The wars of the ancient Greeks : and their invention of western military culture

224 Pages·1999·100.43 MB·english

by  Victor Davis Hanson

THE WARS OF THE
ANCIENT GREEKS

THE WARS OF THE
ANCIENT GREEKS
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••~~~Y'__•
AND THEIR INVENTION OF
WESTERN MILITARY CULTURE
Victor Davis Hanson
. General Editor: John Keegan
1..

CASSELL
FOR W. K. PRITCHETT,
who revolutionized the study
of Ancient Greek warfare
Firstpublished in GreatBritain 1999
by Cassell, Wellington House, 125Strand, London
WC2R OBB www.cassell.co.uk
Text copyright © Victor Davis Hanson, 1999
The moral right of the author has been asserted
Design and layout copyright © Cassell
The picture credits on p. 224 constitute an extension
to this copyrightpage.
Material in the Introduction and Chapter5is based
on ideas that appeared in Victor Davis Hanson and
John Heath, Who Killed Homer? The Demise of
Classical Education and the Recovery ofGreek
Wisdom (TheFree Press, New York, 1998) and Victor
Davis Hanson, 'Alexanderthe Killer', Quarterly
Journal ofMilitary History, Spring 1998, 10.3, 8-20.
All rights reserved. No part of this title may be
reproduced ortransmitted in any material form
(includingphotocopyingor storingit in any medium
by electronic means and whether or not transiently or
incidentally to some other use of this publication)
without the written permission of the copyright
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British Library Cataloguing-in-publicationData
ISBN: 0-304-35222-5
Design, cartography andpicture research: Arcadia
Editions Ltd
Printed in Italy by Printer Trento s.r.I.
Typeset inMonotype Sabon
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank John Keegan and Judith Flanders
for askingmeto writethisvolumeontheAncientGreeks
at war. My colleague at California State University,
Fresno, Professor Bruce Thornton, kindly read the book
in manuscript and offered his usual perceptive
suggestions. Penny Gardiner superbly supervised the
difficult task of turning a rough manuscript into an
illustrated book. All dates areBe unless otherwisenoted;
I have retained those Latinized forms of Greek nouns
that are more familiar to a general audience.
lowe an enormous debt of gratitude, as do all
students of Ancient Greek history, to W K. Pritchett,
whose five volumes on the Greek state at war, and eight
companion books on Greek topography, have prompted
a renaissance in the study of Classical warfare.
Victor Davis Hanson
Selma, California
October 1997
CONTENTS
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 5
MAP LIST 9
A MILLENNIUM OF GREEK WARS 10
NOTABLE GREEKS AT WAR
INTRODUCTION
THE GREEK MILITARY LEGACY
I EARLY GREEK FIGHTING (I400-750 )
PALACE WAR AS EVOLUTIONARY DEAD END: THE COLLAPSE OF
MYCENAEAN GREECE
PLUNDERING AND RAIDING IN THE GREEK DARK AGES
THE HOMERIC BATTLEFIELD
2 THE RISE OF THE CITY-STATE AND
THE INVENTION OF WESTERN WARFARE (750-490 )
THE COMING OFTHE HOPLITE
THE AGRARIAN DUELS
THE EMERGENCE OF ATHENIAN AND
SPARTAN MILITARY POWER
THE DEFENSE OF GREECE
THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 1°5
AN ARMYTO REMEMBER 120
4 THE SECOND MILITARY REVOLUTION (362-336)
PHILIP OF MACEDON AND THE
REINVENTION OF GREEK WARFARE 136
WAR AS A SPECIALIZED SCIENCE 154
5ALEXANDER THE GREAT AND THE
CREATION OF HELLENISTIC WARFARE (33S-I 46)
MARCHING THROUGH ASIA 166
TOTAL WAR 175
THE SUCCESSORS, THE CO,MING OF ROME
AND THE COLLAPSE OF GREEK WARFARE
CONCLUSION
THE HELLENIC LEGACY 2°4
GLOSSARY 208
FURTHER READING 213
STATISTICS 216
INDEX 219
224
PICTURE CREDITS