Razboaiele civile din Grecia !

 1-Acest articol este copiat !

 2-Istoria ramane pasiunea mea nr-1!\

3-Istoria-Greciei ma fascinat mereu si in special lupta lor interna .

4-Cum se uneau impotriva pericolului-extern .

The Roar of Macedon (Part I)

“If I ever have cause to come south to the Peloponnese, I shall destroy Sparta.”

“If.”

At the turn of the fourth century BC, Sparta was its zenith. Having triumphed over Athens in the Peloponnesian War and seen a short period of their Thirty Tyrants ruling the city, the Spartans had assumed the Athenian Empire, the Delian League, and the tributes they received. The Spartans had maintained a culturally distinctive warrior society of servitude to the state, and attempting to stamp that culture on the disparate collection of Greek city states served only to antagonise them.

By 371 BC, the city of Thebes revolted against Spartan interference, installing their own democratic system instead. The Spartans raised an army of around 12,000 to march north and crush them, the invincible phalanx that had been undefeated for over a century. Struggling for allies, the Thebans had to adopt innovative tactics, including rising the Sacred Band, a collection of 150 gay male couples, who allegedly fought nude, the concept being no man would retreat while his lover was imperilled.

The Spartans were nothing if not conservative, which was to be their downfall, as they would line up for battle in the traditional manner – a 16-deep phalanx, with their best soldiers on the right wing, contesting what would effectively be a shove-o-war betwixt the two phalanxes. With just 9,000 men available to Thebes, they opted to instead deploy a staggered line so they would not engage the Spartans simultaneously. Instead, their left phalanx would be 50-men deep, with the rest of their line staggered back to avoid engaging the Spartans, and the Sacred Band and other skirmishers delaying the rest of the Spartan line’s advance. When the two sides clashed at the Battle of Leuctra, the Theban left bulldozed over the cream of Sparta, before rolling up their flank, effectively annihilating their army. The rest left Thebes the dominant power, but also had an unexpected consequence. For watching from the hill that day as the battle unfolded was a young Theban hostage – Philip of Macedon.

Philip would be inspired by what he saw that day as Spartan supremacy was shattered. A refused phalanx, deep rows of spearmen, using cavalry and skirmishers to occupy and enemy away from the infantry, would all shape his military ideology. The boy would grow up to become Philip II of Macedon, a former Persian satrap north of Greece that had been largely ignored by the warring city states since expelling the Achaemenid Empire from Europe a century earlier. But now under Philip’s inspired leadership, Macedon would rise above all of Greece.

His military innovations created a force that would go undefeated across the world until the crashed into the Roman legions 150 years later. He adopted an excellent and highly manoeuvrable cavalry, with the king personally leading the 800-strong Companion Cavalry. His soldiers wielded a 20 ft long (six-metre) sarissa, a long spear which required two hands to wield. The length invariably meant that the pole bent towards the end, while a counter weight ensured each man could hold the end and remain balanced. Having a two handed weapon forfeit the use of a shield, so instead the phalangites had a buckler strapped to their left arm. The length of sarissa meant that a full formed phalanx would have five spear heads deployed forward, with the next few behinds upwards at an angle, and those behind them directly upwards. At 16-men deep, there were sufficient numbers to replace those who fell, while the upwards pointing spears of those in the latter ranks, which would gently sway, would knock aside and nullify missiles thrown at them, mitigating for the lack of a shield. The word phalanx means “forest of spears”, and to imagine advancing against an enemy that will be keeping you 20 ft away from them, having to negotiate at least five spear heads all trying to stab you, and you can start to imagine how terrifying a prospect it was. The phalanx was invincible from the front, though vulnerable on the flanks, hence the need for an outstanding cavalry to protect them.

Philip soon began to put his indomitable military force to good use, expanding north against the neighbouring Paioians and Thracians to secure his borders. Moving south, he campaigned against the Greek city states, soon drawing submission from powerful states including Athens, Thebes and Corinth. When Philip did not receive vassalage from Sparta, he wrote to them saying that if he ever had cause to come south to the Peloponnese, they would be destroyed. Displaying their characteristic laconic wit, they merely replied with “If.” He also mobilised his resources against the Achaemenid Empire, supporting opponents to the Rose Throne, providing asylum for exiles and usurpers, and sending a force to liberate Ionian Greece, as the while expanding his knowledge of the Persians. For Philip held one goal supreme amongst his ambition – to invade and conquer the Persian Empire, avenging the Greek losses from over a century earlier.