WAR IN THE HELLENISTIC WORLD

THE UBIQUITOUS WAR
1.2. The Frequency of Wars
To narrate the history of Hellenistic wars would mean covering the history
of the entire Hellenistic period, and this is well beyond the scope of this
book. Even to compile a list of the wars which were fought between 322
and 31 BC, and of the regions which were affected by these wars, is beyond
the possibilities of a modern historian. Almost all the works of Hellenistic
historians have been lost (see chapter 11, section 2), and what survives directly
(fragments of Polybios, Diodoros, and Poseidonios), and indirectly in later
historiography – for example, in Livy (late first century BC), in Appian (early
second century AD), and in Plutarch’s Lives (late first/early second century
AD) – only allows a partial reconstruction of the “great wars.” The focus
on these major wars, in which usually more than two states were involved,
often results in our overlooking the far more numerous regional and local
conflicts, territorial disputes, civil wars, revolts of indigenous populations or
mercenary soldiers, and invasions of barbarian tribes. In a conference of the
Hellenic Alliance in Korinth in the spring of 219 BC, under the presidency
of Philip V, the allies brought forth accusations against the Aitolians
(Polyb. 4.25.2–5; Austin 1981: no. 58). They had plundered in peace-time
the sanctuary of Athena Itonia in Boiotia, attempted to sack Ambrysos and
Daulion in Phokis, ravaged Epeiros, and attacked Thyrreion in Akarnania
at night. In the Peloponnese, they had seized Klarion on the territory of
Megalopolis, ravaged the territory of Patrai and Pharai in Achaia, sacked
Kynetha, plundered the temple of Artemis at Lousoi, besieged Kleitor, and
attacked Pylos by sea and Megalopolis by land. All these were recent wars
that had occured shortly before the summer of 220 BC, and all had taken
place in the narrow geographical region in which the interests of the Hellenic
Alliance were concentrated.
Rather than summarizing the political history of the Hellenistic world
(see pp. xvii–xx), I will attempt to give an impression of the frequency of
wars by focusing on four selected areas, which seem more or less representative
and are certainly well documented: a kingdom (Antigonid Macedonia);
a major city state (Athens); a “middle power” in the Aegean (Rhodes); and
an island on the periphery of the Greek world (Crete). (Readers who do not
wish to be confronted with dates and names and are willing to accept my
general statement concerning the frequency of wars may skip the following
section.)
Counting wars in Antigonid Macedonia
Antigonos the One-Eyed, the founder of the dynasty of the Antigonids,
who ruled over the kingdom of Macedonia and its external possessions,
aquired the title of king after a military victory during one of the Wars of
the Successors (307/6 BC). He lost his kingdom and his life at the Battle of
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