***BATTLE OF TROY***
Sides: Greeks vs. Trojans
Time:1250 BC
Place: Troy (Turkey)
Action: According to the Iliad, Trojans (who were probably Hittites) kidnapped Helen, wife of the king of Sparta. A coalition is formed of "1,000 ships" to punish Troy with a long siege. After may years and heroic battles by warriors like Achilles and Hector, the Greeks tricked the Trojans by giving them a peace-offering, a wooden horse. You know the rest. Probably the reason for the historical battle was for control over the straits connecting the Mediterranean and Black Seas, on which Troy sits.
Casualties: unknown
Consequence: The battle became a great myth, one of the oldest stories in Western culture, written down 300 years later by Homer. It was studied and known by every Greek. The story of the Odyssey takes place after the battle.
***BATTLE OF MARATHON***
Sides: Persians vs. Greeks
Time: 490 BC
Place: Plains of Marathon, near Athens
Action: To punish Athens for helping the Greeks of Asia Minor rebel against the Persian Empire, Darius sent 600 triremes full of soldiers to subdue the city. They began their landing, and set up, but the Greeks, without waiting for reinforcements for Sparta, lined up in the phalanx and moved in directly at the foe. The clash favored the Greeks at the flanks and the Persians in the center, and soon became a melee. Persian numbers did not win against the will to defend homes and land. 2/3 of the Persians fled back to their ships. Pheidippedes ran to Athens from Marathon, 26 miles, hence the name of the long run.
Casualties: Persians lost 6,400 of their 25,000, Athenians lost 192 of 10,000.
Consequence: The great empire was defeated, but Darius was very angry when General Datis filed his report.
***BATTLE OF THERMOPYLAE PASS***
Sides: Persians vs. Greeks
Time: 480 BC
Place: Thessaly, northern Greece
Action: Emperor Xerxes inherited his father's chip-on-the-shoulder and decided to avenge him by defeating Greece once and for all. While many Greek cities chose to give in and accept Persian rule because there was no chance of beating them, others resisted. 300 Spartan Equals under King Lionidas, with 6,000 allies, confronted a gigantic Persian invasion force of 200,000, including the Immortals. This took place in a narrow mountain pass which had to be crossed if the enemy would be able to advance on the Greek heartland to the south. For three days they fought one of the most spectacular fight in the world's history, until a traitor sold them out to Xerxes, whose forces then went around the pass and circled them from all directions. The 300 Spartans did not surrender, they fought to the last man.
Casualties: 2,500 Greeks and 20,000 Persians
Consequence: While they lost the battle, by dying in glory, the Spartans made it possible for the Greeks to ready themselves for the invasion, and eventually, win the war.
***BATTLE OF SALAMIS***
Sides: Persians vs. Greeks
Time: 480 BC
Place: Bay of Salamis, southern Greece
Action: A month after Thermoplyae, the Greeks retreated to south of Athens along the Isthmus of Corinth, effectively abandoning the city, which the Persians burned. Themistocles, leader of Athens, got as many people out as he could by sailing them to the south and dropping them off on the island of Salamis. He then sent a message to Xerxes inviting his fleet into the bay, promising that Athens would betray the other cities and change sides! When Xerxes got a front row ticket at the top of a hill overlooking the bay, ready to see his new allies turncoat, he got something else entirely. At the opportune strategic moment, the Greeks attacked his fleet within the confines of the bay and the straits, and sent ship after ship to the bottom of the sea by ramming them in the side at full speed, and connecting with them and storming onto their ships fighting hand to hand.
Casualties: 40 Greek ships sunk, 250 Persian ships.
Consequence: After seven hours of battle, the Persians retreated. Winter was coming, no supplies could be had for the large army, and Xerxes withdrew till spring.
***BATTLE OF PLATAEA***
Sides: Persians vs. Greeks
Time: 479 BC
Place: Isthmus of Corinth
Action: Next summer Xerxes mounted his final assault on Greece. His general Mardonius saw the Spartans in a compromising position and went at them. But the Spartans were, as Grant says, "unsurpassed in close combat." At the same time, a Greek force that had previously withdrawn returned unexpectedly and encircled the Persians. The Athenians surrounded and neutralized their cavalry, and the Spartan infantry did their work. They cut them down, and when the Persians fled, they followed, with no mercy, whittling away at their great numbers until the paths were strewn with corpses and no one had the thought of remaining in Greece as an invading force.
Casualties: 1,500 Greeks killed, 50,000 Persians.
Consequence: This was the decisive victory of the Greeks that signaled the end of the Persian wars, the first great East-West battle of civilization.
***BATTLE OF PYLOS***
Sides: Sparta vs. Athens
Time: 425 BC
Place: Peloponnesian coastline
Action: The Peloponnesian War pitted Athens against Sparta, Greek against Greek. The Golden Age was in full swing, but this promised to cut it short. Sparta's superior army fought to the very wall of Athens, and a siege of the city began. Desperate, General Demosthenes escaped with Athenian soldiers by sea- the place the Spartans were weakest. They landed at Pylos, not far from Sparta. This surprise move caught the Spartans off guard, and the Athenians defeated an unprepared force garrisoned nearby with a hail of arrows.
Casualties: 128 Spartans killed or captured.
Consequence: This early victory would be the highpoint for Athens in this war.
***BATTLE OF DELIUM***
Sides: Athens vs. Thebes (Spartan ally)
Time: 424 BC
Place: Attica
Action: An Athenian force advanced from the city against Boeotia, location of Thebes, a Spartan ally. Opposing phalanxes crashed, the Thebeans were 25 ranks deep, however, while the Athenians only 8. They "pushed against each others shields in brutal battle."
Casualties: 1,000 Athenians, unknown number of Thebeans.
Consequence: A setback for Athens.
***SIEGE OF SYRACUSE***
Sides: Athens vs. Syracuse (Spartan ally)
Time: 415 BC
Place: Sicily's eastern coast
Action: An Athenian naval assault on Syracuse advanced with 100 ships, landed and put the city under siege. Lacking siege engines for scaling the walls, the Athenians built a new wall on the land side to lock the city down and starve it out. A 3,000 man Spartan division appeared and blocked the wall's construction. More Athenians arrived by sea as well, but too many-- disease broke out and Syracuse blockaded Athens' fleet by sea. After failed attempts to break free, the Athenians tried to escape to the interior but were hunted man by man until the force surrendered. The leaders were executed and the men sent to slave in stone quarries.
Casualties: All 30,000 Athenians killed or captured.
Consequence: This incredible blow to Athens' morale was the brainchild of survivalist Alcibiades, who did not lead the disaster himself, and may have averted it if he had. He became hated in Athens anyway, and defected to Sparta, where he help them, but then returned to Athens to help whoever was paying him, helping influence the peace process.
***BATTLE OF AEGOSPOTAMI**
Sides: Sparta vs. Athens
Time: 405 BC
Place: Hellespont in Thrace, northern Greece
Action: Following the lead of the beloved Pericles, who counseled Athens to seek out its fortunes on the sea, the weakened city relied on grain imports from the Black Sea colonies to feed itself. Sparta under Lysander struck the fleet by sea to cut that lifeline. After Lysander won a battle off the coast of Ephesus, he was recalled to Sparta and replaced by a lesser admiral, who was soundly defeated by Athens. Sparta sought out Cyrus the Younger, a Persian prince, for financing a new navy. It was barely needed. When Lysander came back as admiral, he monitored the activities of the Athenian fleet, noting how they "set sail in the morning, paraded on the sea, then returned to shore for lunch." This they did religiously. Lysander had a small scout ship monitor when they were ashore, and by a light flash, the Spartans struck, seizing the Athenian ships that were empty in port. Only 8 escaped with a skeleton crew.
Casualties: 190 Athenian warships destroyed or captured.
Consequence: Facing starvation, Athens surrendered, ending the Peloponnesian War and the Greek Golden Age, marking the first time the Western world fought itself nearly to death. Other times, such as WWI and WWII, would follow.
*** BATTLE OF CUNAXA***
Sides: Cyrus the Younger with Spartan mercenaries vs. Persian Emperor Artaxerxes II
Time: 401 BC
Place: north of Babylon
Action: After the Peloponnesian War, the Spartans were in-hock to Persian Prince Cyrus the Younger. The battle of Cunaxa was an attempt by Cyrus to take control of the empire from his brother Artaxerxes II. To do this he hired the Spartans as mercenaries to man his right flank. His Asiatic soldiers were on the left, and his Persian rebels were in the center. The Greeks routed Artaxerxes' left flank, but the Persians in the center were fighting the Immortals and it wasn't working. In the battle Cyrus was killed by a javelin through the stomach, and the purpose of the battle was moot. The Greeks did not know this, and Spartan General Clearchus kept fighting until the Persians were in a rout. But Artaxerxes knew the battle was needless at this point, and ordered his men to destroy the Greeks' food supplies and their campsite on the retreat.
Casualties: unknown
Consequence: The Greeks did their part, but were stuck in the middle of the huge Persian Empire, with no food and no friends. They approached a satrap (provincial governor) as mercenaries but were denied. Clearchus and other Spartan leaders were invited to a feast with the satrap, and were decapitated. The new Greek leaders secured some food and began a grueling two year journey home, through Iraq's northern deserts and Turkey's rugged east, an event known to history as the March of the Ten Thousand, one of which was Xenophon, who wrote it all down.
***BATTLE OF LEUCTRA***
Sides: Sparta vs. Thebes
Time: 371 BC
Place: Boeotia, central Greece
Action: The Spartans were the prime city in Greece after the Peloponnesian War, until 30 years later, when Thebes revolted. A force of 11,000 was sent to crush Thebes, but Thebean General Epaminondas had other plans. He anticipated the Spartan battle formation, counting on their tradition and conservatism, and modified the Thebean to hit with a massive 48 rank deep phalanx from the left side. His Sacred Band, of top-notch soldiers formed their spearhead. Skirmishers fought the Spartan center while the Sacred Band led a whoosh from their side, surprising and scattering the Spartans.
Casualties: 2,000 Spartans killed, not many Thebeans
Consequence: Thebes' defeat of the top-tier city in a declining age gave it primacy over Greece. This prompted the old enemies Sparta and Athens to form an alliance against it.
***BATTLE OF MANTINEA***
Sides: Spartan-Athenian Alliance vs. Thebes
Time: 362 BC
Place: north of Sparta on the Peloponnesian Peninsula
Action: General Empaminondas of Thebes did not want to see the alliance gain too many members, and decided to preempt its growth. He marched south for Sparta, but when the way was blocked by a Spartan force, he struck the nearby city of Mantinea, an ally. But the arrival of an Athenian force blocked him there, and the three cities joined up against Thebes. Empaminondas rocked the Mantineans on the left flank, and the Theban cavalry harrassed the Athenians. The Mantineans broke ranks and ran, but at the moment of victory their general was slain, and moral nosedived.
Casualties: 1,000 killed on each side out of 25,000.
Consequence: Thebes fell from prominence.
***BATTLE OF CHAERONEA***
Sides: Macedonia vs. Athens and Thebes
Time: 338 BC
Place: Thebes
Action: To the sophisticated Athenians, Macedonia was the redneck part of the country to the far, far north, past Mt. Olympus. King Philip II of the Macedonians, however, built his people into a fighting force to behold, using Greek strategy and an appreciation of the concepts of unity and bravery. They came out of the mountains, 24 years after the Thebeans were humbled by the Spartans and Athenians, to find Athens and Thebes had formed a new alliance. Philip wanted to conquer the Greek cities one by one, and unite them, like Sargon of old. He learned from Epaminondas and built a multifaceted fighting force. Infantry, phalanx, cavalry, missile troops, and hypaspists who were elite infantry given leeway to break rules if need be. It was vicious. Philip tricked the Athenian hoplites by pretending to retreat then swooping back, while Alexander, his son, charged with the cavalry and fought the Thebean Sacred Band until 46 out of 300 were left.
Casualties: 20,000 alliance members were dead.
Consequence: Philip II of Macedon became ruler of all Greece. He loved Greek culture and had his son tutored by Aristotle when he was young. He also had his son learn the military arts. He began consolidation of the country, but two years in, he was assassinated. Now this son would take command.
***BATTLE OF GRANICUS***
Sides: Macedonian-Greeks vs. Persians (with Greek mercenaries)
Time: 334 BC
Place: Granicus River, Western Anatolia
Action: After crushing a revolt in Thebes upon his father's death, Alexander the Great consolidated his rule over Greece. He massed his army and went on a path of world conquest. He planned to march down the Anatolian seacoast and have resupply ships meet him, through Phoenicia, Israel and down to Egypt. His scouts reported Persians in the vicinity of the river, by the Aegean sea. Crossing it with cavalry first, the Persians and Greek mercenaries pushed, horse-to-horse, until the Macedonians were almost backed in the river. Alexander's infantry waded across and took up the spear. The Persians ran, and the Greeks kept fighting. 15,000 were killed by Alexander's men before the rest submitted to working for them as servants.
Casualties:15,000 Greeks
Consequence: Alexander's next stop was the ruins of Troy where he gave a speech in which he called upon the spirit of the ancestors of old, of Achilles; declaring it was time to bring the rule of the Occident over the Orient. They stopped at Pergamum, Sardis, Ephesus, Priene, Xanthus and up to Gordium, where he solved the puzzle of the Gordian knot, of which it was said he who did so would become Lord of Asia. 30 cities in Lydia and Lycia surrendered without a fight to Alexander. Then he got to Tarsus on the southern coast, and the greatest general of antiquity was about to face his greatest test.
***BATTLE OF ISSUS***
Sides: Macedonian-Greeks vs. Persians
Time: 333 BC
Place: near Antioch, southern Turkey, on the Gulf of Iskenderun (Alexander)
Action: King Darius III set out with an army of 110,000 to end Alexander's invasion and put his 35,000 men into early graves. They met at the turn of the coastline from Turkey to Syria. When Alexander discovered Darius' force, he turned to meet them on the coast, where the superior numbers would be less likely to overwhelm. His usual phalanx was 16 ranks deep, but he couldn't fight the Persians numbers without stretching this line longer and thinner. As his infantry advanced, Alexander took the lead of the cavalry charge, boldly flying right into the Persian forces. Like at Granicus they had to wait for the infantry to ford the river. Gaps formed in the Macedonian phalanx, where the spears were broken or the man was killed, and soon the Persians and mercenaries broke into the Macedonian numbers and a melee ensued. Now Alexander brought his Companions, his shock cavalry, into full boar attack on the Persian flank. They carried the day and Darius turned around and ran away from the battlefield, though his whole family was captured by the Macedonians.
Casualties: 450 Greeks and c. 20,000 Persians
Consequence: Following the victory at Issus when Darius fled east to Persia proper, Alexander did not follow him directly. He moved south through Phoenicia (Lebanon), Israel and into Egypt, where he secured an alliance with the Persian province. He founded Alexandria, where the great lighthouse, the Pharos, would be built in his honor. Alexandria would become the greatest city of the world for a century or more, until eclipsed by Rome.
***BATTLE OF ARBELA***
Sides: Macedonian-Greeks vs. Persians
Time: 331 BC
Place: plains of Guagamela, (Irbil, Iraq).
Action: Upon hearing that Darius was readying a gigantic force of 200,000 for the destruction of Alexander's army, it was time to settle the score. Outnumbered 4-1, Alexander moved east across the Sinai, through Jordan, and across Syria to Iraq, east of old Nineveh on the Tigris. Darius had been busy refilling his army (the Greek mercenaries were gone) with war elephants from India, Scythian and Afghan horsemen, and 200 chariots outfitted with special 'scythed' wheels. It would be impossible to not be outflanked on the open plains, but when Darius called for his charioteers to charge Alexander's phalanx, but the skirmishers used their javelins to put the riders down. Stretched thin, his flank guards tried to hold back the Scythian cavalry, while the elite hypaspist infantry broke through. While his army was taking a beating, Alexander saw the opportunity for charging right for Darius, which he did, chasing him off the field of battle. He called in for his cavalry, which charged and routed the Persians, and the melee ended in a riot, with people fleeing the battlefield everywhere.
Casualties: 500 Macedonians killed with 3,000 wounded, c. 50,000 killed or wounded.
Consequence: King Darius was chased down not by Alexander, but by his own noblemen, who out of shame assassinated him. Alexander gathered his forces and rode south to Babylon, which promptly surrendered. Turning east to Susa and Persepolis, twin capitals of the empire, he routed all resistance and the Persian Empire surrendered to the Lord of Asia. Alexander burned the Palace of Persepolis to the ground in revenge for the burning of Athens exactly 150 years earlier.
***BATTLE OF HYDASPES***
Sides: Macedonians vs. Indians
Time: 326 BC
Place: Hydaspes river, northwest India
Action: The decision Alexander made in Persia was to press on and see what other worlds there were to conquer and overlay with Greek culture. Alexander took Taxila and the land of Bactria, including Samarkand and Bukhara. On the River Jaxartes, he attacked a nomadic Scythian army and won, marking the first time one had been defeated in living memory. His men fought Indians at Arbela, now they would find this land and subdue it. Four years later, after crossing the Indus River, following it south, they found King Porus, rajah of the Punjab. Many of Alexander's men remained in the west, however, and he was down to 11,000 vs. Porus' 30,000. They met on different sides of the river, and Alexander made camp. But Porus woke up to find Alexander's men had crossed the river during the night. Javelin throwers harassed the elephants, which trampled many of Porus' own men, while the phalanx did its work, followed by a cavalry charge of the Companions led by... Alexander himself. The Punjabi army was smashed, the remnants ran, and Porus was captured.
Casualties: 310 Macedonians, c. 20,000 Indians
Consequence: Alexander's last major battle was a victory, making him undefeated in his career. But his men were weary, many rebelled and wanted to go home. He turned back west. In Babylon, he died of fever.
Alexander the Great; Iron Maiden
***BATTLE OF IPSUS***
Sides: Antigonid Empire vs. Seleucid Empire
Time: 301 BC
Place: Phyrgia (south of Lydia in western Anatolia)
Action: Alexander's death led to a power struggle among his three generals, and the empire was divided between them into three Hellenistic realms, Persia, Mesopotamia and the Levant went to Seleucus, Egypt went to Ptolemy and Greece (including Macedonia) went to Antigonus. The question was Asia Minor. Antigonus did battle with Seleucus over it. The latter fielded a large number of elephants and better trained archers and javelin throwers. Grant says both sides kept the same old tactics but without Alexander's genius on improvisation. Many of Antigonus' men switched sides in the middle of the battle! Antigonus was killed by a javelin and the cause was lost.
Casualties: unknown
Consequence: Anatolia was split between Seleucus and his lieutenant. Antigonid Greece was limited to the peninsula and Macedonia proper. The Greek empires held sway despite the infighting for two centuries.
***BATTLE OF RAPHIA***
Sides: Antigonid Greece vs. Ptolemaic Egypt
Time: 217 BC
Place: Gaza, Levant
Action: 75 years after Ipsus, Antiochus III fielded 62,000 infantry, 6,000 cavalry and 102 elephants against the comparable forces of Ptolemy IV. The objective was control of the entire Levant- Syria, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon and northern Arabia. Antiochus mistakenly allowed two years preparation time for Ptolemy, and when he arrived, he was matched with an equal foe. His elephants were better, the Indian elephants were larger and more used to battle than the African elephants from south of Egypt. The Indian elephants charged and the African elephants ran. Elephants gored each other with their tusks and interlocked them. But the phalanx strike of Ptolemy was superior- he inspired the soldiers by presenting himself in the midst of the fray.
Casualties: unknown
Consequence: Egypt held the Levant for a time.
***Battle of Chios***
Sides: Macedonians vs. Rhodes-Pergamum alliance
Time: 201 BC
Place: Off the island of Chios
Action: Philip V of Macedonia built a fleet of triremes and began to challenge the islands of the Aegean in their home waters. Rhodes was the chief local power, along with Pergamum (Bergama, Turkey), a fortress city and local power. The encounter went bad for the Macedonians when they lost their flagship, and then fought a protracted but losing battle.
Casualties: 9,000 Macedonians killed, 130 alliance members
Consequence: This battle awakened a spate of navy-building.
Sources:
Grant, R.G. 2005. Battle. London: DK Publishing.
Grant, R.G. 2010. Commanders. London: DK Publishing.
Keegan, John. 1993. A History of Warfare. New York: Knopf.
Shaw, Robert. 1937. One Hundred Seventy Five Battles. Harrisburg: Military Publishing Co.
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