Greek Military

by

Fernando Echeverría Rey

Introduction

Warfare may be considered a fundamental activity in Greek civilization: warfare and society interacted in ancient Greece, determining the political, social, and economic institutions of the time. In ancient Greek sources, war figured prominently as a literary and historical topic; in most Greek cities, monuments celebrating or commemorating military events invaded the public spaces. “War,” says Heraclitus, “is the father of all and king of all” (frg. 53 D). This paramount relevance of warfare as a cultural factor was. however, counterbalanced by an early and permanent awareness of war’s catastrophic effects on individuals and communities. The Greeks frequently lamented its inevitable nature and feared its horrific consequences. “War,” says Pindar, “is sweet to those who have no experience of it, but the experienced man trembles exceedingly at heart on its approach” (frg. 110). The Greeks thus had an ambivalent approach to war, and this troubled relationship contributed decisively to shape the material aspects of Greek warfare: weapons, strategy and tactics, military institutions, and the like. Academic research over the previous decades has sought to explain and interpret manifold aspects of Greek warfare. This has led to a considerable increase in the number of academic works in this field. Modern scholars are particularly concerned about some still obscure and elusive aspects (warfare in early Greece, public and private initiatives, logistics), and many controversial issues (the mechanics of combat, the origins of the military institutions, the relationship between warfare and society) still raise lively discussions. The present bibliographical selection, ranging roughly from Mycenaean times to the conquest of Corinth by the Romans (c. 1200–146 BCE), tries to do justice to a longstanding academic effort to understand one of the most genuinely human activities.

General Overviews of Ancient Warfare

Greek warfare is sometimes considered from a broader perspective, connecting it to the general framework of ancient warfare. In these studies, the Greek way of war is always approached as an original and peculiar phenomenon, and in some of them it is even regarded as the foundation of a distinctively “Western” (that is, non-Asiatic) way of war (Dawson 1996). Even critics of this “Western way of war” theory concede that Greek warfare represented a new era in the organization, materialization, and interpretation of combat (Lynn 2003; Lendon 2005). The approach shown in Lloyd 1996, Bekker-Nielsen 2001, Chaniotis 2002, Chrissanthos 2008, and de Souza 2008 is useful to illuminate aspects of the Greek experience through their comparison with other cultures and historical periods. In all of them, the Greeks always represent a substantial and fundamental part of the analysis.

• Bekker-Nielsen, Tønnes, and Lise Hannestad, eds. 2001. War as a cultural and social force: Essays on warfare in Antiquity. Copenhagen: Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab.

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  Interesting collection of papers approaching ancient warfare from a cultural perspective. Illuminating and compelling contributions on Greek warfare: Catherine Morgan (symbolism), Hans van Wees (military and social status), Vincent Gabrielsen (naval warfare), Michel Austin (Seleucid empire), and Lise Hannestad (art).

• Chaniotis, Angelos, and Pierre Ducrey. 2002. Army and power in the ancient world. Stuttgart: Steiner.

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  Interdisciplinary collection of papers on warfare in ancient cultures, arranged as academic discussions. On Greek warfare: Pierre Ducrey (army and power), Hans van Wees (tyrants and citizen militias), Vincent Gabrielsen (response to van Wees), Angelos Chaniotis (Hellenistic garrisons), John Ma (response to Chaniotis).

• Chrissanthos, Stefan G. 2008. Warfare in the ancient world: From the Bronze Age to the fall of Rome. London: Praeger.

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  General account of Greek and Roman warfare in the historical period (despite the title). Introductory and accessible for general audiences. Preference for description rather than for interpretation.

• Dawson, Doyne. 1996. The origins of Western warfare: Militarism and morality in the ancient world. Boulder, CO: Westview.

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  A theoretical approach to the origins of the main features of modern Western warfare, starting with “primitive warfare” and following with Greece and Rome. Special emphasis on the “ritualistic” aspects of Greek combat.

• de Souza, Philip, ed. 2008. The ancient world at war, a global history. London: Thames & Hudson.

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  Wide collection of papers on ancient warfare, from Neolithic Europe to ancient South America, arranged in chronological order. On Greek warfare: Alan Peatfield (Minoan and Mycenaean warfare), Hans van Wees (Archaic and Classical Greece) and David Potter (Hellenistic warfare).

• Lendon, John E. 2005. Soldiers and ghosts: A history of battle in Classical Antiquity. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.

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  Interesting approach to ancient Greek and Roman combat from the point of view of culture and ideology. Emphasis on the crucial influence of the mythological or historical past (the “ghosts” of the title) to shape classical attitudes to combat, and actual performance in it.

• Lloyd, Alan B, ed. 1996. Battle in Antiquity. London: Duckworth.

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  Collection of papers on ancient warfare. Interesting studies devoted to Greek military by Hans van Wees (Homeric warfare), Stephen Mitchell (hoplite warfare), Daniel Ogden (homosexuality and warfare), and Alan B. Lloyd (Macedonian warfare).

• Lynn, John A. 2003. Battle: A history of combat and culture. Boulder, CO: Westview.

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  A wide-ranging survey of battle from ancient to modern times. The chapter on Greek warfare is specifically intended to refute Victor Hanson’s theory of the “Western way of war.”