The Ancient Greeks at War by Louis Rawlings

Author:Louis Rawlings [Rawlings, Louis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Greece, Ancient, Africa, Military, History, General
ISBN: 9781847795298
Google: x3a5DwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 501502
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Published: 2007-04-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

Siege warfare

The construction of defences in stone implies the perception of significant threat (real or imagined) and a social organisation capable of collective construction. The emergence of strong fortifications in Greece dates to the Mycenaean period, when kings ruled over centralised bureaucracies that oversaw the economic, military and religious activities of their communities. Mycenaean towns and palaces, such as Tiryns, Orchomenus and Gla, occupied naturally strong defensive positions that were further enhanced by circuits of ‘cyclopean’ walls. Mycenae itself had walls that averaged 5 metres in thickness, constructed of huge, but often closely fitting stones weighing up to 10 tonnes. In its defensive circuit the most eye-catching feature is the well-constructed Lion gate, a showpiece for any attackers to admire. Since portals are always potential weak points in a defensive system, by definition designed to facilitate movement into and out of the fortification, defenders made them as formidable as possible. Gates constructed of wood are susceptible to firing and battering and, once breached, allow attacking troops a thoroughfare into the position. Various methods have been used in the construction of defences to discourage storming parties from forcing gateways. The approach to the Lion gate, for instance, is overlooked by high walls on the attackers’ left side and by a massive bastion on the right. This tower allowed missile-armed defenders access to the unshielded flank of the enemy. Other parts of the circuit at Mycenae were less carefully constructed, relying more on the natural strengths of the site itself, but as part of the defensive system of walls, they would nevertheless have been imposing and difficult to assault.

It might be reasonable to assume that sophisticated defences such as these perhaps imply the threat of developed siege techniques. However, it is difficult to determine the offensive capacity of Mycenaean armies in siege, as sources are extremely limited and problematic. One approach might be to consider roughly contemporary parallels from the Near East. The Hittite and Egyptian empires were capable of reducing cities by siege and assault, and the neo-Hittite and Assyrian kingdoms appear to have possessed well-developed and complex siege techniques. In the reliefs discovered in the palace at Nimrud, Assyrian troops are depicted employing a range of technologies, from scaling ladders, ramps and mines to siege towers and battering rams (Yadin 1963). There are also large numbers of slingers and archers present to clear the battlements of defenders. A characteristic feature of many Near Eastern armies was the employment of large numbers of archers (in contrast to the predominantly spear-armed infantry armies of later Greek states). The primary emphasis of campaigning was siege warfare, with pitched battles a relatively rare occurrence and usually fought as a preamble to a decisive siege.

It is possible that the Greek legend of the Trojan War, known and disseminated in the archaic period through tales and epics such as Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, might preserve elements of earlier Mycenaean siege-craft. One of Odysseus’ epithets is ‘city-sacker’, and on his return journey from Troy, his men attacked the city of the Cicones and stormed their citadel (Od.

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