WAR IN THE HELLENISTIC WORLD

HOW WAR SHAPED THE HELLENISTIC WORLD
to a more privileged group of foreigmers as isoteleis (“bearing equal burdens”
as the citizens) and to be given the right to own a house and land and to
participate in campaigns and military contributions on the same terms as the
citizens. Even then, they never actually attained citizen status.
The request for financial contributions often gave foreigners an opportunity
to be part of the joint defense efforts (see chapter 7, section 1; Migeotte
1992: 358–63; e.g., IG VII 4263 = Maier 1959: no. 26). The aforementioned
example concerns two individuals; a massive and far more radical
breaking of legal boundaries was effected by the liberation, occasionally
even the enfranchisement, of slaves as the ultimate effort to prevent a defeat
(see chapter 2, section 2).
In the realm of monarchies, such measures were unlikely to occur at a
comparable scale, but even here a great crisis could trigger measures which
had lasting effects. The outstanding services of professional soldiers in a
crisis promoted their careers and the position of their families (see chapter
4, section 2). This form of social mobility was natural, frequent, but not
massive, unlike the measures taken by Ptolemy IV, when he recruited native
Egyptians – the so-called machimoi – into his army for the first time, during
the Fourth Syrian War (219 BC). These measures had a lasting impact on
the lives of thousands, and the self-confidence won by the Egyptian machimoi
because of their contribution to victory at the Battle of Rhaphia ultimately
led to the native revolts of the second century (Thompson 2003: 115).
In a much more material sense, mobility in the Hellenistic age meant
the massive movement of populations: the carrying away of prisoners of war
(women and children in particular), the migration of populations of destroyed
cities, the relocation of captives or hostages (Amit 1970), deserters,
and runaway slaves, the expulsion of unpleasant intellectuals (Fraser 1972:
86–8; Austin 2001: 90), and the service of mercenaries. With the notable
exceptions of mercenary service and the settlement of populations in military
colonies, the mobility of people caused by Hellenistic wars was involuntary
and frequently huge. Mobility caused by war had significant social
implications, since its specific form depended on gender (e.g., fugitive men,
captured women), age (children versus adults), and status (citizen versus
non-citizen, free versus enslaved, wealthy versus poor).
Sometimes the relocation of individuals or larger groups was only temporary,
but more frequently it was lasting. Examples of mass relocations should
not make us forget about the fate of individuals – for example, the story
of Epikles of Axos. His tale is narrated in a letter sent by the Cretan city of
Axos to the Aitolians (early second century BC; Syll. 3 622 B = I.Cret. II.v 19;
see chapter 6, section 4). In this letter the magistrates of Axos claimed on
behalf of their citizen Epikles citizen rights in Aitolia on the basis of a treaty.
To justify this claim, they tell of the adventures of Epikles’ family. Eraton,
a citizen of Axos, had come as a mercenary to Cyprus, where he married a
woman of unknown name and origin. This woman gave birth to two sons,
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