Greek Warriors by Carolyn Willekes

Author:Carolyn Willekes
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: eBook ISBN: 9781612005164
Publisher: Casemate Publishers & Book Distributors, LLC
Published: 2017-09-21T16:00:00+00:00

These were the allies of Sparta: all the Peloponnesians within the Isthmus except the Argives and Achaeans, who were neutral; Pellene being the only Achaean city that first joined in the war...Outside the Peloponnesus the Megarians, Locrians, Boeotians, Phocians, Abraciots, Leucadians, and Anactorians. Of these, ships were furnished by the Corinthians, Megarians, Sicyonians, Pellenians, and Locrians. The other states sent infantry….That of Athens comprised of the Chians, Lesbians, Plataeans, the Messenians in Naupactus, most of the Arcanians, the Corcyraeans, Zacynthians, and some tributary cities in the following countries, namely, the seaboard part of Caria with its Dorian neighbours, Ionia, the Hellespont, the Thracian cities, the islands lying between the Peloponnese and Crete toward the east, and all the Cyclades except Melos and Thera. Of these, ships were furnished by Chios, Lesbos, and Corcyra, infantry and money by the rest. (Thucydides 2.9.2–5).

The first ten years of the war proper are referred to as the Archidamian War. From the outset both Sparta and Athens had a clear military strategy. The Athenians recognized the military superiority of the Spartan hoplites in pitched battled, and so they were determined to avoid engaging in set combat. Instead they followed the advice of Pericles and withdrew from the Attic countryside and retreated behind the city walls, abandoning their outlying territory. This made them reliant on their ships for supplies and other resources: so long as Athens maintained her naval superiority, these goods could be brought to the port at the Piraeus from allied territory and trade. From the Piraeus, supplies were transported to the city proper behind the safety of the Long Walls. The Athenians were banking on the idea that Sparta would eventually tire of waiting Athens out and enter peace negotiations via a stalemate, which would theoretically give Athens the upper hand. Nor were the Athenians just twiddling their thumbs behind the walls: they could still use their fleet to harass coastal territory belonging to their opponents, just at they had during the First Peloponnesian War. The Spartans, on the other hand, had a strategy based heavily on invading and ransacking Attic farmland and towns, with the thought that watching the destruction of their property would infuriate and frustrate the Athenians enough to force them out from behind their walls onto the battlefield in a traditional pitched battle. Or, if they still refused to do this, it would at least force them to come to terms. It is clear that at the start of the war, both sides were desirous of avoiding major bloodshed and battle; both hoped to achieve terms through a stalemate of sorts. Needless to say, the result was the complete opposite of these aims.

In 431 the Spartan forces and their allies invaded and laid waste to the countryside of Attica; but the Athenians did not sit by idly. They regularly used small parties of cavalry and light infantry to harass and impede the raiding parties. They also sent out a fleet of 100 ships carrying 1,000 hoplites and 400 archers. These were joined by a sizeable number of allied vessels.

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