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Greek Warfare: From the Battle of Marathon to the Conquests of Alexander the Great PDF

344 Pages·2012·5.09 MB·English
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GREEK WARFARE From the Battle of Marathon to the Conquests of Alexander the Great Lee L. Brice Copyright 2012 by ABC-CLIO, LLC All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Greek warfare : from the Battle of Marathon to the conquests of Alexander the Great / Lee L. Brice, Editor. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-61069-069-0 (hbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-61069070-6 (ebook) 1. Greece—History, Military—To 146 B.C. 2. Military art and science—Greece—History—To 1500. 3. Military history, Ancient. I. Brice, Lee L. DF89.B75 2012 355.00938—dc23 2012024992 ISBN: 978-1-61069-069-0 EISBN: 978-1-61069070-6 16 15 14 13 12 1 2 3 4 5 This book is also available on the World Wide Web as an eBook. Visit www.abc-clio.com for details. ABC-CLIO, LLC 130 Cremona Drive, P.O. Box 1911 Santa Barbara, California 93116-1911 This book is printed on acid-free paper Manufactured in the United States of America to Keith W. Armatage and Ruth E. Armatage, . . . inspirational teachers and friends. CONTENTS Introduction The Entries, A–X Aegospotami, Battle of Agesilaus II Agis III Alcibiades Alexander the Great Amphipolis Anabasis Antipater Artemisium Battles of Artillery Athens Bactria Brasidas Cavalry Greek Cavalry Persian Chaeronea Battle of Cimon Cleon Conon of Athens Corinth Corinth League of Corinthian War Darius I Darius III Delian League Delium Battle of Dionysius I Epameinondas Eurymedon River Battle of Gaugamela Battle of Gaza Siege of Granicus River Battle of Greco-Persian Wars Causes of Greco-Persian Wars Consequences of Greco-Persian Wars Overview Hellenic Alliance Herodotus Hydaspes Battle of the Ionian Revolt Iphicrates Issus Battle of Jason of Pherae King’s Peace Leuctra, Battle of Long Walls Lysander Macedon Mantinea Battles of Marathon Battle of Mardonius Mercenaries Miltiades the Younger Mutiny Mycale Battle of Nicias Pelopidas Peloponnesian League Peloponnesian War Causes of Peloponnesian War Consequences of Peloponnesian War Overview Peltasts Penteconter Pericles Persian Empire Phalanx Hoplite Phalanx Macedonian Philip II of Macedon Piraeus Plataea Battle of Sacred Wars Salamis, Battle of Second Athenian League Sicily Sicily Athenian Expedition Against Sparta Sphacteria Strategos Thebes Themistocles Thermopylae Battle of Thucydides Timoleon Training Military Trireme Tyre Siege of Wars of Alexander the Great, Causes of Wars of Alexander the Great, Consequences of Wars of Alexander the Great, Overview Xenophon Xerxes I Documents 1. Herodotus, Account of the Battle of Marathon 2. Mardonius, the Persian General, on Greek Warfare 3. Herodotus, Account of the Battle of Thermopylae 4. Herodotus, Account of Cavalry and Light Infantry versus Hoplites at the Battle of Plataea 5. Thucydides, Account of the Naval Battles of Patrae and Naupactus 6. Thucydides, Account of the Battle of Delium 7. Thucydides, Account of the First Battle of Mantinea 8. Thucydides, Account of a Naval Battle at Syracuse 9. Xenophon, Account of the Battle of Lechaion 10. Xenophon, Account of the Battle of Leuctra 11. Xenophon, Account of the Second Battle of Mantinea 12. Diodorus Siculus and Polyaenus, Accounts of the Battle of Chaeronea 13. Arrian, Account of the Battle of Granicus River 14. Arrian, Account of the Naval Action during the Siege of Tyre 15. Arrian, Account of the Battle of Issus 16. Arrian, Account of the Battle of Gaugamela 17. Arrian, Account of the Battle of the Hydaspes River Chronology Glossary Bibliography Editors and Contributors Categorical Index Index Introduction Lee L. Brice Summer, 2012 Standing as we do in the shadow of the 2,500th anniversary of the Battle of Marathon, it seems a good time to consider the continuing interest in classical Greek warfare. More than two millennia ago, in 490 bce, a Greek army of Athenians and Plataeans stood between a Persian expeditionary force and Athens. The battle’s result was not a foregone conclusion; the Greeks could have lost. They won, however, so we celebrate their victory, still. We also study the battle and the military history of the period that followed. Indeed, despite all the interest in Alexander the Great, it is not possible to understand his career without considering the development of warfare after Marathon. Despite all the changes that have occurred in warfare, ancient Greek military history continues to attract attention of all sorts. Considering the variety of reasons for this interest can tell us much about the topic I address in this volume. One overarching reason for interest in Greek warfare is the vitality of the field. Students often joke with me that ancient history should be easy because it is ancient. Like many people, they think it does not change because it is ancient. Given how much warfare has changed they are convinced that the military history of Greek warfare is stuck in an unchanging past. In a way, they are correct. The reasons for this are not hard to locate. Much of what has been written about Greek warfare in the last two centuries has focused heavily on battle narratives and consideration of famous personalities (Brice and Roberts, 2011). This type of military history has carried the label “drums and trumpets” because of its traditional focus on battle narratives. Much of what we call “drums and trumpets” style work is stuck in old methods and styles, which is why students who think ancient military history does not change are correct to an extent. Despite that, it remains immensely popular with general readers. As a type of scholarly history “drums and trumpets” is often antiquated in its methods. As a result, military history is no longer as popular with academic historians as it was before the mid-20th century. This dismissive attitude by other historians has been the trend for much of the last four decades. The opprobrium is largely because scholars in other fields assume military history is still all “drums and trumpets” and remain unaware of methodological advances in the study of warfare. The reality is that military history, including the history of ancient warfare, is changing all the time. Just as historians in other specializations started drawing on new methods and engaging in more social history, post-colonial history, and cultural history after 1945, so did military historians even if they did so a bit later than everyone else. This led to the emergence of a “War and Society” approach that became increasingly popular. By 1970 historians could refer to a “New” military history that drew heavily on the social sciences and other fields to consider warfare in new ways. Even traditional or “drums and trumpets” history has changed thanks to John Keegan’s Face of Battle (1976). His soldiers’ perspective approach to the sharp end of battle has affected many discussions of battles and campaigns even in ancient history (Brice and Roberts, 2011). More recently other specialized fields of study have opened up military history. Conflict archaeology, crowd psychology, game theory, and forensic anthropology are examples of fields having an enormous impact on the way historians approach ancient warfare. In these ways we have new topics of detailed study like mutiny, battlefield physiology, and gender as well as new ways of looking at traditional topics like logistics, economics, combat motivation, and death. The result is that military history is more popular in the classroom than it used to be (Wheeler, 2011), but more importantly, this new work has made some “drums and trumpets” histories much better. It has also had an impact on ancient history. The methodological changes are just as true of military historians of ancient Greek warfare as of modern warfare. In addition to changes in the field of military history, there have been similar developments in ancient history and classical studies that have changed the way we look at Greek warfare. Archaeologists, for example, uncover new artifacts, sites, and sources such as new inscriptions that illustrate features of Athenian cavalry. Specialists in various fields using new laboratory sciences reveal previously unavailable data including the ways in which particular weapon-use can appear in the skeletal remains of users and victims. Historians employ new ways of looking at old and new evidence to reveal lost information, examine neglected topics, or elaborate new interpretations. As a result, the field of ancient history, including military history, is a far cry from my students’ misconceptions of it as static; it is an

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Greek Warfare: From the Battle of Marathon to the Conquests of Alexander the Great is a unique reference book that examines warfare in ancient Greece during the Classical era between 490 and 323 BCE. This easy-to-use, multi-format handbook provides a range of tools for investigating the military his
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