The Hellenic Age

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The Hellenic Age

In the latter half of the fourth century BC, the major Mediterranean powers were east, in the rising star of Macedon and the vast Achaemenid Persian Empire. The third quarter of the century would see Phillip II of Macedon unify Greece under his command after the Battle of Chaeronea, before his assassination led the way clear for his son Alexander to march east against the Persians. The short reign of Artaxerxes II left the empire in the charge of what would be its last ruler, Darius III, and a bloody campaign would see Alexander’s Greeks repeatedly crush his forces in a series of epic encounters that would see his troops march all the way to India and usher in the Hellenic Age.

To the west, there were no such major powers commanding vast armies into epic battles. The shadow of vengeance for the Greco-Persian wars aside, the reason Alexander’s army would march thousands of miles east rather than hundreds of miles west was because, the success of Carthage aside, there was really very little to lure them into Europe. Although the Lion of Macedon’s will left instruction for his indomitable phalanx and companion cavalry to take their steads and steel to conquer all of the Mediterranean, the next campaign that the 32-year-old planned on his deathbed was south, into Arabia. Italia certainly held value, especially in terms of arable land, manpower and resources, but it did not offer a huge, centralised power that could raise huge armies to oppose an invader the same way Persia could and thus could not offer the same “kleos” (glory) for the Greeks. Had Alexander marched west, ironically the most likely way to repel him would have been a reversal of the Greco-Persian Wars, with a disparate collection of Italian states having to unify to oppose a Greek behemoth. No collection of triumphs over states like Samnium, Rome, Etrusca and Campania could ever offer Alexander the eternal fame and glory that the vanquishing of the indomitable Achaemenid Empire could though.

Italia at this time was similar to what Greece had been before the domination of Macedon. Although the domination of Macedon over Greece was completed far more swiftly than Rome’s over Italia, it would be far more fleeting too – more than a century later would see not the phalanx marching west, but the legions marching east due to a succession of inferior Macedonian kings trying to cobble together control of Greece following the destructive wars of the Diadochi. The collection of warring city states in Italia has seen the rising Rome reach the River Liris (Liri), the boundary betwixt Latium and Campania (the modern boundary of Lazio and Campania). The northern part was inhabited by the Sidicini, the Aurunci, and the Ausoni (a subgroup of the Aurunci), while the Campanians, a people who had migrated from Samnium, occupied the central and southern area. Northern Italia was still occupied largely by the Gauls (the Romans would call this province Cisalpine – or Italian – Gaul), while southern Italia was considered “Magna Graecia” by the Greeks, with a series of Greek cities making the south of the peninsula an extension of Greece.

One of the larger Italian powers living in the centre was the Samnites, a confederation of four tribes which lived in the Apennines to the east of Campania. Along with the Campanians and Sidicini, they spoke Oscan languages, as did the Lucanians who lived to the north. Rome had concluded a treaty with the Samnites in 354 BC, and although details are unclear, it likely established the Liris as a boundary betwixt the two state’s spheres of influence – Rome to the north, Samnium to the south. This arrangement would soon collapse though when the Romans crossed the Liris to rescue the Campanian city of Capua (north of Naples) from a Samnite siege.

As with all great powers sharing a confined geographical area, coexistence is likely to be impossible to achieve. Both powers were looking to establish their control of Italia, and Rome was by no means the military bulldozer we associate its legions as being in the late republic and early empire, at this time having only been sacked by Brennus and his Gauls 50 years earlier. Romans at this stage still fought like Greeks, in a close order phalanx that had been utilised against the Persians so effectively for over a century. The main weakness of the phalanx though was its exposed flanks, and need to maintain its rigid cohesion. The Romans were about to learn a bitter lesson in how impractical the phalanx would prove for fighting in the hills of the spine of Italia, and the Samnites to prove they would not easily relinquish their ambitions for the peninsula. Though the sons of Aeneas would also show one of the traits that would take Rome on to make it a hyperpower – its adaptability.