eBook
Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
Related collections and offers
Overview
Generations of archeologists have been inspired by Peter Connolly’s beautifully rendered, highly detailed illustrations of ancient arms and armies. This comprehensive volume offers a bird’s eye view of not only battles, but the weapons, shields, and armor used centuries ago by Greek and Roman warriors. With extensive text describing each piece, this collection offers an ideal introduction to the subject of warfare in the ancient world spanning from 800 BC to 450 AD.
Incorporating new archaeological research and the contributions of other scholars in the field, this new edition of Greece and Rome at War provides detailed explanations of the classical armies’ manufacture and use of their armaments. These full-color illustrations, maps, diagrams, and photographs bring the past to vivid life.
Includes a preface by Adrian Goldsworthy.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781783469710 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Pen & Sword Books Limited |
| Publication date: | 02/20/2019 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 320 |
| File size: | 63 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
GREECE AND MACEDONIA
The City States 800 – 360 BC
Introduction
Soon after 1200 BC the great Bronze-Age civilisation that had flourished in Greece for several centuries went into a rapid decline and finally collapsed. Barbarous tribes poured southwards obliterating the last remnants of the Mycenaean culture, and a dark age descended on Greece. This book is a survey of the military systems that emerged from this dark age. An attempt is made to trace the development of military organisation, tactics and armament in Greece and Italy from the 8th century BC, when civilisation once more began to emerge in Greece, until the onset of the second dark age when the Roman empire in the West collapsed.
Both Greece and Rome had to face the supreme test. With Greece it was when the Persians invaded at the beginning of the 5th century, while Rome faced a similar crucial situation when the greatest of the ancient generals, Hannibal, invaded Italy 260 years later. Both these wars are examined in considerable detail to show how the two military systems rose to the situation. Most of Rome's organisation and equipment was borrowed from the nations with whom she came into conflict: the Etruscans, Samnites, Celts, Carthaginians and, of course, the Greeks. The contributions of each of these states will be examined in turn.
Already by the late Mycenaean period in the 13th and 12th centuries BC central European influences were being felt in the Aegean world. This continued in the succeeding centuries and, by the time that Homer's epic poems of the Mycenaean era, the Iliad and the Odyssey, were committed to writing, practically nothing of the ancient weaponry survived. For this reason, unless there is a clear derivation from the earlier period, the Bronze Age will be ignored. Our knowledge of the 8th and 7th centuries is very sparse but, by the 6th, we have a continuous written history
The history of the 6th and 5th centuries is dominated first by the rise of Persia and later by the bitter war between Sparta and Athens. The period is very well documented by two great writers – Herodotus, who was alive at the time of the Persian invasion of Greece, and Thucydides, the greatest of the ancient historians, who was actually involved in the war between Sparta and Athens. To these one must add Xenophon, who wrote around the beginning of the 4th century BC. Xenophon's writings are not in the same class as those of Herodotus or Thucydides but he was a soldier and served for many years with the Spartans. He is thus an incomparable source of information about the Spartan military system.
These literary sources are supplemented by a mass of archaeological evidence. After a battle it was customary for the victor to dedicate some armour in a sanctuary such as Olympia. In time these shrines became so cluttered with armour that it became necessary to throw out the older pieces. At Olympia some were dumped in the streams and disused wells, while other pieces were used to reinforce the banks of the stadium. In recent years some of this armour has been recovered during excavations.
The States at War
When the Mycenaean states fell soon after 1200 BC, hordes of savage tribesmen, Greek-speaking but from the mountainous north-western region, moved down into southern Greece. The most formidable of these invaders were the Dorians. Many of the original inhabitants fled from Greece and settled along the west coast of Asia Minor (Turkey) in the area that became known as Ionia.
The invasions and subsequent migrations came to an end about 1000 BC. This was followed by a period of settlement. Finally, order began to return. The little states that emerged consisted of sev-eral villages with their land under the control of a hereditary warlord. These gradually consolidated until, by the 8th century, a political structure that was to characterise Greece began to emerge. This was the polis, or city state, where the government of an area settled on a single town. Gradually, powerful cities began to absorb their neighbours; the foremost of these were Sparta and Athens. In Athens, the king was subsequently ousted and supplanted by the nobility In time they, too, were thrown out and control taken over by a demagogic dictator, or tyrant. Finally the tyrant was overthrown and democracy established. This last step was only achieved on the eve of the Persian wars.
Athens gained control of the whole of Attica during this period and, by 500 BC, she was becoming the cultural centre of the Hellenic world and the most powerful state in central Greece.
Sparta, on the other hand, had a very different development. The Spartans were descended from the Dorian invaders who had conquered Laconia. They had enslaved part of the native population and subjected the rest. The enslaved population were called helots. They were tied to the land and compelled to work the state-owned farms that provided the Spartans with their livelihood. The subject peoples, called perioeci, were allowed a measure of independence but were compelled to provide soldiers to fight on the Spartan side. The Spartans were commanded in battle by two hereditary kings. By the end of the 7th century Sparta had overcome Messenia to the west and gained control of the whole of the southern Peloponnesus. Over the next 100 years, either by coercion or persuasion, she managed to unite the states of the Peloponnesus into a league known to the ancients as 'the Lacedaemonians and their allies', but called today simply the Peloponnesian League.
In the middle of the 6th century, the tyrant Peisistratus seized power at Athens, which he, and later his son Hippias, governed intermittently for half a century until deposed by the Spartan king, Cleomenes, when he invaded Attica in 511 BC. In the wake of the tyrants civil strife broke out as democrat and oligarch struggled for power. When the oligarch Isagoras was thrown out, he appealed to his personal friend Cleomenes for assistance. Cleomenes, with a small body of retainers, again invaded Attica, and so great was the aura of Sparta that he took the city without a blow and garrisoned the Acropolis.
When the Athenians discovered the paltry size of Cleomenes' party, they besieged the Acropolis and Cleomenes, in the face of starvation, was forced to surrender. Fearing reprisals, the Athenians felt obliged to release the king and his retainers. Enraged at his humiliation Cleomenes returned to Sparta and mobilised the entire Peloponnesian League against Athens. Accompanied by the other king, Demaratus, he led his army towards the borders of Attica. In the north, Thebes and Chalcis, Athens' commercial rivals, seized the opportunity to strike at their enemy and also mobilised, but before the assault could be launched dissension broke out in the Peloponnesian ranks. Many of the allied states refused to fight Cleomenes' personal wars for him. Demaratus took their side and the army broke up. The Athenians could hardly have believed their good fortune and had the presence of mind to capitalise on the situation. They marched north and in the same day defeated both the Thebans and the Chalcidians, reducing the latter to the status of a colony. Thebes continued the war and was later joined by another of Athens' commercial rivals, the island of Aegina. It was during this war that Athens emerged as a military power. Her struggle with Aegina forced her to build a navy, which, in a few short years, was to become the strongest in Greece.
The rise of Persia
Meanwhile, events in Asia were beginning to have an effect on Greece. At the end of the 7th century BC the great empire of Assyria had fallen and, by the middle of the succeeding century, a new giant had arisen that was to absorb all the previous empires. This was Persia. In 546 the Lydian empire fell and the Great King Darius overran Asia Minor (Turkey). One by one the Greek cities along the coast fell to the Persians. Some, in desperation, took to the sea. The Phocaeans, like the legendary Aeneas, crossed the Aegean and the Adriatic and finally settled at the colony of Alalia in Corsica. However, they were moved on by the Etruscans in 535 and ultimately joined the colony of Massilia (Marseilles) on the southern coast of France. In 510, when all the islands along the coast of Asia Minor were in Persian hands, Darius invaded Europe. Pushing up the west coast of the Black Sea, he crossed the Danube and invaded Scythia. Next, Thrace was overrun and Macedonia forced to submit. Only Thessaly now stood between the Greek states and Persia. In 500 the Greek states in Asia Minor, led by Miletus, revolted and looked for help from the west. Athens and Eretria on the west coast of Euboea sent expeditionary forces to Ionia, which resulted in the sacking and burning of Sardis, capital of the Persian satrapy.
The Persians ruthlessly put down the revolt. Miletus was overthrown and its population sold into slavery. By 494 the revolt was over and the Persians prepared for a punitive expedition against Greece.
An embassy was sent to Greece demanding earth and water, the traditional symbols of submission. Although practically all the Greek states refused, Aegina, which had trading links with the east, submitted. Aegina lies in the Saronic gulf only ten kilometres off the Attic coast and controls access to Athens' harbours. With the island under Persian control Athens would be strangled. Aegina was a member of the Peloponnesian League and Athens appealed to her old enemy Cleomenes. The Spartan king took up the Athenian cause but once again he came into conflict with his colleague Demaratus. The enmity that had smouldered between the two since the abortive attempt to invade Attica some 17 years before now burst into flame. Cleomenes laid charges of illegitimacy against his colleague and Demaratus was deposed. The former king fled Greece and took refuge with the Persians. Cleomenes, freed of his partner, forcibly returned Aegina to its former loyalties and patched up an alliance with Athens against the threatened invasion. The Persians obviously intended only a limited punitive operation against Athens and Eretria, which had aided the Ionian revolt.
In 490 the Persians launched a seaborne attack. Eretria was sacked and the fleet moved down to the bay of Marathon ready for the strike against Athens. The Athenians sent a runner to Sparta and marched out to meet the invaders. What happened at Marathon is confused and the truth will probably never be known. The Spartans delayed their march because they were celebrating a festival and arrived too late for the battle. To their astonishment they discovered that the Athenians had decisively defeated the Persians and driven them out of Attica.
The defeat at Marathon served only to irritate the Persians. All knew that the matter was unsettled, but it was ten years before a second attempt was made. In the meantime Athens was able to build up her fleet until it was equal to the combined fleets of all the other Greek states.
When it became obvious that the Persian invasion was imminent, a congress was assembled at the isthmus of Corinth to try to settle the internal differences of the Greek states so that they could present a united front.
In the spring of 480 BC the Persian king Xerxes, accompanied by Demaratus, the deposed king of Sparta, crossed the Hellespont. His vast army advanced on Greece with the fleet following along the coast. The army forced its way through Thrace and down into Macedonia, building up the road as it advanced. Herodotus says that the Thracians were so overawed that even in his own day they would not dig or sow the area through which the army passed.
The Persian army
The ancient Greeks believed that Xerxes' army numbered three million plus camp followers – Herodotus gives the total as five and a quarter million, but he is clearly a little sceptical about how such an army could be fed. At the end of the 1920s, General Sir Frederick Maurice made a detailed study of Xerxes' route from the Hellespont, examining in particular the problem of water supply, and concluded that the Persian army could not have numbered more than 210,000 men plus 75,000 animals. It seems probable that the rainfall at this time was considerably higher than today (see p. 157), therefore these figures could be increased slightly. Even so, the figure could hardly have been over 250,000. Of this number about three-quarters would have been combatants.
The Persian army was a polyglot affair drawn from all quarters of a vast empire. Like the Romans, the Persians demanded troops from their subject races. The vast majority of the Persian army were light-armed skirmishers, either archers from central Asia or javelineers from the eastern Mediterranean. The Persians and Medes, who formed the nucleus of the army, wore loose caps, multicoloured, long-sleeved tunics (beneath which was a scale shirt) and breeches. They carried wicker shields, probably covered with hide, which were somewhat similar in appearance to the Boeotian shields; this was a central-handgrip type onto which was stitched a metal boss. Their weapons consisted of a short spear about 2m in length, a long composite bow with bronze-tipped reed arrows and a dagger that hung on the right side.
The elite of the Persian army were the king's personal bodyguard, the 10,000 Immortals, so called because their strength was always kept up to this number. Their equipment differed from other Persians only in the richness of its accoutrements. The Persian cavalry was armed in the same fashion as the infantry except that some wore metal helmets. Herodotus claims that the Persian cavalry numbered 80,000, but 8,000 may be a more reasonable estimate.
Herodotus gives the size of the Persian fleet as 1,207 triremes, including 300 Phoenician vessels, 200 Egyptian and 290 Ionian Greek. It seems probable that the historian is here recording the paper strength of the Persian Mediterranean fleet and not the operational number, as it is clear from the later engagements that the Persians did not have a massive numerical superiority
The principal vessel of the day was the trireme. This was a galley propelled by about 170 oars at three different levels. At the front of the ship, at water level, was a bronze-plated beak, which was used to hole and sink enemy ships. This type of ship, varying only superficially, was used by all the Mediterranean fleets of the time. All these galleys carried a complement of marines whose job it was to try to board and capture the enemy ships. Greek ships carried ten hoplites and four archers, whereas the Ionian ships each carried 30 to 40 marines. These marines were armed mainly with spears, javelins and poleaxes.
The defence of Greece
Faced with invasion, Athens and Sparta had buried their differences. Athens had even gone so far as to place her entire military strength, ships as well as men, under Spartan command. It was decided to stop the Persian army at the Tempe Gorge, a narrow defile at the south end of Mount Olympus. A force of 10,000 hoplites was despatched and in position before the Persians had even crossed the Hellespont. These forces could have held the narrow passes to the south and west of Mount Olympus indefinitely. But, for some reason – perhaps because the troops did not like fighting so far from home – this forward position was abandoned. Herodotus suggests that the army withdrew because the Persian fifth column was already operating in the area and the southern Greeks felt they could not trust their northern allies. Herodotus also mentions the fear that the Persian fleet might outflank them and land troops further down the coast. In the unrestricted area along the coast the Greek fleet could not guarantee to stop the Persians doing this and it was probably the main reason for the withdrawal.
Thessaly was abandoned. This had serious repercussions among the allies. Many of the northern towns believed that Sparta only intended to make her real stand at the isthmus of Corinth, and in fact many of the Peloponnesians openly advocated this line. As a result many of the northern towns decided to submit. In order to halt this defection it was finally decided to make a stand at Thermopylae, a place whose name has become a byword for heroism.
At Thermopylae the mountains come in close to the sea, leaving only two possible routes south – one along the coast and the other a very difficult route over the mountains. Today there is a marshy plain between the hills and the sea, brought about by the silting of the river Spercheius; in the 5th century BC there was only a narrow passage between the hills and the sea. These hills, the Callidromus range, stretch in an east-west direction down the coast and at three points they come very close to the sea. The first of these (the west gate) is at the very beginning of the pass. Herodotus describes this as so narrow that there was only room for a single cartway Here the hills are not very high and could easily be crossed. Beyond the west gate the pass widens. Here was situated the ancient village of Anthela. Two and a half kilometres beyond the west gate lay the village of Thermopylae, named after the hot springs that still rise there today. The calcium carbonate in these thermal springs gives the landscape the appearance of crusty grey rock. A great cliff, known as Zastano, towers nearly 1,000m above Thermopylae. This cliff is the key to the pass. A short distance beyond the cliff a spur juts out towards the sea (this is the middle pass). Along this spur the people of Phocis had constructed a wall stretching out into the marshes to stop the Malians invading their country Anyone wishing to bypass this point would have to negotiate the Zastano cliff About three kilometres farther along the pass is a third narrow point (the east gate) with the ancient village of Alpeni built on a spur jutting out into the marshes. Here the hills are low and easy to cross.
As mentioned before, there was another steep and difficult route into central Greece at the west end of the range. This route follows the valley of the Asopus, which passes through a precipitous gorge. Today the railway and road both follow this route, the former passing through a tunnel on the west side of the gorge, whilst the latter climbs up the hillside on the east of the ravine and then runs over the hills above the gorge. This route was guarded by the ancient citadel of Trachis built on top of the steep cliffs overlooking the west side of the gorge. No commander would attempt to force a passage at this point in the face of determined and well-organised opposition.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Greece and Rome at War"
by .
Copyright © 2012 Peter Connolly.
Excerpted by permission of Pen and Sword Books Ltd.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Title Page,
Copyright Page,
Preface,
Foreword,
GREECE AND MACEDONIA,
The City States 800 – 360 BC,
Macedon 360 – 140 BC,
ITALY AND THE WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN,
The Rise of Rome 800 – 275 BC,
Rome 275-140 BC,
THE ROMAN EMPIRE,
The Empire 140 BC – AD 200,
The Later Empire AD 200 – 450,
APPENDIX I,
APPENDIX 2,
APPENDIX 3,
Acknowledgments,
Bibliography,
Index,
Related Subjects
Customer Reviews
Explore More Items
