an attack on a fortified city, since they could direct highangle fire u p a steep slope." In the Egyptian monuments f r o m the New K i n g d o m , "the sling appears only at the beginning o f the X X t h Dynasty" (Yadin, 83). In discussing the comparatively detailed descriptions of battles in the books of the Bible, Yadin (262) notes that the slingmen were organized into fighting units: " A m o n g all this people there were seven hundred chosen men lefthanded: every one could sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss" (Judges 20.16). So Saul's brethren of Benjamin "were armed with bows, and could use both the right hand and the left in hurling stones and shooting arrows out of a bow" (I Chronicles 12.2). In I Samuel 17.40 and 49, David's conquest of the giant Goliath is described in part as follows:

55. In Lucian's caricature of a battle, huge radishes are thrown by the slingers, whereas slingers on the opposite side failed to put in an appearance: VH 1.16. 56. See also V.G. Childe, " T h e Significance of the Sling for Greek Pre-history," Studies Presented to DM. Robinson 1 (St. Louis 1951) 1 - 5 , who discusses early sling bullets of stone and baked clay. Korfmann (op.cit. [supra p . i ] 278-279) regards the bow and arrow as an African weapon, whereas the prehistoric population of Southwestern Asia used the sling exclusively until into the third millennium B.C. 57. Vergil (Aeneid 9.589) refers to the throwing of the sling bullet (Dryden's tr.): "Him when he spy'd from far, the Tuscan King laid by the lance, and took him to the sling, Thrice whirl'd the thong around his head, and threw the heated lead, half-melted as it flew."

Stone Throwers and Slingers

33

And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd's bag which he had, even in a scrip; and his sling was in his hand: and he drew near to the Philistine. . . . And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth.58 Yadin (296) reports that the use of the sling came comparatively late to the Assyrian army, making its appearance on monuments in the eighth century. H e reproduces (p.452) a relief where two slingmen operate in pairs behind the archers, while close to them are piles of stones. O t h e r illustrations of Assyrian slingmen appear on his pages 430, 431, and 4 3 6 - 4 3 7 (siege of Lachish). T h e iconography of the slinger in the Aigaion world is studied by H.G. Buchholz, "Die Schleuder als Waffe im Aegaeischen Kulturkreis," Anadolu Arastirmalari 2 (1965) 1 3 3 - 1 5 9 . who gives a sketch of nine different representations f r o m reliefs, vases, and coins. D. Head, Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars (1982) 90, reproduces a sketch o f a Persian slinger made from drawings of a lost Makedonian tomb o f about 300 B.C. We may digress to note that whereas the Greeks used only the word irpòs kavpoTTtókavpaya)yia. T h e scholiast on Od 1 . 3 9 8 writes, ksia yàp «upiotç 17 TMV Troksp.iKÛv koufrvpaìv avvaywyrj.25 T h e Souda defines kiqiSa as kavpaywyiav, whereas X17t'a is (TiTOópa TTE8ia, x