Rees - Great Battles of the Classical Greek World

First published in Great Britain in 2016 by
Pen & Sword Military
an imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire
S70 2AS

Copyright Owen Rees 2016

ISBN: 978 1 47382 729 5
PDF ISBN: 978 1 47388 178 5
EPUB ISBN: 978 1 47388 177 8
PRC ISBN: 978 1 47388 176 1

The right of Owen Rees to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.

Typeset in Ehrhardt by
Mac Style Ltd, Bridlington, East Yorkshire
Printed and bound in the UK by CPI Group (UK) Ltd,
Croydon, CRO 4YY

Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the imprints of Pen & Sword Archaeology, Atlas, Aviation, Battleground, Discovery, Family History, History, Maritime, Military, Naval, Politics, Railways, Select, Transport, True Crime, and Fiction, Frontline Books, Leo Cooper, Praetorian Press, Seaforth Publishing and Wharncliffe.

For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact
PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED
47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England
E-mail:
Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk

Contents

Acknowledgements

A n independent historian is an isolated creature who relies heavily upon the kindness of his or her wider network. For this reason I am eternally grateful to any and all who have helped me along the way, patiently answering my enquiries and my annoying, niggling, follow-up questions. My aim was to fill this book with the most up-to-date information possible, and that would not have been possible if not for the kindness of strangers, and the patience of friends: I hope that I have not missed anyone out.

First and foremost, my thanks go to all of the teachers and lecturers who have suffered me as a student. My thanks go especially to Prof. Helen King and Prof. Peter Kruschwitz; this book could not be any further from your interests, but the passion you both hold for your topics was infectious and has continued to influence me to this day.

Within the wider historical community my inquiries and requests have always been met with good grace and humour. Specific thanks go to Dr. Andreas Konecny for sending me his works, and for all of his advice, on the layout of Plataea and the logistical issues surrounding the siege; and to Dr. John W. Lee for his patience with my constant questioning about the Persian military. Further thanks go to Dr. Matthew Sears, Prof. Christopher Tuplin and Prof. Paul Cartledge for their timely assistance to a complete stranger.

My thanks go to my editor Philip Sidnell at Pen & Sword Books, who took a gamble on a new author and gave me the freedom to change the aims and format of this book on more than one occasion. I hope I have not disappointed.

I am indebted to my friends and peers who have helped keep alive a boyish passion for ancient Greek Warfare. From a tiny seminar group in London, to PhDs and book deals, I can always rely on Cezary Kucewicz for his support and misguided optimism. In Dr. Roel Konijnendijk I have been lucky enough to have moral support and erstwhile academic critique throughout the drafting of this book. While we did not always agree, his disapproving gaze forced me to re-evaluate my work time and time again. I have no doubt that this book is in better shape because of his dutiful eye. Finally my thanks go to Dr. Josho Brouwers for always being willing to engage in random discussions on Greek warfare by email; it has been procrastination at its most useful.

A very special thank you to Joseph Hall who has been subjected to this book for a long time, and has been kind enough to proofread drafts for me. I have appreciated his friendship along the way, and I am amazed that, to this day, we have still not met in person!

To my family and in-laws, I thank you for your patience for a project that has consumed the last two years of my life. You have not always understood, or agreed with the decisions I made in writing this book, but you have always supported me wholeheartedly and I am forever grateful.

But my biggest thanks must go to my poor wife, Carly, and my children Matilda and Henry. You have suffered the most and have never complained. I could not have done this without you and, maybe now, we can have our evenings back It is to you that I dedicate this book.

Any mistakes that remain in this book are unequivocally mine and mine alone.

Preface

T his project was conceived with one simple goal in mind: to create a desire in the reader to want to learn more about Greek warfare. For that reason I have drawn inspiration, not from the scholastic tradition but from the student tradition. This does not mean that I have written this book while intoxicated, but that I have tried to recreate the passion and enthusiasm that I experienced among my peers in seminar groups and conversations in the bar, rather than recreate the traditional narratives to be found in a plethora of books that exist already. There are times when an anecdote from Herodotus or Thucydides is just so ridiculous that it should be discounted, but these anecdotes offer flavour and colour to Greek history. Where an academic would analyse and, most likely, discount them from their narratives, I have chosen to leave them in and allow you to question their validity or in turn just enjoy them for the quirky eccentricities that they so often are.

Each chapter follows a similar formula of narrating the background to a battle, followed by a description of the battlefield, then the opposing armies, the battle narrative, and finally the aftermath all except those in the section on sieges have a minor variance.

I decided to try and use a main source for each battle - either Herodotus, Thucydides or Xenophon - which were then supplemented by a multitude of other authors when the main source is lacking in information or, to be honest, colour and interest. This means that the source information has been made available at the beginning of each chapter, and then again at the subheading of The Battle for the readers convenience. This allows the narrative to flow without interruption, and also prevents the page becoming consumed by a million endnote citations. It also means that the notes become free to highlight disparities and extra information that do not fit within the narrative-based format of the book it is here you will find the wider academic debate surrounding these battles and warfare in general. Finally this format allows you, the reader, to either ignore my notes completely and simply read the narrative while knowing what the main sources are, or follow my notes without rolling your eyes at yet another short citation to a passage in Herodotus.

This project had the aim of being as up-to-date as possible with regard to academic research surrounding Greek battles, with the added ambition of bringing new information into the public sphere, which can otherwise become lost behind the paywalls of internet depositories, such as JSTOR. While I do not claim to have achieved that in its entirety, I hope that each reader can take something new from these fascinating battles.

What should hopefully become clear from reading this book is how much we still do not yet understand about Greek warfare, and just how much there is yet to study. Whether you are a history enthusiast who wants to know more about the Greeks, or an erstwhile scholar forging forwards into new realms of understanding, I hope this book (re)ignites an interest, a passion, that I desire to share with you.