the encyclopedia of ancient history || cavalry, greek

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Page 1: The Encyclopedia of Ancient History || Cavalry, Greek

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

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