the encyclopedia of ancient history || cavalry, greek
TRANSCRIPT
Cavalry, GreekGLENN R. BUGH
For most of the Greek world, cavalry was a late
development. It would play an auxiliary role in
armies of the Classical period, advantaged by
its mobility and elevated fighting platform,
but limited in numbers by the high cost of
maintaining and replacing a war horse. In
Bronze Age Greece, archaeology attests only
chariot use. The use of chariots in warfare is
reflected in the Homeric epics, but here the
warriors seem to have employed the chariot
merely as a means of transportation to and
from the battlefield. Heroic duels were fought
on foot. Depictions of horsemen on vase-
paintings in the seventh to sixth centuries BCE
show two kinds of warriors: mounted HOPLITES
and true horsemen. The first has been
interpreted as a variation on the chariot in
that hoplites rode horses to the battlefield
and then dismounted to fight. ARISTOTLE
(Pol. 1289b) mentions Greek cavalry states in
the Archaic period, for example, CHALCIS and
ERETRIA (see LELANTINE WAR), Magnesia by the
Maeander, and IONIA, and closely associates
their oligarchic political systems with reliance
on cavalry. In fact, the term hippeis, “horse-
men,” is regularly equated to the upper classes
because of the high cost of maintaining a
horse, but this does not prove that they actually
rode horses into battle. For example, as early as
the sixth century BCE members of the second-
highest property class of ATHENS were called
HIPPEIS, but there is no evidence that they actu-
ally served as cavalry. SPARTA possessed a mili-
tary force called hippeis, but it seems certain
that they fought on foot. Cavalry was not orga-
nized at Sparta until 424 BCE (Thuc. 4.55.2).
MACEDONIA, BOIOTIA, and notably THESSALY are
recognized as cavalry powers by the late
Archaic and early Classical periods, taking
advantage of rich and extensive grazing lands,
but the southern mainland Greeks seemed
not to have developed true cavalries until the
fifth century. By the middle of that century
Athens and the states of MAGNA GRAECIA, like
SYRACUSE and Taras (see TARAS/TARENTUM), had
created respectable cavalry forces (1,000 or
more) to support their territorial ambitions. In
the Classical period, particularly during the
PELOPONNESIAN WAR, Greek cavalries never
decided battles, but they proved useful in
skirmishing, scouting, pursuing defeated
infantrymen, and in neutralizing an opposing
cavalry force threatening the phalanx on its
flanks (see PHALANX (HOPLITE)). The typical cav-
alryman carried no shield, wore little armor,
and had no stirrups for support. He threw his
javelins to soften up the enemy and then
withdrew from the field to let the hoplites settle
the day. It was an elite young man’s game, as
indicated by numerous sculptural reliefs (e.g.,
the Panathenaic frieze on the PARTHENON) and
parodied in ARISTOPHANES’ comic play, Knights
(424 BCE). With the rise of Macedonia (see
PHILIP II OF MACEDON; ALEXANDER III, THE GREAT)
cavalry would assume enhanced tactical impor-
tance in coordinationwith the newMacedonian
phalanx (see PHALANX (MACEDONIAN)), but then
gradually diminish over the next one hundred
years. The national or federal cavalries of
the Greek states, for example, Thessalians,
Aitolians, Achaians, Eleians, Athenians, were
operational into the second century BCE, but
mercenary cavalry, like the Tarentines, would
become the order of the day (see MERCENARIES).
SEE ALSO: Army, Greece; Army, Hellenistic;
Horses, Greece and Rome; Warfare, Greece;
Weaponry, Greece.
REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS
Bugh,G.R. (1988)The horsemen ofAthens. Princeton.
Gaebel, R. E. (2002)Cavalry operations in the ancient
Greek world. Norman, OK.
Greenhalgh, P. A. L. (1973) Early Greek warfare:
horsemen and chariots in the Homeric and Archaic
ages. Cambridge.
Spence, I. G. (1993) The cavalry of Classical Greece:
a social and military history. Oxford.
Worley, L. J. (1994) Hippeis: the cavalry of ancient
Greece. Boulder.
The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, First Edition. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine,
and Sabine R. Huebner, print pages 1387–1388.
© 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah04057
1