From the Darkness of Ages: War and Peace in Homeric Greece
In Ancient Greece, fleeing the battlefield was considered a shame. The warrior, saving his life, threw everything, and first of all his heavy shield. If he died in battle, his comrades carried his body home on a shield. No wonder Spartan mothers admonished their sons: “Come back with a shield or on a shield.” The word "ripsasp" (ῥιψάσπις), derived from "ρίπτω" (ripto - throw) and "ἀσπίς" (aspis - shield), literally meant "throwing a shield" and was synonymous with cowardice.
Paradoxical as it may seem, for twenty-three centuries the country that gave the world the art of war, commanders of the level of Themistocles and Epaminondas, invincible hoplites and a formidable phalanx, has not participated in any significant military conflicts (except for the resistance to the Nazis and their allies during Second World War). Moreover, the cradle of Western civilization has not played a leading role in world politics for twenty-three centuries.
The era of Macedonian rule, the time of Philip II and Alexander the Great, became a turning point in stories Greece. A thousand years of turbulent, if not always well-documented history - from the Trojan War to the wars with Persia - gave way to more than two thousand years of oblivion. Greece, subordinate to powerful empires, eked out a miserable existence, content with only illusory autonomy. It shared the fate of many peoples for whom obscurity has become a familiar state.
It can be said that Greece was at the peak of its power until it became a single nation. Before that, it was a patchwork of warring city-states, constantly competing with each other. These policies, despite their fragmentation, successfully resisted external enemies for centuries. Plato once remarked that “peace” is just a word, and that every state is in a state of permanent war with other states. This apt observation accurately reflects the realities of the time. No wonder even the gods of the ancient Greeks were dressed in hoplite armor.
Even the greatest minds of Hellas, the fathers of Western civilization, did not question the dominant role of war in the life of society. Heraclitus argued that war is the father and king of all things. Military victories were valued by the Greeks much more than elegant statues or majestic temples. Aeschylus bequeathed to mention on his grave not about his immortal tragedies, but about his participation in the Battle of Marathon. Pericles said that death in battle atones for any sins, and lists of fallen soldiers became genuine monuments in Greek cities.
However, unlike Egypt and Mesopotamia, a unified empire never emerged during Greece's heyday. The largest policies were able to create only regional unions, which turned out to be short-lived. The hegemonic cities could not offer their allies enough benefits to make them tolerate their leadership.
How many times in the first centuries of its history was Rome on the verge of destruction due to the threat of collapse? If Hannibal, after spending seventeen years in Italy, had managed to win over the Italian tribes to his side, Rome would have been doomed. And if the Eternal City could not replenish its army from its allies after inevitable defeats, it would never have been able to create its gigantic empire.
Greek city-states relied on the militia of their citizens and, as a last resort, on mercenaries, whom they could only afford to hire for short periods. Moreover, their desire to control and exploit their allies made the alliances they created fragile and unreliable. Their cruelty towards defeated rivals also contributed to the short-lived nature of their dominance, giving rise to a thirst for revenge and new bloody conflicts. All this depleted Greece's resources, making it easy prey for external enemies.
We know less about Greece in the pre-classical period than about Italy before the arrival of the Romans. Like many other Eurasian territories, the Balkan Peninsula in the last centuries of the 3rd millennium BC. e. became the scene of migrations of Indo-European peoples, while the Minoan civilization of Crete flourished in the south.
However, it is believed that the true ancestors of the Greeks were the conquerors who began to penetrate the region around 1950 BC. e. Traditionally they are divided into several main groups associated with different dialects: first the Aeolians and Ionians, who settled in the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Boeotia, Attica and the island of Euboea, then the Dorians, who probably arrived in the XNUMXth century BC. e. and occupied the southern regions of the peninsula.
But confusion is caused by the Achaean tribe, which Hesiod mentions separately from the other three, but Homer refers to all Greeks. For the Hittites, this was the most important tribe living in Greece. Modern researchers are inclined to believe that the Achaeans were either Aeolians or Dorians, who were forced by the invasion to retreat to the northern Peloponnese - to Achaea and Arcadia.
Map of the settlement of Greek tribes in the "Dark Ages"
Interaction with the more advanced Minoan civilization led to the emergence of a new Mycenaean civilization in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e., during the period called Late Helladic. We see traces of it in the majestic fortresses and monumental tombs of Mycenae, Tiryns, Pylos, Argos and Thebes, built by Vanax, the patriarchal king of these communities. The Mycenaean culture was the first continental Greek culture to leave written evidence - Linear B, which, unlike Cretan Linear A, has been deciphered.
It was an aggressive civilization that gradually absorbed the decaying Crete and spread its influence to the Aegean Sea and the coast of Asia Minor. The Trojan War, as described by Homer, was probably one of the important episodes of the Mycenaean conquests, led by a basileus - a ruler who was a military leader with specific responsibilities rather than a patriarch - or within temporary coalitions of late Mycenaean kings under the leadership of one of them.
Trojan War
For the ancient Greeks, this conflict was the culmination of the heroic age and, as Herodotus argued, the first major clash between East and West. Homer himself narrates individual episodes of the war, perceiving its key moments as something generally known, ingrained in the collective memory, and not considering it necessary to go into detail.
But how do we know whether a poet is describing the style of warfare of the late Mycenaean period or his own, archaic era? Or is it a mixture of both styles and all the centuries in between?
The singer of the Trojan War presents it as a series of duels between heroes - individual warriors who arrived on the battlefield in their chariots, disembarked from them and searched in the midst of enemies for an enemy equal in glory. But Homer is a poet, and he focuses on individual characters, so his description is not so much a way to talk about the war, but to emphasize the epic nature of what is happening. Therefore, we cannot exclude the possibility that there were large-scale clashes between large forces, and not just local heroic battles.
Trojan War
Something terrible must have happened immediately after this conflict, which would have ended the Mycenaean civilization and caused the Greeks of subsequent eras to lose much of their historical memory.
All we can say with some certainty is that Troy, inhabited by a people related to the Greeks, was the main city near the Hellespont and probably achieved a high level of prosperity in the 13th century BC. e., being rebuilt for the seventh time after the earthquake. Its position allowed it to control trade routes between Asia and Europe, connecting Greece, the southern Aegean Sea and the Hittite Empire. But soon its own geographical position put it in conflict with the Greeks, who, in their advance into Asia Minor, occupied the southern part of the Troas.
It can be assumed that the reason for the war was the unworthy behavior of the guest - the son of the Trojan king Priam, who took the wife of King Menelaus from Sparta.
By the way, the Athenian Alcibiades, many centuries later, repaid the hospitality of the Spartan king Agis by seducing his wife. However, the act of Prince Paris gave the Greeks a reason for war against the main obstacle on the way to the Black Sea. A large coalition of Greek kingdoms emerged under the overall command of the Mycenaean king Agamemnon.
Fleet The invasion force assembled at the port city of Aulis – perhaps in 1213 BC, according to Strabo and Thucydides – in Boeotia, and consisted of 1 ships, each capable of carrying between 200 and 50 men. This would give an army of up to 120 men, which Thucydides considers quite plausible.
The list of ships from the second book of the Iliad is not just a list of participants in the Greek coalition. This is the real key to understanding Mycenaean geopolitics, giving us a glimpse into the world of the major Greek powers before the Archaic period and the Dorian invasion.
Take a look at Agamemnon's domain: northern Argolis and the lands between Arcadia and the Gulf of Corinth. Tiryns and the rest of Argolis were probably ruled by Diomedes - perhaps as a vassal of Agamemnon. If we consider that Sparta belonged to Menelaus, the brother of Agamemnon, then it turns out that most of the Peloponnese was under the control of the Pelopid family. It is likely that Nestor, king of Pylos in Messenia, was associated with this powerful family.
In the north, the more independent Arcadia and Elis reigned, although they received ships from Agamemnon. Odysseus ruled the western islands: Ithaca, Cephalonia and Zakynthos. But the once powerful Aetolians, divided into five cities of equal importance, were in decline. Thebes is not mentioned at all in the list.
A similar situation was observed in central Greece. The fragmentation was felt most clearly in Boeotia, where thirty cities under the leadership of five leaders joined the campaign. About the peoples of central Greece - the Phocians, Locrians and the inhabitants of Euboea - we know only names, which suggests that the political culture there was less developed compared to the Peloponnese.
In the north, the kingdoms seem more united. Phthiotis was under the rule of Achilles, and the rest of Thessaly was divided into eight political entities, including twenty-five centers.
The only Attica city mentioned was Athens, which provided about fifty ships. This suggests that the process of unification of the peninsula was completed in the Mycenaean era. The only exception was the island of Salamis, which remained independent under the rule of Ajax and sent twelve ships.
The rulers of the Aegean Islands also took part in the expedition. Among them was Idomeneo from Crete, the grandson of Minos, who brought eighty ships. This demonstrates the island's close ties to the continent, despite its decline. Rhodes, under the rule of Tlepolemus (son of Hercules), sent nine ships. Samos and other southern Sporades also joined the campaign. But the northern Sporades and Cyclades are not on the list.
Seeing such an impressive army, the Trojans chose not to tempt fate in open battle and took refuge behind the impregnable walls of their city. The Greeks were forced to begin a siege, which in those days, without developed siege art, amounted to a blockade and waiting until hunger forced the enemy to surrender.
However, feeding a huge army was not easy. When the resources in the surrounding lands, subject to systematic plunder, dried up, part of the army was sent to cultivate the fertile valleys of nearby Chersonesus of Thracia. But constant raids by local residents forced the Greeks to abandon this idea.
The forces remaining under the walls of Troy were not enough to prevent the forays of the besieged for food. The Trojans skillfully took advantage of this, prolonging the siege, which, according to legend, lasted a whole decade. The Greek troops acted separately, each under the command of their own leader. Only occasionally was Agamemnon able to organize coordinated actions.
For example, Achilles, king of Phthiotis, became famous for his numerous raids on neighboring cities - allies of Troy - from the Propontis to Caria and Lycia, as well as on the islands. These raids, although they brought the Greeks resources and local victories, scattered their forces and distracted them from the main goal.
The fall of Troy is associated with the cunning of the Greeks.
However, some sources talk about betrayal, which was not uncommon during sieges in ancient times. Be that as it may, the city was razed to the ground, and the surviving inhabitants fled.
The most plausible version seems to be that the Trojan kingdom continued to exist in a new place, thanks to Aeneas and his sons. However, for many Greek kings, returning home turned into a tragedy. In an era when the presence of the leader was necessary to maintain power, the long absence of participants in the campaign led to civil wars, regime changes and coups d'etat.
Perhaps this is what weakened Greece and made it easy prey for new invasions from the north.
Decline of Mycenae and the birth of a new Greece
Around 1200 BC e. on the ruins of the Mycenaean civilization, a new chapter in the history of Greece unfolds. A wave of conquerors, whom the Greeks called “Dorians,” poured into the Balkan Peninsula. This event, which became part of a large-scale migration of peoples that shook the entire Middle East, buried the Hittite Empire and threatened the very existence of Egypt.
The Dorians, skilled archers and javelin throwers, did not rely on heavy weapons and chariots like the Mycenaeans. Their tactics of rapid infantry attacks forced the Greeks to reconsider their military traditions.
The new settlers, the last of the Indo-Europeans, spread throughout the Peloponnese, Epirus, Phocis, Aetolia and Crete, laying the foundations for the future division of the Greek language into dialects. Archaeological finds and the difficulties faced by Homeric heroes trying to return to their homeland indicate the brutal displacement of the indigenous population.
The next five centuries are shrouded in a veil of uncertainty and are called the “Dark Ages of Hellas.” This is an era of decline, similar to the dark ages of the early Middle Ages after the collapse of Rome. The scant evidence of Aristotle and Thucydides paints a rather deplorable picture: the absence of centralized power, the decline of agriculture, population decline, rampant banditry, a decrease in the pace and scale of trade, isolated communities where local leaders, like feudal lords, waged internecine wars, commanding detachments of lightly armed warriors.
However, as in the case of the Middle Ages, sunset gives way to dawn. At the end of the Dark Ages, the Greeks adopted the alphabetic writing from the Phoenicians, forming their own mythology, religion and culture, which would become the basis of Western civilization. Trade connections expanded, and the political fragmentation caused by the mountainous terrain helped to give rise to the democracy that the Greeks would later jealously defend.
Initially, this democracy was oligarchic in nature. Military leaders, seeking to consolidate their power, generously rewarded their followers with land, which led to the emergence of a new class of wealthy peasants. Having become rich, they began to acquire weapon and demand greater influence, which led to the formation of poleis and the emergence of the phalanx - a new type of army based on unity and discipline.
The main losers in this era of change were the kings. Their attempts to rely on the people to contain the growing influence of the aristocracy failed. The military elite, which seized power during the era of wars, established oligarchic regimes that by the 8th century BC. e. became common in Greece itself, its colonies on the islands of the Aegean Sea and in Asia Minor. The monarchy survived only in some Asian colonies and partially in the Peloponnese, where it took the unique form of the Spartan “diarchy” - dual power. Thus, out of the chaos of the “Dark Ages” a new Greece was born, ready to flourish in the archaic and classical eras.
Colonization played an important role in the formation of the new Greece. The expansion of trade relations, beyond the limits of modest exchange within the Greek lands, contributed to the emergence of a new class of rich people. These enterprising people, who made their fortunes through trade, could compare in wealth with the old aristocracy. And if the aristocrats had already taken power from the kings, then the new rich also wanted to participate in governance. So gradually more and more new social strata began to play a role in politics.
Growing prosperity led to an increase in the number of citizens able to purchase full combat equipment. Cities required large armies, and the aristocracy had to share the military burden with other sections of society. Large armies could no longer rely on the exploits of individual heroes, so the era of single duels gave way to large-scale battles. War chariots, which served as a shooting platform, transport and support for infantry in the Mycenaean era, lost their importance. The horse, used by aristocrats to travel to the battlefield, also lost its importance. Now, in order to fight in the ranks, it was enough to have armor, a spear, a helmet, greaves and a sword.
Another important innovation of the Dark Ages was the emergence of the polis. This new type of settlement grew out of the earlier chaotic collection of the acropolis (the main part of the city on a hill), the royal palace and the surrounding villages that sought protection within its walls. The new city surrounded itself with walls, housing magistrates' buildings, temples, houses of townspeople who had moved from the villages, and a central square - the agora, where the people gathered to express their, still nominal, power.
Not all Mycenaean centers were able to survive the period of decline and transformation. If earlier the main criterion when choosing a place to settle was inaccessibility, then in archaic and classical Greece economic prosperity and ease of communication both with the interior and with the sea became more important. Sometimes several villages chose to accept the primacy of the most important city in the region, a process called "syneclysm". A striking example is Athens, which, according to legend, was united by Theseus, gathering twelve communities of Attica.
Natural boundaries played an important role in the formation of Greek civilization. Although the mountainous terrain made the peninsula difficult to wage war on, it also made attempts to control its various areas very difficult. More than 40% of Greece's territory lies at an altitude of more than 500 meters, and the rugged coastline and many islands that make up about 20% of its area have contributed to political fragmentation and the formation of a unique Greek identity.
The Greek city-states, which could have united into an empire, were separated by natural barriers. From the north, Macedonia was separated from the rest of Greece by Mount Olympus, and from the east by Epirus by the Pindus Range. The eastern branch of Pindus, the Othrys ridge, isolated the fertile Thessalian plain all the way to the Euboean Strait, capturing part of the island of the same name opposite Attica. Mount Parnassus, the southeastern branch of Pindus, stretching from the Gulf of Patras to the Gulf of Corinth, divided Aetolia in the west and Boeotia in the east.
The wide Boeotian Plain was the scene of almost half of the major battles of ancient Greece. From the north it was limited, together with Phocis, by the Oti ridge, where Thermopylae was located, and it was separated from Attica by Mount Kytheron.
The southern part of Greece, the Peloponnese, separated from the rest of the territory by the Isthmus of Corinth, was also fragmented into several rocky peninsulas by mountain ranges and gulfs protruding deep into the land: Nafplio, Laconian and Messenian. Argolis in the east was separated from Laconia by the Gulf of Nafplio and the Parnon ridge, and Laconia from Messenia by the Gulf of Laconia and the Taygetos ridge. Parnon also separated Laconia and Arcadia, which in turn was separated from Achaea in the north by Mount Erymanthos. The arid climate and erosion of limestone rocks meant that most rivers in the region had intermittent flows.
With the rise of Athens, Attica became crowded for new cities, and a stream of Ionian colonists poured into Asia Minor. They sailed from the port of Phaler, which was replaced by Piraeus in the classical era. The ancients compared Athens to a wheel, the spokes of which diverged from the center - the acropolis with its sacred buildings dedicated to Athena. The fall of the monarchy led, as in other policies, to the rise of the oligarchy. Power was concentrated in the hands of magistrates from noble families, who controlled the social system, which consisted of four phyla - large tribal associations that descended from the ancient military squads of the “Dark Ages” and over time turned into religious and social groups united by kinship or numbers.
In neighboring Boeotia, Thebes played a dominant role, while Orkhomenos, located at the confluence of the Kephisus River and Lake Copaida, and later, due to swamping of the area, moved to Mount Akonton, also retained significant influence. In Argolid, centers that played an important role in the Mycenaean era, such as Nafplion, Tiryns and Mycenae itself, disappeared. But Corinth flourished, founding the colonies of Syracuse and Corcyra, and Argos became stronger, which under King Phidon in the middle of the 7th century BC. e. spread his influence over the entire region and Arcadia.
Sparta in Laconia became another polis that not only retained, but also increased its power throughout ancient history, becoming the last independent Greek state. Founded by the Dorians around the 10th century BC. e. in an area dominated in the previous millennium by the Mycenaean center Lacedaemon, whose name is preserved in the official documents of Sparta, it was formed after the merger of four scattered villages.
Sparta was aggressive from the very beginning, expanding its influence in the Peloponnese and coming into conflict with Argos. The polity of Sparta, unique in the ancient world, was a military regime capable of creating and maintaining a society of warriors ready to withstand the constant threat from their neighbors and keep conquered peoples in obedience.
To be continued ...
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