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The Battlefield Role of the Classical Greek General _________________________________________________________________________Swansea University E-Theses The battlefield role of the Classical Greek general. Barley, N. D How to cite: _________________________________________________________________________ Barley, N. D (2012) The battlefield role of the Classical Greek general.. thesis, Swansea University. http://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa43080 Use policy: _________________________________________________________________________ This item is brought to you by Swansea University. Any person downloading material is agreeing to abide by the terms of the repository licence: copies of full text items may be used or reproduced in any format or medium, without prior permission for personal research or study, educational or non-commercial purposes only. The copyright for any work remains with the original author unless otherwise specified. The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holder. Permission for multiple reproductions should be obtained from the original author. Authors are personally responsible for adhering to copyright and publisher restrictions when uploading content to the repository. Please link to the metadata record in the Swansea University repository, Cronfa (link given in the citation reference above.) http://www.swansea.ac.uk/library/researchsupport/ris-support/ Swansea University Prifysgol Abertawe The Battlefield Role of the Classical Greek General N. D. Barley Ph.D. Submitted to the Department of History and Classics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2012 ProQuest Number: 10821472 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10821472 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 DECLARATION This work has not previously been accepted in substance for any degree and is not being concurrently submitted in candidature for any degree. Signed. (candidate) Date.... STATEMENT 1 This thesis is the result of my own investigations, except where otherwise stated. Where correction services have been used, the extent and nature of the correction is clearly marked in footnote(s). Other sources are acknowledged by footnotes giving explicit references. A bibliogranhv is^aonended. Signed ..(candidate) Date STATEMENT 2 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be made available for photocopying and for inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outs^dgjorganisations. Signed^ (candidate) Date....... 2 This work is dedicated to Michael Foreman, author of War Game, and to my parents, for giving it to me many, many years ago. 3 Acknowledgements This thesis would never have been completed without the help and guidance of many people - research is a very lonely business sometimes and I am lucky enough to have friends and colleagues who have all worked beyond the call of duty to get this thesis submitted. First of all the lectures, thoughts, insight, and friendship of many members of staff have shaped my development as a student of the ancient world and as a person, and I am grateful for the hard work of Eddie Owens, Alan Lloyd, Nigel Pollard, Kasia Szpakowska, Martina Minas-Nerpel, and Mark Humphries for guiding me through the last ten years. I would especially like to thank Fritz-Gregor Hermann for ensuring that there was always at least one gentleman in Swansea, and for making me realise that teaching is, and should be, fun and involving. My supervisors, Tracey Rihll and Maria Pretzler, have worked tirelessly to keep my work focused - without their help I would have been lost long ago. Special thanks to Tracey for many years of sound advice, fascinating discussion, and straight talking supervision, and to Maria for her enthusiasm, patience, and ability to efficiently spot grammatically flawed sentences. My thanks also go to Jacqui and Lynda at the Examinations Office, and to the many wonderful people I have met, and become firm friends with, while working for them. Gareth, Mark, Rob, Mike, Dai, Peter, Stewart, Paul, Pamela, Anne - there are too many to mention here, but you made the exam sessions fly past, and I still smile when I think about them! The friendship of fellow students has been a constant source of comfort and inspiration, and I would like to thank Colin Hough, Dr (!) Kim Ridealgh, Simon Trafford, Dr (!) Matt Cobb, Ken Griffin, and Meg Gundlach for their company and help over the years. Special thanks go to Rich Byles and Jeremy Welch: two finer friends would be hard to find, and our many conversations over coffee or ale have influenced my thoughts on all aspects of the ancient, and modem, world - cheers! Jeremy, I have a stack load of whisky that needs finishing off, you need to get well and get back here soon. Friends from Stourbridge have also been a great source of inspiration and assistance, and the friendship of Adam, Bev, Marc, Siobhan, and Graham has been more important than I realised. Carousel goes round and round, but I hope this particular one can now rest for a while! Thanks for your understanding when I had no money to join in, or missed important events because I had to work. Thanks to my family. To my parents for believing in me and supporting me all the way, and to my sister and Mark for making me feel like I had never left home in the first place. Finally thanks to Sue, the newest member of our family, whose love and patience allowed me to pick myself up and go another round, every time this thesis knocked me down. 4 Summary Modem studies of Classical Greek battle devote little attention to the role and importance of the general in achieving battlefield success. As a result of this the general is reduced to a simple leader of men whose only influential decision was where and when to fight, and whose major role was to provide inspiration by fighting in the front ranks. A modem conception of Hellenic fair play in warfare has further limited the importance of the general to Greek armies: apparently advanced manoeuvring and tactics were deliberately rejected in favour of a simple and direct test of strength and morale. I do not believe this to be the case, and in this study I demonstrate the importance of the general to Greek armies by offering a new analysis of his role in hoplite battle. 5 Contents Title page - 1 Declaration - 2 Dedication - 3 Acknowledgements - 4 Summary - 5 Contents - 6 Figures - 7 Chapter 1: Introduction - 8-38 Chapter 2: A) The ability of generals to communicate 39-52 B) The place of the general in the phalanx and the death of generals in battle - 53-77 Chapter 3: Subordiate Commanders - 78-109 Chapter 4: Aeneas Tacticus and the practicalities of generalship - 110-126 Chapter 5: Phases of battle - A) The advance to combat - 127-163 B) Fighting- 164-198 C) Othismos and othismoi - 199-240 D) Pursuit and retreat - 241-260 E) Conclusions - 259-265 Chapter 5: Conclusion - 266-272 Appendix 1: Casualties in hoplite battles - 273-276 Bibliography: 275-305 6 Figures Figure 1: Drawing of the principles behind the Judo throw Ippon Seio Nage - http://www.judo-tao.com/gokyo/NAGE-WAZA/Ippon-seoi-nage.gif Figure 2: Picture of two Judoka performing an Ippon Seio Nage - http://www. treklens. com/gallery/Europe/Denmark/photo225 754. htm Figure 3: Vase painting of two Greek wrestlers, one is being thrown with Ippon SeioNage. Taken from Manjo (1975) 163. 7 Chapter 1: Introduction Warfare in the Classical Greek world was chaotic and bloody. Its central importance to Greek self-identification is evident from the shared Greek heritage of the Iliad and by the choice of the great fifth and fourth century historians to frame their work within a military context; warfare and struggle were at the very heart of Greek culture.1 In this study I examine the surviving battle descriptions in order to present a new analysis of the battlefield role of the general; in this I do not wish to present an encomium of ‘good’ generalship or ‘effective commanders’, instead my focus is on demonstrating what was possible , and what was believed to be possible , for average Classical Greek generals to achieve on the battlefield. Common modem views regarding the battlefield role of the general include his being little more than a first amongst equals, an individual who led from the front and inspired his men to greater efforts, and fought until he fell; a man whose role as commander was greatly diminished after the signal to advance was given, this signal representing a switch from an organiser of men to an inspirational figurehead. A detailed survey of the evidence is required in order to see if these views can be considered to be accurate, and an effective framework is needed if this survey is to be relevant and useful. For this framework I have chosen the familiar structural progression of a hoplite battle, namely: the advance to battle, fighting, othismos , and pursuit. This breakdown of a hoplite battle is recognisable in most battle descriptions, and represents a logical analysis of the action and shifting circumstances of combat. 1 Vemant (1990) 29,47; Hanson (2000a) 22, 219; van Wees (2001) 38-9; Homblower (2007) 22-3,28. 2 Hanson (2000a) 107-8; Schwartz (2009) 180-1.
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