13 - Battle

Summary

introduction

The great land battles of the Hellenistic and mid-Republican era are perhaps the most striking single aspect of warfare at that time. In the largest, 100,000 or more troops clashed in climactic contests which in just a few hours transformed one army from a fearsome military force into a shattered mixture of corpses, captives and panic-stricken fugitives. These battles might not in themselves be ‘decisive’ if the losing side had both the resources and the commitment to raise further forces to continue the fight. However, they did profoundly affect the course of conflicts, and spelt doom for any antagonist without the means to recover from defeat.

Historians both ancient and modern have felt the dramatic power of these set-piece contests, and have accorded them special attention in their works. In the ancient world, the ‘battle piece’ was a staple ingredient of historical writing, and incorporated various more or less formulaic elements – a description of the composition and deployment of the opposing armies, a recitation of (impossibly long and high-flown) speeches by the opposing generals, a comparatively brief account of the fighting itself, focusing on anecdotal aspects such as the heroic conduct or death of a commander or the contribution of ‘exotic’ weapons like elephants or chariots, and finally a tailpiece detailing the respective losses and the aftermath of the engagement.