Mind-Munitions

26
Propaganda in the Ancient World
the Trojan Horse do provide us with an insight into early Greek
conceptions of war propaganda techniques.
After about 750 BC city-states emerged as the dominant political
unit in Greece, replacing the tribal kingdoms of earlier periods.
Reflecting this increasingly structured society, warfare also became
more organized with the development of heavily-armoured citizen
phalanxes and a wave of colonization. What can we deduce about
early Greek war propaganda from this? The city-states were really
united only by common language and the sea. Each one (polis) had
its own gods and glorified its own achievements (Athens had
Athena, Argos had Hera, and so on). Alliances were formed, but
Greeks frequently fought Greeks. Warfare, however, was a seasonal
occupation, with the volunteer soldiers coming mainly from farms
which needed no looking after during the winter months. There
was no standing army; all citizen-farmers were by definition soldiers
whose military service was an annual event between sowing and
harvest-time. Different city-states adopted different techniques to
influence their troops. There was no unity between the fullyfledged
independent city-states, simply common characteristics.
With a large expansion in trade, Greeks exported their goods in
decorative vases. We admire these vases today as works of art, and
it might be assumed that they served to project to a wider world the
artistic achievements of Greek potters and, in turn, their images of
Greek glory. This was not the case. Few decorated pots went to
non-Greek communities and pot-painters were not highly regarded
in ancient Greece. The majority were slaves and the pot was the tincan
of antiquity. It was the contents that interested the Greeks
(olive oil, wine, grain, and the like) not the container.
Sculpture and architecture provide stronger evidence of a growing
sophistication in the art of persuasion. Statues of gods and men
became larger and more realistic as individual politicians strove to
project themselves and their achievements before the population.
But it is architecture that offers the clearest manifestation of propaganda
in Classical Greece. Athens provides a notable example of
the use of this medium to promote the glory of an individual or a
city. In his Life of Pericles, Plutarch describes how in the fifth
century BC the Athenian king ‘wooed the masses’ and how he
promoted his own prestige by diverting Greek Confederation funds
designated for defence against the Persians to work on the
Acropolis, despite the objections of his allies who felt that Pericles