WAR IN THE HELLENISTIC WORLD

THE UBIQUITOUS WAR
was the most important source of income for the citizens, and certainly the
most respectable. Political theorists and reformers alike never tired of including
the redistribution of land in their programs.
The reality was very different. A bad harvest, a wedding or a funeral,
an enemy attack and the destruction of the olive trees and the vineyards,
forced those who could not produce enough surplus into debt. When the
debts were not paid (and this was usually the case), farmers lost their land.
Time and again in their history, the Greeks had to deal with the problem of
large numbers of citizens without land. The Peloponnesian War and the
subsequent wars on mainland Greece made the situation worse. One of the
phrases that was heard in Greek cities from the mid-fourth century onwards
was ges anadasmos (redistribution of land). Greek cities had always had the
same set of solutions to the problems created by the existence of citizens
without landed property: they usually sent them abroad to found colonies
or to serve as mercenaries (see chapter 5, section 2), or they conquered the
territory of a neighbor, or – in rare cases – they enacted reforms.
With the campaigns of Alexander, thousands of Greeks had the opportunity
first to serve as mercenaries and later to man the newly-founded cities
and acquire land there (see chapter 5, section 3). One would expect that
this would improve conditions in Greece, and this holds true for large parts
of the mainland, but not necessarily for the islands and the cities of Asia
Minor. The numerous inscriptions that concern themselves with territorial
conflicts show that disputes over the ownership of land were the most
frequent issue faced by Hellenistic interstate arbitration (see chapter 7,
section 3). In some cases the relevant texts directly inform us that the
disputed territory was important for agricultural activites. But very often –
and this should not surprise us, given the mountainous nature both of the
borders of Greek cities and of the largest part of their territories – the
disputed land was beyond the cultivated area. This land (eschatia) still had
economic importance for the exploitation of natural resources (such as
timber and metals), but most of it functioned as pasture land during the
summer months.
The control of strategically important areas (e.g., on trade routes) could
also provoke wars. When, in the mid-third century, Kallatis (on the west
shore of the Black Sea) attempted to establish a trade monopoly at the port
of Tomis, Byzantion put an end to these plans after a war (Memnon FgrHist
434 F 13; Ager 1996: no. 34). Byzantion itself was attacked some time later
by the Rhodians, when it attempted to impose duties on vessels passing
through the straits.
In areas in which neither colonization could be practiced nor territorial
expansion was possible, part of the population had war as its actual occupation:
some men offered their services as mercenaries (see chapter 5, section
2), others participated in raids (see chapter 7, section 3), and many occupied
themselves with both activities. Unpaid mercenaries, like the Macedonian
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