The War Ethos and Practice in Ancient Greece CHAN, Tze Wai A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirement for the Degree of Master of Philosophy in History The Chinese University of Hong Kong August 2011 Thesis/Assessment Committee Professor Lai, Ming Chiu (Chair) Professor Cheung, Hok-ming (Thesis Supervisor) Professor Poo, Mu-chou (Committee Member) Professor Peng, Xiaoyu (External Examiner) Abstract of thesis entitled: This research studies the formation of the war ethos and practice in ancient Greece, from 800 to 404 BCE. It argues that war was a culture and by this it intents to explain the causes and results in the changing and how these were related to the concept of military culture, through comprehending the ancient texts and archaeological evidence. This research is divided into 3 main parts — the first part studies the Homeric Warfare and its relationship to the formation of Greek military culture; the second part the origins of Archaic Warfare and the impacts of the Persian Wars; the third part the legacy of the Persian War and how the pro- longation of Peloponnesian War had brought rapid mutation to Greek military culture. 本硏究旨在硏究古希臘的戰爭特質與行爲，以不同文字材料探討希臘戰爭文化在公 元前800至404年之形成及其總貌。本硏究的主體分成三部分：第一部分爲荷馬時代的 之戰爭及其與希臘戰爭文化形成之關係；第二部分爲古典時代戰爭之起源及兩次希波所 帶來之衝擊；第三部分爲兩次希波戰爭所帶來之後果及伯羅奔尼撒戰爭如何爲希臘軍事 文化帶來重大的轉變。 Submitted by CHAN, Tze Wai for the degree of Master of Philosophy in History at The Chinese University of Hong Kong in June 2011 iii Contents Abstract U List of Illustrations iv Note on Abbreviation v Chapter 1: Prologue 1 Chapter 2: Homeric War and the Greek Military Culture 12 Homeric Age and the Study of Greek Warfare 12 Metallurgy 18 The Inception of the Greek Way of War 30 The Idea of Warfare 44 Chapter 3: The Emergence of the Greek Way 52 The Hoplite Warfare and the Greek Essences 52 Homeric Tradition and Hoplite Warfare 59 Encountering Foreigners 73 The Greek Way of War 87 Chapter 4: The Transformation of Greek Warfare 92 The Legacy of the Persian Wars 92 The Introduction of New Elements 98 Response of the Hoplite Tradition 113 Militarization of the Greek Way 121 Chapter 5: Epilogue 130 Bibliography 133 iv List of Illustrations Figure Page 2.1 a: An early LB warrior. Dickinson, 201. 19 2.1b: Suit of armor, Dendra. Dickinson, 202. 19 2.2: Iron weapon remains. Snodgrass (2000), 273. 22 2.3: Iron weapons excavated in tomb in Argos. Snodgrass (2000), 235. 22 2.4: Full bronze panoply. Snodgrass (2000), 272， 23 3.1: The Stele of Vultures. Dawson (2001), 82. 76 3.2: Portray in Ashurbanipal's palace, Nineveh. Dawson (2001), 187. 76 V Note on Abbreviation Aristoph. Kn. Aristophanes, Knights Aristot. Pol Aristotle, Politics Aristot. Rh. Aristotle, Rhetoric Caes. Alex. Julius Caius Caesar, Alexandrian War Cic. Fin. Cicero, De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum Diod. Diodorus, The Library of History Hdt. Herodotus, Histories Hes. WD Hesiod, Works and Days HH 8 Homeric Hymns, Hymn 8 to Ares Horn. II. Homer, Iliad Horn. Od. Homer, Odyssey Plat. Laws Plato, Laws Plut. Ages. Plutarch, Life of Agesilaus Plut. Arist. Plutarch, Life of Aristeides Plut. Lyc. Plutrach, Life of Lycurgus Plut. Lys. Plutarch, Life of Lysander Thuc. Thucydides, The Histories of the Peloponnesian War Xen. Ages. Xenophon, Agesilaus Xen. Cav. Xenophon, On the Cavalry Commander Xen. Hell. Xenophon, Hellenica Xen. Horse. Xenophon, On the Art of Horsemanship Xen. Mem. Xenophon, Memorabilia ps. Xen. Const. Ath. Pseudo-Xenophon, Constitution of the Athenians AHR The American Histoical Review CA Classical Antiquity 1 Chapter I Prologue Warfare, as the great affair of state, the ground of life and death, the way for survival and distinction, must not be overlooked. Sunzi, The Art of War. I Greek Military History Military conflict, doubtlessly, was an important part of Greek^ history. Indeed, it had ignited the tradition of western historiography - Homer composed his immortal epics to commemorate the Trojan War, Herodotus had his inquiries to record the Persian Wars, Thucy- dides initiated his work on the Peloponnesian War, and Xenophon succeeded Thucydides to finish his work and also the war henceforth, putting asides numerous ancient works contribut- ing to the history of warfare. Warfare, to the Greeks, was so vivid a thing that almost every generation of ancient Greeks had either himself seasoned in war or had witnessed it happened. Therefore, the study of military history is inevitably an essential part of Greek history. Frankly, not a few of the persons who work on the Greek military history, including I myself, have fancied on the romance of warfare, especially attracted by the idiosyncratic war ethos of the Greeks, fighting as hoplites in phalanx. Most of us had never experienced war, but we, after millennia, still honored those noble warriors, most of them died namelessly. Cartledge arouses our ardor by one laconic sentence: 1 It is essential for us to notice that the ideology of Greek is but invented by our contemporary schol- astic works. To the Ancient Greeks themselves, they probably yet not created any sense of either Greek or Hellenic at the age of Homer. Thucydides says that the name Hellas referring to the realm of Greece emerged after Hellen (Thuc.，1.3.2-3). Later, the entire realm of "Greece," the alleged Megala Hellas includes areas around all coasts of the Aegean Sea, no less remarkable than the Mare nostrum of Roman Empire. Emporiai were excavated at Libya, Sicily, Cyprus, and even southern Spain. But as for the convenience of recognizing, "Greece" and "Greek" in this work refers to the essential part of the area in the southern Greek Peninsula, which nourished the Archaic Culture of ancient Greece, but "Ionian" and others would be adopted in mentioning non-mainland Hellenic areas. 2 Leonidas Lives! With him, Sparta does too.� Paul Cartledge, The Spartans: 254 The motivation of the study of the history of warfare, in most cases, lies on the fancy of the war. However, the study of warfare requires insight and ingenuity far greater than this simple passion. One brilliant avant-garde in this field is William H. McNeill, with his The Pursuit of Power. McNeill puts special emphasis on the reciprocal relationship of advance- ments of technology, socio-economic circumstances, and military practices throughout the entire human history. Ancient Greece, the alma mater of European civilization, reserves a section for herself - McNeill has used Xerxes' expedition as an example to illustrate the im- portance of logistic supply for armies? In the profession of Greek military history, Donald Kagan, an estabihsed scholar in studying the Peloponnesian War, is one of the most well- recognized figures in the founding of modem study of Greek military history. In a recent work of his, Kagan stresses on how crucial was the Peloponnesian War by stating that it "is a pow- erful tale that may be read as an extraordinary human tragedy, recounting the rise and fall of a great empire, the clash between two very different societies and ways of life, the interplay of intelligence and chance in human affairs, and the role of brilliantly gifted individuals, as well as masses of people in determining the course of events while subject to the limitations im- posed upon them by nature, by fortune, and by one another.”4 Moreover, J. K. Anderson is also an outstanding scholar in studying Greek military history by his famous work Military Theory and Practice in the Age of Xenophon/ besides many other articles published. He scrutinizes not only the Classical warfare but also its roots with reference to former cases. John F. Lazenby is another luminous author in Greek military history whose study covers the 2 Paul Cartledge, The Spartans: an Epic History (London: Pan Books, 2003), 254. 3 William H. McNeill, The Pursuit of Power: Technology, Armed Force, and Society since A.D. 1000 (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1983), 8-10. 4 Donald Kagan, The Peloponnesian War (New York: Viking, 2003), xxvii. 5 J. K. Anderson, Military Theory and Practice in the Age of Xenophon (Berkeley: University of Cali- fornia Press, 1970). 3 period from the Persian Wars to the Peloponnesian War. He examines and analyzes the mili- tary organization of Sparta in his The Spartan A广my； and in addition, he accuses Herodotus for not being neutral in his descriptions in his The Defense of Greece? The first impression of Greek warfare of most of the people, whether professionals or amateurs, is the distinctive form of infantry battle known as hop lite warfare in modem. Enter- ing into Archaic Period, there were comprehensive changes in Greece that indicated the end of Dark Ages, and among these changes, one of the very remarkable changes was the rise of hoplite infantry warfare. Infantry has been the comer stone of many armed forces in ancient world, and it was not alien to any history; but the Greeks had developed their distinctive way of hoplite warfare. Apparently since the century BCE, the well-to-do farmers in ancient Greece began to arm themselves with bulky bronze armaments and iron pointed crushing spear and were fighting in a rigid infantry formation named phalanx. For centuries long after, the Greeks, given the impact of the Persian Wars and the prolonged Peloponnesian War, had retained this practice of infantry warfare as their main way of waging war. Unfortunately, many scholars have considered that the idiosyncratic practice of hoplite warfare to be irrational. Ferrill states this discontentment in his The Origin of War. Heavy infantry by itself can only make sense in a world where other armies are also heavy infantry, but does it make sense even then? If so, it can explain hoplite warfare from 700 to 500 B.C., but it does not explain why the Greeks continued to believe so strongly in the priority of heavy infantry down into the fourth century.