WAR IN THE HELLENISTIC WORLD

THE UBIQUITOUS WAR
soldiers who marched from Egypt to Triparadeisos (320 BC) without pay,
were a constant element of instability.
In addition to economic factors, the ideology of the independent
city-state provoked conflicts. The importance of military training for the
young men of free citizen communities (see chapter 2, sections 1 and 2 and
chapter 3) and the continual effort to defend their autonomy from the
interventions of Hellenistic kings (e.g., through the expulsion of garrison
troops), tyrants, and later the Romans, left only limited possibilities for a
lasting peace.
Finally, rival political groups within a city would occasionally try to defeat
their opponents with the help of a foreign ally, promising in exchange to
offer support themselves after their victory. Many of the political upheavals
in late third- and second-century Athens (see section 1.2) originated in such
a nexus of internal political aspirations and external alliances. Siege and war
could endanger the social equalibrium and bring to the surface latent conflicts
(Garlan 1974: 42–3; Will 1975: 301). Many civil wars broke out in
the context of larger conflicts, with the representatives of different political
groups in the same city supporting different opponents. During the Lamian
War (the revolt of Greek cities against Macedonian control, 323–322 BC),
the propertied classes opposed the war and appeared to be in favor of a
collaboration with Macedonia (cf. Syll. 3 317, line 10). Thisbe (Boiotia) was
divided during the Third Macedonian War (170 BC), and Roman supporters
had to flee from the city and occupy a citadel (IG VII 2225; Sherk 1969:
no. 2; Bagnall and Derow 2004: no. 45). The socio-political components of
“Aristonikos’ War” in Asia Minor (133–129 BC), between Aristonikos and
his supporters (allegedly the poor and recruited slaves), and the Romans
and their Greek allies, are a matter of controversy. Even if the interpretation
of this war as a “social revolution” is improbable, it still shows – like the
Mithridatic wars – the coexistence of many different causes and hopes,
ranging from the aspiration of monarchical rule to the hope of freedom.
Our contemporary sources recognize the most important causes of war
in human nature. Polybios makes the greed (pleonexia) of the Cretans
responsible for the continual wars (van Effenterre 1948: 285–92), and a
lesser-known historian, Philippos of Pergamon (IG IV.1 2 687; FgrHist 95
T 1; Goukowski 1995), introduced his history of the last wars of the late
Republic with these words:
With my pious hand I delivered to the Greeks the historical narrative of the
most recent deeds – all sorts of sufferings and a continual mutual slaughter
having taken place in our days in Asia and Europe, in the tribes of Libya and
in the cities of the islanders; I did this, so that they may learn also through us,
how many evils are brought forth by courting the mob and by love of profit,
by civil strifes and by the breaking of faith, and thus, by observing the sufferings
of others, they may live their lives in the right way.
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