WAR IN THE HELLENISTIC WORLD

THE AGE OF WAR: FIGHTING YOUNG MEN
this oath; and I will be friendly towards the Drerians and the Knossians; and
I will neither betray the city or the forts of the Drerians nor the forts of the
Knossians; and I will betray no men to the enemies, neither men of Dreros, nor
men of Knossos . . . I will not start a revolt, and I will always be an opponent
of those who do; I will not participate in the organization of a conspiracy,
neither in the city not outside of the city, nor I will help someone else . . .
This oath was taken under exceptional circumstances: Knossos and her allies
were in war against Lyttos (the “Lyttian War”; see chapter 1, section 2),
and as we may infer from several sources, this war had caused desertions
and civil strife among the allies of Knossos (Chaniotis 1999c). In Gortyn,
a civil war had broken out, confronting the young men with the old men
(see section 3.1), and the same danger threatened Dreros. The oath of the
young Drerians (180 men between 18 and 20) was taken in a solemn
ceremony, probably during a ritual of transition, in which the young men
took off the typical garment of the young man, and received the garment
(and the armor) of the warrior (see section 3.3). Their oath is an obligation
to obedience towards the authorities and to a never-ending war against
Lyttos. All the elements of nature (sky, earth, water, sun), all the gods, and
all the heroes are invoked as witnesses of the oath and as potential vindicators
of those who would break it. No possibility of peace is left, not even
through a sophistical interpretation of the oath. We know the outcome of
this oath. The city of Lyttos was destroyed during an attack; the Lyttians
rebuilt their city and subsequently razed Dreros to the ground.
In many Greek communities, to educate young men meant training
them as warriors. This is not only reflected in the myths and traditions
of initiatory rituals (Vidal-Naquet 1981; Waldner 2000), and it is not only
the ritual substrate of literary narratives (e.g., Ma 1994); it is also the reality
of many Hellenistic cities, which retained or revived the institution of the
ephebeia – i.e., the training of age-classes of young men (usually between
18 and 20) under the supervision of the state authorities. It should be
noted, however, that the existence of ephebic institutions in the Hellenistic
period should not be taken as evidence for continuities. In many cases
(e.g., Athens, Sparta, possibly Eretria) ephebic institutions declined during
the Classical period and were artificially revived in the Hellenistic period,
as a response of the Hellenistic communities to the need to take their
defense into their own hands, and also as an expression of their sovereignty
(see Chankowski 2004b). A characteristic example is Sparta, the ancient
example of military training par excellence for its youth. The strict training
(agoge), which started in the seventh year and was one of the requirements
for citizenship, had lost its importance by the fourth century BC; it was
revived by king Kleomenes III as one of the foundations of his reforms, and
was abolished again in 188 by Philopoimen (Kennell 1995: 20; see chapter
2, section 2).
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