King Agis of Sparta and His Campaign in Arkadia in 418 B.C.

172 Pages·1933·79.424 MB·English, Greek

by  William J. Woodhouse

KING AGIS OF SPARTA
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
AMEN HOUSE, E.C. 4
London Edinburgh Glasgow
Leipzig New York Toronto
Melbourne Capetown Bombay
Calcutta Madras Shanghai
HUMPHREY MILFORD
PUBLISHER TO THE
UNIVERSITY
KING AGIS oF SPARTA
AND HIS
CAMPAIGN IN ARKADIA
IN 418 B.C.
A CHAPTER IN
THE HISTORY OF THE ART OF WAR
AMONG THE GREEKS
Ws > BY
Ww. 1'WOODHOUSE
Profoef Gsresek oinr th e
Univerosf iSytdnyey
*ApiAn p& Tv Al° olx tvaomSdoopa,
Mw 8 Umip AcaSaapo& vpoit eSovx.
ARISTOPH, Acharn. 368
OXFORD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1933

To
Hoof we -
Webn
% ry the Memory of those sometime Students
in my Greek Classes
in the University of Sydney
who in the Great War
volunteered for Service
and gave their lives
Jor King and Country
JAMES BLACKWOOD
LEONARD ROCKLEY BROWNLOW
CECIL HOPE COHEN
SYDNEY JAMES GEORGE DAVIS
HERBERT DEBENHAM
WILLIAM GEORGE VINCENT HILLCOAT
ROGER FORREST HUGHES
HUBERT KINGSLEY MEEK

.
y
T
MORVEN KELYNACK NOLAN
(

4
RODERIC ALAN EDWARD O’CONNOR
3
-
CHARLES WILLOUGHBY LEE PULLING
3
1
EDWARD CLEMENT RENNIE
F
C
KENETH MAURICE HALGREN SOLOMON
JAMES ROBERT STEWART
LAURENCE WHISTLER STREET
KEITH JOHN WADE
‘Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.’
THE binding ornament on the front of the book
represents a bronze statuette (54 inches high)
of a Greek Hoplite wearing crested Corin-
thian helmet, cuirass, and greaves, and carrying
a shield of the type called Boiotian. It was
found at Dodona, and is now in Berlin. Its
date is early in the Fifth Century B.C.
PREFACE
MY acquaintance with the parts of Arkadia here under
discussion, first made over forty years ago, has been
renewed from time to time in the interval—though indeed
all too infrequently to match my love of them. The main
lines of my interpretation of the events described by Thucy-
dides were first laid down by me in view of the scene of action
itself as far back as 1908. Since that date the work has been
re-handled and re-written very many times—so many that I
have lost all count.
No portion of the book has cost so much in labour as the
revision of the Greek Text, with the English Translation, of
these Fifteen Chapters of Thucydides, upon which the rest
of what I have here written is simply an elaborate Com-
mentary. The revised Text was prepared by way of coming
perforce to a decision as to what Thucydides wrote; the
Translation expresses as accurately and clearly as possible
what I take his words to mean.
In the upshot, it has been found necessary to jettison the
preliminary Greek Text, together with the Notes meant to
justify the readings and interpretations adopted. In these I
hoped to have put forward something of value for Thucy-
didean scholarship, from the point of view of method, as well
as of results; both Text and Notes must now be reserved for
some later opportunity, and I must be content here to
exhibit the Translation alone.
In respect of mere statement, fortunately, Thucydides in
these Chapters has been, in the main, perhaps as clear as ever
was possible for a writer constitutionally so obscure. Whether
his conceptions were on all fours with objective facts and
their underlying significance, whether indeed his narrative
is not in parts self-contradictory and devoid of logic and
genuine intelligibility—that is one of the questions my book
sets out to answer.
Some there will be, no doubt, perhaps many, who by
impugning the cogency of the argument or the legitimacy of
the method will endeavour to discredit the conclusions here
viii PREFACE
reached. There will always be those who prefer to stick to
their old mumpsimus. With them science has nothing to do.
But I would not be misunderstood—as though it were after
all my secret design to launch treacherous shaft at the object
of their blind devotion.
It is from the point of view of a student of ancient military
art alone that the statements, and the omissions, of Thucy-
dides are here examined. Only to such as would claim for
him infallibility in every field, and from whatever angle his
work is regarded, can the results of that examination prove
embarrassing. On the other hand, only within the restricted
field above indicated are those results properly valid. One
of the first would I be to acknowledge that they are far from
touching the real heart of Thucydides, and to affirm that they
sink into insignificance when weighed in the scales against
those other excellences upon which the world’s verdict of
his unapproachable supremacy securely rests.
Nevertheless, even Thucydides cannot plead privilege, and
escape the test of his own challenge. Since he has asserted
for himself this claim of adequacy and accuracy we should be
false to his own spirit were we to shrink from applying to his
work that same impersonal mercilessness which is his own
special characteristic, even as it is a prime condition of all
scientific analysis. And if we may not shun the process, so
neither may we evade its results. We are, I think, in no
slight danger these days, and not least in connexion with
Thucydides, of being content to accept sentimental twaddle
for reasoned appreciation, and of approving the conventional
platitudes of indiscriminate eulogy as good substitute for
sanely critical judgement. No greater disservice, I am con-
vinced, could be done to these the Hellenic progenitors and
vehicles of our culture, than the endeavour to put a fence
about them and to screen them from the operation of that
critical spirit which was of the essence of their own life, and
among the most precious of their gifts to posterity.
W.J. W.
THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
NEW SOUTH WALES
25 April, 1933
CONTENTS
PAGE
TRANSLATION . . . . . . . 2
Chapter I. INTRODUCTORY . . . : . 13
Chapter II. THE HISTORICAL PROBLEM . . . 17
Chapter III. THE THEATRE OF OPERATIONS . . . 23
Chapter IV. FIRST POSITION OF THE ARMIES . . 35
Chapter V. THE STRATAGEM OF KING AGIS . . «42
Chapter VI. THE FIELD OF BATTLE . . . . 57
Chapter VII. DEPLOYMENT OF THE ARMY OF KING AGIS . 66
Chapter VIII. THE BATTLE OF MANTINEIA . . Com
Chapter IX. THE ROLE OF THE TWO POLEMARCHS . 86
Chapter X. THE BATTALIONS OF THE TWO POLEMARCHS 94
Chapter XI. THE STRATEGIC PROBLEM AND ITS SOLUTION 106
ExcursusA. THE FOREST CALLED PELAGOS . . . 126
ExcursusB . Tae NumBers ENGAGED . . . . I3I
Excursus C. Tue Tae COVERED BY THE OPERATIONS . . . 147
MAPS AND DIAGRAMS
PAGE
I. Sketch Map of the Theatre of Operations . . . 22
II. Sketch Map of the Plain of Mantineia, showing the Battle Sites 58
III. Diagram to Show the Relation of the Outer Position (A) and
of the Inner Position (B) to the Communications with
Mantineia . . . . . . . 116
IV. Diagram showing the Geographical Relationship of the
Places in the Peloponnese, to which reference is made in
this book 152
The following ABBREVIATIONS are used in the Notes:
Claus. = On War, by Gen. Carl von Clausewitz; translated by Colonel
J. J. Graham. Three vols., London, 1918.
Bernh. = On War of To-day, by Friedrich von Bernhardi; translated by
Karl von Donat. Two vols., London, 1912.