WAR IN THE HELLENISTIC WORLD

THE MEMORY OF WAR
He was not alone in the exploitation of this victory for the purposes
of propaganda. The Delphic Amphictyony (after 278 BC) and the Aitolians
(ca. 245 BC) organized festivals to celebrate their contribution to the defense
of Greece (see section 11.5), and later Magnesia on the Maeander recalled
to memory “the military assistance given by their ancestors to the sanctuary
in Delphi, when they defeated in battle the barbarians who had campaigned
against the sanctuary in order to loot the god’s property” (I.Magnesia 46;
Bagnall and Derow 2004: no. 155) in her effort to acquire privileges. Two
historical epics, by Leschides (“The deeds of Eumenes,” FgrHist 172) and
Simonides of Magnesia (“The deeds of Antiochos and the battle against the
Galatians,” FgrHist 163) were also dedicated to victories over the Galatians.
The initiative of Herakleitos should be seen within the context of the
competition of kings, cities, and federal states for the military glory that
legitimizes leadership and privileges.
There is more to be observed in the written or painted representations of
Antigonos’ deeds. The location of the dedication was the ideal setting for
a monument that aimed at conveying an important message: Antigonos
was the savior of the Greeks from the barbarians. The dedication was made
to the goddess who was at the same time the patron of Athens (Athena) and
the patron of victory (Athena Nike). Her sanctuary was on the acropolis of
Athens, where buildings and sculptures commemorated the victories of the
Greeks (and the Athenians) over the barbarians. In this setting, Herakleitos’
monument subtly incorporated the victory of the Macedonian king into the
Greek tradition of military victories. Here, the collective memory of the war
against the Galatians met the cultural memory of the Greeks.
If in the case of Herakleitos we are not certain whether he dedicated
inscriptions with historical narratives, there is enough evidence for this
practice elsewhere. The historical narratives written on stone, for which I
use here the term “monumental historiography,” were set up in public
places and were funded both by the community and by individual citizens.
Thanks to their monumental form they addressed a larger audience than
literary works. The representation of wars, especially of wars of the past, was
one of the most common subjects. A biography of the famous Parian poet
Archilochos (seventh century BC) inscribed on a monument in his native
city (SEG XV 517; ca. 250 BC) treated not only his life as a poet, but also
his participation in the wars of his island, and this holds true for another
biography of the same poet inscribed on the same monument. The biography
by Sosthenes (FgrHist 502; IG XII.5 454) consists in fact of quotations
from Archilochos’ poems as sources for the wars of Paros against the
Thracians.
Around 203 BC, the authorities of Magnesia on the Maeander published
a local history on the walls of a gate in the market of their city (I.Magnesia
17; Chaniotis 1988: 34–40). One of the major subjects it treated was the
war against the Galatians. Wars are also the background of the majority of
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