Men of Bronze: Hoplite Warfare in Ancient Greece (29 page)

  
18
. Assembly: Ruzé 1997; Raaflaub 1997a; Hölkeskamp 1997.

  
19
. “The men are the polis”: Thuc. 7.77.7; cf. Hdt. 8.61; Alc. fr. 112.10; 426 Campbell. On Sparta, see, e.g., Murray 1993: ch. 10; Osborne 1996: 177–85; Thommen 1996; Luther at al. 2006; Hall 2007: 178–209.

  
20
. See esp. van Wees 2000; 2004: ch. 12.

  
21
. Spartan lead figurines (I thank L. Foxhall, J. Hall, and Stephen Hodkinson for references): for Artemis Orthia, see Wace 1929: 262, 269, pls. 183, 191, 197 (archers: 2 varieties throughout the seventh century BCE, only one in the sixth; hoplites: 15 varieties 700–635, 18 or 21 635–600, 26 in the sixth century); Menelaion: Wace 1908–9: 130, 137 with pls. 10 and 7; Cavanagh and Laxton 1984. See also Boss 2000: 55–72 (warriors), 78 (naked archers; are they hunters?), and in the future Cavanagh’s chapter on the lead votives in the forthcoming publication of the BSA Menelaion excavations.

  
22
. Archilochus (West 1971; Gerber 1999) fr. 98 (siege with attack by Thracian [?] archers); frs. 2, 3, 91, 96, 113, 139, et al. (spears, javelins, swords). Predominance of hoplites: Snodgrass 1980: 99–106; Raaflaub 2007: 134 with biblio. Battlefield evidence might be helpful, but I doubt whether reliable statistics are available; D. Blackman (oral communication) has seen large piles of arrowheads at Himera, but these could be more Carthaginian than Greek.

  
23
. Manitius 1910; though outdated, this article is still cited with approval; cf. Saggs 1963; Reade 1972.

  
24
. Recruitment and replenishing of standing armies: Manitius 1910: 220–24; see also Dalley 1985; Oded 1979. Specific examples: Yadin 1963: II, 293; Manitius 1910: 128, 131.

  
25
. New provincial army: Manitius 1910: 129. Preponderance of bowmen: confirmed by the evidence of the Sargonid letters found in Niniveh: Malbran-Labat 1982: 79–80 (often also recruited for specific campaigns from the local population).

  
26
. Bowman working in tandem with shield bearer: Manitius, 1910: 130–32; Malbran-Labat 1982: 81–82 (though pointing out that shield bearers appear in other contexts too); see illustrations, e.g., in Yadin 1963: II, 418, 424. Spearmen armed with heavy spear and shield: Manitius 1910: 125–27; Yadin, 1963: II, 420.

  
27
. Fighting army vs. “parade army” (described by Hdt. 7.61–99): Briant 1999: 116–20.

  
28
. Preference for “horse country”: Hdt. 6.102 (Marathon); 9.13.3 (Boeotia). References to battle of Marathon: 6.112.1–2. Losses: 6,400 vs. 192 (6.117.1).

  
29
. Superiority of heavily armed hoplites over much more lightly armed enemy: Hdt. 9.62–63. Significance of shield barrier: 9.61–63; cf. 102.2–3 (Mycale). Archers at Thermopylae: 7.218, 225–26 (when the Persians shoot their arrows, the sun disappears). Plataea and Mycale: archers shooting hails of arrows protected by barricade of wicker shields: 9.61, 99, 102; cavalry attacks at Plataea: 9.20–25, 40, 49–50, 52, 57; cavalry blocking passes of Kithairon to prevent reinforcements and supplies from reaching the Greeks: 9.39. On Persian use of cavalry, see now Tuplin 2009.

  
30
. Persian army on the march: 12,000 horsemen and spearmen (Hdt. 7.40–41). Greek spear vs. Persian bow: Aesch.
Pers
. 813; cf. 280, 725, 1001–3. Archers and spearmen identical: Raaflaub in preparation b.

  
31
. Borrowings from Carians: Hdt. 1.171.4; cf. Asheri et al. 2007: 192–93; Snodgrass 1964a.

  
32
. Ironworking: Snodgrass 1967: 36; 1971: ch. 5; Wertime and Muhly 1980.

  
33
. Swords: Snodgrass 1964b: ch. 4; 1967: 37.

  
34
. Corselet: Courbin 1957; Snodgrass 1964b: ch. 3; 1967: 41–42; see also Catling 1977; Jarva 1995.

  
35
. Corinthian helmet: Snodgrass 1964b: 11, 13, 20–28; 1967: 51; J. Borchhardt 1977: esp. 72.

  
36
. Greaves: Snodgrass 1964b: 66–68; 1967: 52; Kunze 1991.

  
37
. Round shield and bosses: Snodgrass 1964b: ch. 2; 1967: 43–44; H. Borchhardt 1977: 28–36; on Assyrian depictions: H. Borchhardt 1977: 36–37; Hrouda 1965: 90–91; Yadin 1963: II, 294–95, with ill.; common origin: H. Borchhardt 1977: 39 with biblio.

  
38
. Hoplite shield: Snodgrass 1964b: 61–68 [quotes 66, 68]; 1967: 53–55. On the crucial significance of this shield for hoplite fighting: Cartledge 1977; 2001; this vol.; Osborne 1996: 175–76.

  
39
. Hoplite ideal: Snodgrass 1967: 58; see illustrations in Salmon 1977. Uniformity prevails even if, for example on the Chigi vase, the fighters still carry both javelin and spear.

  
40
. Snodgrass 1964b: 90. Adaptation to straight-forward fighting: Hanson 1991.

  
41
. Snodgrass 1967: 59; Pritchett 1985: 8, with reference to the third millennium “Stele of the Vultures” (Yadin 1963: I, 134–35).

  
42
. Ferrill 1997: 70, 99.

  
43
. See Eph’al 1995: 51 on the questionable realism of the reliefs. Spearmen in battle: Yadin 1963: II, e.g., 431–32, 442–43. Stylized mass formation on Greek vases: Salmon 1977; van Wees 2004: 178 fig. 21; pls. 18–21. A systematic investigation of battle depictions on Greek vases with the purpose of “deciphering” the artists’ conventions and “language” is an urgent desideratum.

  
44
. E.g., Ussishkin 1982; Bleibtreu 1990. Eph’al 1995 (quote: 50).

  
45
. See, for example, for a battle in the open field, Yadin 1963: II, 442–43; for sieges: ibid., 418–25, 428–37, 448–49, and passim; Ussishkin 1982; Bleibtreu 1990.

  
46
. On phalanx fighting, see, e.g., Thuc. 5.66–74; 6.66–71; Anderson 1970; Pritchett 1985: 1–93; Hanson 2000. Further biblio. in Raaflaub 1999: 149 n. 12. More recently, see van Wees 2004: ch. 13; Hall 2007: 163–70 raises important questions, as does Osborne 1996: 170–85. This is not the place to deal with these. For counterarguments, see, e.g., Schwartz 2002 and 2009.

  
47
. Schwartz 2002: 31 reemphasizes what seems essential: “hoplites were unfit for single combat, and the weaponry was invented for use in the already existing phalanx. Assessments of iconography and literature yield the same results: the hoplite was always intended for phalanx fighting.” See also Schwartz’s contribution to this volume.

  
48
. Homeric fighting: Raaflaub 2008a. Pol. 13.3.4; cf. Walbank 1967: 416.

  
49
. “Normal battle” vs. “chaotic flight and
aristeia
scenes”: Raaflaub 2008a: 479–83.

  
50
. Van Wees 1997: 690: “The heroic army is composed of many small and loosely organized bands of warriors, held together by personal ties of subordination and companionship. Battles are fought in open order; at any particular moment the majority of men remain at a distance from the enemy, while a substantial minority of individual ‘front-line warriors’ venture closer to fight with missiles or hand-to-hand. There is much mobility back and forth as every man in the army is expected to join combat at least occasionally, and even the bravest heroes retire from battle every so often.” See also 2000; 2004: ch. 11, with figs. 14–17. Contra: Schwartz 2002. Further biblio. on Homer’s battle description is listed in Raaflaub 2008a: 470 n. 8.

  
51
. I have defended this date in Raaflaub 1998: 187–88.

  
52
. Raaflaub 2008a: 476–78 (booty: 478).

  
53
. Ibid., 477–78.

  
54
. For discussion of the “hoplite revolution,” see, among others, Snodgrass 1965, 1993; Cartledge 1977, 2001; Raaflaub 1997b; 1999: 132–41; Hall 2007: 157–59.

  
55
. So too Snodgrass 1965: 110: “The combination of all these elements [of the panoply] together was an original Greek notion; as was their later association with a novel form of massed infantry tactics, the phalanx.”

  
56
. Criticism of the inadequacy of Greek hoplite fighting: Ferrill 1997: 144; cf. Hdt. 7.9b. A rare testimony for an archaic battle about a fortified city is Arch. fr. 98 West, where the attackers are non-Greek (n. 22 above).

  
57
. Crouwel 1992; see also Greenhalgh 1973.

  
58
. For contempt of archers, see, e.g., Soph.
Ajax
(Teucer) and Eur.
Heracles
. Typically, in the
Iliad
Paris and Pandaros are bowmen, and Odysseus left his prized bow at home! Conversely, despite the primacy of the spearman in the
Iliad
, Troy cannot be taken without the assistance of Philoctetes, an archer, and the use of deception; see Mackie 2008: 70 and ch. 3.

  
59
. Ferrill 1997: 145. Values: Aymard 1967. See also, generally, Cartledge 2001; Hanson 1995.

  
60
. Raaflaub 2004a; on mercenaries and elite Greek mercenary commanders: 206–10. Hdt. 2.152, 154 comments on the flow of information to Greece from mercenaries settled in Egypt.

  
61
. Ritualized warfare: Connor 1988. On the model of the early polis underlying my reconstruction, see Raaflaub 1991, 1993, 1997b, 1999; also, for example, Starr 1977, 1986, 1992; Stein-Hölkeskamp 1989: chs. 2–3; Donlan 1999.

  
62
. Early Greek political thought: Raaflaub 2000; Hammer 2002. That armies (such as those of Assyria and Persia studied in this paper) drafted to a large extent from subjected populations and serving an autocratic, divinely sanctioned king and his officers, who were wielding absolute power over them, did not and could not develop a comparable communal ethos is obvious. The structures of leadership, command, and obedience would offer another fruitful aspect of comparison.

  
63
. Open and closed communities: Ulf forthcoming.

  
64
. See n. 10 above.

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