Angelos Chaniotis – War in Hellenistic World

Автор: Angelos Chaniotis
Название книги: War in Hellenistic World
Формат: PDF
Жанр: Древний мир и Античность
Страницы: 339
Качество: Изначально компьютерное, E-book

Exploiting the abundant primary sources available, this book examines the diverse ways in which war shaped the Hellenistic world.

An overview of war and society in the Hellenistic world.
Highlights the interdependence of warfare and social phenomena.
Covers a wide range of topics, including social conditions as causes of war, the role of professional warriors, the discourse of war in Hellenistic cities, the budget of war, the collective memory of war, and the aesthetics of war.
Draws on the abundance of primary sources available.

One of the best experts on the Hellenistic period, Michel Austin, once
criticized the widespread perception of war as an intrusive external force,
purely destructive and negative, and never adequately explained (Austin
1986: 451–2). Few historical periods can better demonstrate the complexity
of war as a social and cultural force than the 300 years between Alexander’s
victories and Kleopatra’s defeat (323–330 BC). The continual and often
confusing wars of the Hellenistic Age confront those who study this period,
either in academic courses or in scholarly research, with unusual challenges.
The geographical range is huge: from Italy to Afghanistan and from the
north shore of the Black Sea to the coast of Africa. The sources, especially
the hundreds of historical inscriptions (particularly from Asia Minor), and
the thousands of papyri from Ptolemaic Egypt, provide an abundance of
information, but very frequently uncertain clues (if any) about the historical
context in which the information should be placed. The reconstruction of
this period resembles a huge jigsaw puzzle, most of the pieces of which have
been lost for ever. This explains why scholarship has concentrated on the
wars of the kings and the conflicts between the great Hellenistic powers
and Rome, for which the sources are somewhat better, rather neglecting
the importance of local conflicts and the part played by war in the life of
the populations of small urban centres and of the countryside. I hope that
this book will demonstrate how rewarding it is, despite the aforementioned
difficulties, to turn our attention to these areas of the Greek world.
This book has primarily been written for students of classics and history.
It does not aim to cover every aspect of Hellenistic warfare (e.g., tactics
and weapons), but rather surveys the various ways in which war shaped
Hellenistic society, mentality, and culture, and also the ways in which wars
corresponded to contemporary social conditions and reflected the cultural
peculiarities of this era.
Let me warn the reader about the faults I am aware of – reviewers will
probably discover more. None of the aspects selected for presentation could
be discussed in an exhaustive manner. In addition, this study does not cover
the entire geographical range of the Hellenistic world. The reader will
immediately notice a focus on the world of the cities in mainland Greece
the Aegean islands, and Asia Minor – although I have included examples
from Magna Graecia, the Black Sea, the Seleukid Empire, and Ptolemaic
Egypt. Important subjects, such as the emergence of a Galatian state in
Anatolia, the cultural background of the wars of the Maccabees, or warfare
in the periphery of the Hellenistic world (e.g., in the Greek-Baktrian
kingdoms) could not be discussed. The Hellenistic world is a well-defined
historical period, but despite the impression of unity, a close study of the
evidence always reveals local peculiarities and historical developments.
Hellenistic Crete is very different from Hellenistic Ionia or Hellenistic
Mesopotamia, and the warfare during the period of the Successors (322–
281 BC) differs in aims, dimensions, and form from, for example, the wars
of the Roman expansion (ca. 220–146 BC). Although I often draw the
reader’s attention to the necessity of such distinctions, I could not always
avoid some of those more or less misleading generalizations which are
inherent in general introductory surveys.
This is a book without footnotes, but the reader will find references to
the sources and to modern scholarship, either in the main text or in the
section on “Further Reading” which concludes every chapter. The Bibliography
is long, but not exhaustive. I have preferred to include recent publications
(where the reader can find further bibliographies), as well as the
books and articles on which my discussion of specific subjects relies. Technical
terms (e.g., sympolity, liturgy, etc.) are usually explained the first time
they are used; the reader can find the explanation with the help of the index
(under Greek terms).
Among the sources, the inscriptions take the lion’s share in my discussions,
including some very recent finds. This preference is easy to explain:
it is through the discovery of new documentary sources (inscriptions and
papyri) that our knowledge of essential aspects of the Hellenistic world is
continually enlarged and modified. Many of the texts presented here in
translation have already been included in two invaluable selections of sources,
compiled by Austin (1981) and Bagnall and Derow (2004). If not otherwise
indicated, all translations of Greek texts are mine; sometimes I have
modified the translations of other scholars.
I hope that this book will increase the knowledge and interest of students
in Hellenistic history, will enable scholars who study the wars of other periods
and areas to take the Hellenistic examples into consideration, and will invite
my fellow classicists and historians to provide better explanations of some of
the questions which have intrigued and puzzled me.
I have never met some of the people I feel the need to thank. F. Walbank’s
seminal work on the Hellenistic Age and W. K. Pritchett’s fundamental
surveys on Greek warfare have helped me write this book more than I have
been able to recognize in bibliographical references. J. W. Lendon allowed
me to consult his forthcoming article on war and society in the Hellenistic
and Roman worlds. Charalambos Kritzas (Epigraphical Museum
Athens), Maria Akamati (Department of Antiquities, Pella), and A. Peschlow
(German Archaeological Institute, Berlin) as well as the Numismatic
Museum of Athens, the Rhodes Archaeological Museum, the École Française
d’Athènes, and the British Museum provided photographs. My research
assistant Volker Schmidt contributed substantially to the compilation of the
bibliography and the preparation of the manuscript. My graduate research
assistants Manolis Skountakis and Johannes Stahl offered valuable help in
the collection of sources. The source index was compiled by Dr. Gian
Franco Chiai. I am very grateful to Jon Ingoldby, who undertook the copyediting
and substantially improved the text, and to Sue Hadden for her
patient and attentive work on the production of the manuscript. Without Al
Bertrand’s continual encouragement and help I would have never started
writing this book, and without Angela Cohen’s effective assistance in practical
matters (and regular reminders), I would have never finished it.
From Fritz Gschnitzer I have learned to read inscriptions as sources for
historical phenomena, and to pay attention to the tensions and complexities
revealed by the choice of words. To him I gratefully dedicate this book on
the occasion of his seventy-fifth birthday.