Ancient Greek Warfare

Mark Cartwright

Definition

In the ancient Greek world, warfare was seen as a necessary evil of the human condition. Whether it be small frontier skirmishes between neighbouring city-states, lengthy city-sieges, civil wars, or large-scale battles between multi-alliance blocks on land and sea, the vast rewards of war could outweigh the costs in material and lives. Whilst there were long periods of peace and many examples of friendly alliances, the powerful motives of territorial expansion, war booty, revenge, honour, and the defence of liberty ensured that throughout the Archaic and Classical periods the Greeks were regularly engaged in warfare both at home and abroad.

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Timeline

800 BCE - 500 BCE
Greek colonization of the Mediterranean and Black Sea.
800 BCE - 700 BCE
Homer's Iliad is composed with mention of medical treatment in Greek warfare.
c. 700 BCE
Corinthians adopt the trireme from the Phoenicians.
660 BCE
Corcyra wins a naval battle against their founding city of Corinth.
c. 650 BCE
Sparta crushes Messenian revolt.
c. 650 BCE - c. 350 BCE
Hoplites are the major protagonists in Greek land warfare.
580 BCE - 376 BCE
Carthage and Greece fight for dominance in Sicily.
c. 550 BCE - c. 366 BCE
Peloponnesian League alliance between Sparta, Corinth, Elis and Tegea which establishes Spartan hegemony over the Peloponnese.
539 BCE
Etruscan & Carthaginian alliance expels the Greeks from Corsica.
525 BCE
Sparta and Corinth unsuccessfully attack Polycrates of Samos.
499 BCE - 493 BCE
Ionian cities rebel against Persian rule.
494 BCE - 493 BCE
Spartan forces under Cleomenes I attack the city of Argos.
493 BCE
The first fortifications are constructed at Athens' port of Piraeus.
492 BCE
Darius I of Persia invades Greece.
11 Sep 490 BCE
A combined force of Greek hoplites defeat the Persians at Marathon.
c. 483 BCE
Themistocles persuades the Athenians to significantly expand their fleet, which saves them at Salamis and becomes their source of power.
480 BCE
Thebes sides with Persia during Xerxes invasion of Greece.
480 BCE
Tyrant of Syracuse Gelon defeats the Carthaginians at the battle of Himera.
480 BCE
Agrigento defeats Carthage at the battle of Himera.
Aug 480 BCE
Battle of Thermopylae. 300 Spartans under King Leonidas and other Greek allies hold back the Persians led by Xerxes I for three days but are defeated.
Aug 480 BCE
The indecisive battle of Artemision between the Greek and Persian fleets of Xerxes I. The Greeks withdraw to Salamis.
Sep 480 BCE
Battle of Salamis where the Greek naval fleet led by Themistocles defeats the invading armada of Xerxes I of Persia.
479 BCE
Xerxes' Persian forces are defeated by Greek forces at Plataea effectively ending Persia's imperial ambitions in Greece.
478 BCE
Spartan general Pausanias is given command of a force and takes both Cyprus and Byzantium.
476 BCE - 463 BCE
Delian League operations are led by Athenian commander Cimon
c. 475 BCE
Athenian general Cimon defeats Spartan general Pausanias and takes Byzantium.
c. 466 BCE
Athenian general Cimon twice defeats the Persians at Eurymedon on the southern coast of Asia Minor.
465 BCE - 463 BCE
Athenian general Cimon conquers Chersonesus in Thrace and the north-Aegean island of Thasos.
460 BCE - 445 BCE
First Peloponnesian War.
457 BCE
Sparta wins the battle of Tanagra during the 1st Peloponnesian War with Athens.
453 BCE
Pericles erects trophy at Nemea after Athenian victory over the Sikyonians.
450 BCE
Athenian general Cimon dies on Cyprus fighting the Persians.
448 BCE
Pericles leads the Athenian forces in the Battle of Delphi.
440 BCE
Hoplites become increasingly lighter-armoured, as new battle tactics required more mobility.
433 BCE
A naval battle between the victorious combined forces of Corcyra and Athens against Corinth.
431 BCE
Athens invades Megara.
431 BCE - 404 BCE
The 2nd Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta (the Delian League and the Peloponnesian League) which involved all of Greece.
431 BCE - 404 BCE
Thebes sides with Sparta against Athens in the Peloponnesian War.
431 BCE - 404 BCE
The Cycladic city states side with Athens in the Peloponnesian war against Sparta and her allies.
c. 430 BCE - 415 BCE
The Histories of Herodotus is published. The work is divided into nine chapters, each dedicated to one of the Muses.
429 BCE
Athens successfully campaigns in the Corinthian Gulf regions during the Peloponnesian War.
429 BCE
Peloponnesian forces led by Sparta begin the siege of Plataea.
427 BCE
Plataea finally falls to the Spartans after a two year siege.
425 BCE
Pylos campaign, under Cleon and Demosthenes' command Athens defeats Sparta at Pylos.
425 BCE
Athenian and Corinthian hoplites fight a street battle in the suburbs of Solygeia.
425 BCE
Athenians capture Pylos. Spartan general Brasidas is injured in attempting to retake the city.
424 BCE
Spartan general Brasidas takes Amphipolis, Thucydides failed to prevent this and is exiled.
424 BCE
Spartan Brasidas' campaign in Thrace.
424 BCE
A force of Athenian peltasts defeat Spartan hoplites on Sphaktria in the Peloponnese.
424 BCE
The Athenian expeditions against Megara and Boeotia are a failure with a particularly heavy defeat near Delion.
422 BCE
Spartan general Brasidas employs Myrkinian and Chalkidian peltasts to defeat a force of Athenian hoplites at Amphipolis.
422 BCE
The Athenians, led by Cleon, try to retake Amphipolis but are defeated by Brasidas.
418 BCE
Sparta, led by Agis II, defeats Argos and her allies at the battle of Mantinaea.
415 BCE - 413 BCE
Athenian expedition to attack Syracuse.
c. 415 BCE
Alcibiades persuades the Athenian assembly to send a military expedition to Sicily.
414 BCE
Athens constructs fortifications at Sounion.
413 BCE
The Athenian expedition in Sicily ends in disastrous defeat and the Athenian generals Nicias and Demosthenes are executed.
412 BCE
Sparta allies with Persia.
412 BCE
The Spartan general Astyochus sacks Kos.
410 BCE
Alcibiades leads the Athenian fleet to victory over Sparta at Cyzicus.
c. 407 BCE
The Athenian fleet is defeated by Lysander of Sparta at Notium.
407 BCE
Athenian general Alcibiades makes his naval base on Samos.
406 BCE
Agrigento is attacked and destroyed by Carthage.
404 BCE
End of the Peloponnesian war, Athens defeated By Sparta at Aigospotamoi, Rule of the Thirty Tyrants in Athens.
397 BCE
Dionysius I of Syracuse employs wheeled seige towers and bolt throwers for the first time in Greek warfare at the seige of Motya.
396 BCE
Spartan Agesilaus II's campaign into Ionia.
395 BCE - 386 BCE
The Corinthian Wars between Sparta and an alliance of Athens, Corinth, Argos, Boeotia and Thebes.
395 BCE
Spartan general Lysander is killed by Theban forces at the Battle of Hallartos.
394 BCE
Spartan king Agesilaus II defeats a Theban coalition at the battle of Coronea.
390 BCE
Athenian leader Iphikrates employs peltasts to defeat Spartan hoplites at Lechaion near Corinth.
382 BCE - 379 BCE
Sparta establishes a garrison at Thebes.
378 BCE - 377 BCE
Spartan king Agesilaus II campaigns in Boeotia.
375 BCE
Thebes defeats Sparta at the Battle of Tegyra.
371 BCE
Thebes, led by Epaminondas, defeats Sparta in the Battle of Leuctra.
367 BCE
Celtic mercenaries fight with the Spartans against Thebes.
366 BCE
Theban general Epaminondas builds a fleet to harass the Athenian Empire.
364 BCE
Theban general Pelopidas is victorious but killed at the Battle of Kynoskephalai.
364 BCE
Macedonian general Perdiccas III successfully defends Amphipolis against Athenian attack.
362 BCE
Indecisive Battle of Matinea where Thebes fought against Sparta and Athens. Theban general Epaminondas is killed.
349 BCE
Phocion leads an Athenian campaign in Euboea.
340 BCE
Phocion defeats Philip II of Macedon at Byzantium.
338 BCE
Philip of Macedonia defeats the Greek allied forces of Athens, Thebes and Corinth in the Battle of Chaironeia.
May 334 BCE
Alexander the Great invades the Persian Achaemenid Empire.
327 BCE
The argyraspides, a special unit of hypaspist, is formed.
284 BCE
Lysimachus drives Pyrrhus out of Macedon.
280 BCE - 275 BCE
King Pyrrhus of Epirus wages the Pyrrhic War against the Romans in Italy, defence of Tarentum being the pretext.
Jul 280 BCE
Pyrrhus defeats the Romans at the Battle of Heraclea.
279 BCE
Pyrrhus defeats the Romans at the Battle of Asculum.
275 BCE
The Romans defeat Pyrrhus of Epirus at the Battle of Maleventum.
273 BCE
Pyrrhus of Epirus attacks Macedon and Sparta.
229 BCE
Corcyra is captured by the Illyrians.
225 BCE
Macedonians bring an army across the Isthmus to face another Achaian force trying to take Corinth.
205 BCE
Philip V of Macedon take Samos.
146 BCE
Rome sacks Corinth and dissolves the Achaean league. Greece is ruled by Rome.

Ancient Greek Warfare

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