WAR IN THE HELLENISTIC WORLD

WAR AND THE IDEOLOGY OF HELLENISTIC MONARCHY
strong feelings of freedom, precisely because it curtailed their freedom to
fight against each other.
Royal ideology, in particular the self-representation of kings as protectors
of cities, obliged the Hellenistic kings to play an active part in the establishment
of peace. Based on prestige and power, kings could arbitrate in local
conflicts between cities, which were a major cause of wars (Ager 1996: 20–
2). One of the best documented territorial conflicts of the Hellenistic period
is that between Priene and Samos, which lasted for centuries. The verdict
given in 283/2 BC by Lysimachos (Ager 1996: no. 26), after scrutiny of the
evidence (including the study of historiographical works), seems to have
been objective, but did not settle the matter. The conflict flared up again and
again in the following centuries, keeping two other kings (Antigonos Doson
and Antiochos III?) and the city of Rhodes busy with the issue of arbitration.
Not all kings could be as neutral as Lysimachos. The Cretan city of Gortyn
suggested, in at least two of its wars against Knossos, the arbitration of
a Ptolemaic king (Chaniotis 1996a: nos. 40 and 43; cf. Ager 1996: no. 128;
Magnetto 1997: no. 43) – not because of the objectivity of the Ptolemies,
but because of their alliance with Gortyn.
As arbitrators and peace-makers, the Hellenistic kings protected their
interests, earning at the same time the gratitute of cities, especially those
that profited from their verdict (see Ager 1996: no. 24).
4.5. War and Mortal Divinity
In the Hellenistic period, military success did not only compensate for the
lack of dynastic legitimacy (see section 4.1) – it could also make a mortal
“godlike” (isotheos). This idea is expressed very eloquently in a hymn sung
by the Athenians for Demetrios the Besieger around 291 BC:
How the greatest and dearest of the gods have arrived to the city! For the
hour has brought together Demeter and Demetrios; she comes to celebrate
the solemn mysteries of the Kore, while he is here full of joy, as befits the god,
fair and laughing. His appearance is majestic, his friends all around him and he
in their midst, as though they were stars and he the sun. Hail son of the most
powerful god Poseidon and Aphrodite! For the other gods are either far away,
or they do not have ears, or they do not exist, or do not take any notice of us,
but you we can see present here, not made of wood or stone, but real. So we
pray to you: first make peace, dearest; for you have the power. And then, the
sphinx that rules not only over Thebes but over the whole of Greece, the
Aitolian sphinx sitting on a rock like the ancient one, who seizes and carries
away all our people, and I cannot fight against her (for it is an Aitolian custom
to seize the property of neighbors and now even what is far afield), most of all
punish [or stop] her yourself; if not, find an Oedipus who will either hurl
down that sphinx from the rocks or reduce her to ashes.
(Douris, FgrHist 76 F 13; Athen. VI 253 D-F; cf. Austin 1981: no. 35)
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