Is it true that the Greeks didn’t like archery in battle?
svenstadt asked:
I only ask b/c I answered a Q about the battle of thermopylae earlier today and I’ve never read anywhere about the Greeks using any kind of artillery of any kind in the battle only the Hoplites.
I only ask b/c I answered a Q about the battle of thermopylae earlier today and I’ve never read anywhere about the Greeks using any kind of artillery of any kind in the battle only the Hoplites.
MARTY posted: 22 Sep at 4:04 pm
Archers aren’t artillery. And yes, they didn’t like it, they felt fighting from range was dishonorable and cowardly.
xxmachina posted: 24 Sep at 12:22 am
The Place of Archery in Greek Warfare by Thomas Nelson Winter
a link to where you can download the article, it would seem to be exactly what you are asking.
MJR posted: 24 Sep at 12:28 am
The Greeks disdained ranged combat; they thought it was girly and effeminate. When Greeks took to the field of battle, they fought as a block of heavy infantry, called hoplites, their formation called a phalanx.
However, time taught the Greeks the value of ranged combat, despite the fact that arrows still never took hold. Greeks typically wore so much armor that Arrows did not have the kind of devastating effect that they did against, say, the lightly armored troops of the middle east or barbarian Europe. The Greeks began screening their phalanx with javelin throwers, which were called peltasts.These truly did not rise to prominence until the Peloponnesian war, between Athens and Sparta. Heavily armored troops were vulnerable to their javelins, and would not have been able to run them down. Gradually as these skirmishing elements became more important, peltasts were phased out in favor of Thureophoroi, which were a sort of intermediate troop in between the nimble peltasts and the heavy duty hoplites.
Alexander utilized Thureophoroi to great effect, as part of his hammer and anvil approach to warfare: the phalanx held the enemy infantry down, while the elite cavalry delivered the finishing blow.
Artillery is a different story altogether. Greeks invented the two primary artillery pieces of the era: the Ballista and the Onager. However, these weapons were very rarely used in battle, due to the slow speed in which they could be moved or transported or set up. They were most commonly deployed as siege equipment.
Laurence F posted: 25 Sep at 8:10 pm
The Greeks were mainly an infrantry peoples. The only state that had any decent cavalry contingent was Thessely. In fact the Greeks were a predominately heavy infrantry nation. Their speciality was the 8 man deep Greek Phalanx. It was the optimum of every Greek to be in the phalanx. Fighting in the phalanx was considered honouralbe. The heavy infrantry were made up of the middle class. Any cavalry were made up of the minority noble class. You see, in the ancient Greek city states what kind of unit you were in depended on what you could afford to equip yourself in battle with. Therefore if you were in the heavy infrantry you were well off. If you were in the light infrantry you were not so well off.
Because the Greeks considered the heavy infrantry most honourable and the light infrantry less so, so you can imagine what they thought of the archer. The archer was not only considered less in status but because of the ideology of the time, to fight from a distance as in throwing spears or shooting arrows, was considered far less honorable. At least the spear thrower had to close in on his enemy closer and many times had to fight hand to hand. But the archer was able to shoot from a comparitevly long way off. The maximum range of a spear was approximately 20 to 25 yards at the most. But the range of an arrow was between 100 and 200 yards. So you can see the comparitiveness in honour. The ancient Greeks looked down on the archer for this reason. Especially the Spartans. They and the other Greeks considered the bow and arrow somewhat of a women’s weapon. To be struck with an arrow was like being struck down by a women. And the Greeks didn’t hold woman up to be that highly. In fact in the Greek myths about the Trojan War, the principle villian in the piece, the one who kidnapped Helen-or ran off with her, Paris, was depicted as an archer. A weak and dishonorable fighter. And it is in the most shamefull and dishonorable way that he killed the great hero Archilles.
The Greeks were not much familiar with artillery or missiles weapons. In fact in the Peloponesian Wars when a force of Spartans were beaten by a force of mostly light infrantry and archers under Cleon at Spactricha it was considered by the Spartans so shameful that they would not negotiate for the return of the prisoners. Thinking that their defeat was so dishonorable that they would be better off dead.
Later the Greeks did employ artilllery and missiled weapons. Especially in sieges. But this happened mostly from the time of Alexander onwards. In fact at the seige of Rhodes in the Hellanistic period they had a giant siege tower called a Heliopolis(city destoyer) with six levels and about 13 pieces of artillery upon it. But their general attituded is attested by when a Greek general saw a catipult drop a man at 300 paces-he thought it was the end of the world. And the Greeks were very very lucky indeed in their conservatism. For by the time the Persians invaded they, the Persians, had forgotten and neglected the weapon they had built up their empire with. The horse archer. It would have been very difficult for the Greeks to survive if the Persians had have brought to bare numbers of horse archers upon them. And armed with the very effective composite bow. The most powerful bow till the coming of the longbow. As attested by the battle of Cahhrea in 53 B.C. when the Parthians defeated an ill-trained and ill-equipped Roman army under Marcus Licinius Crassus, the same tactics against the Greeks would have caused great devestation. It is also noted that when at the last momement the Persians had the Spartans(and the Thebans and Thespians) they mowed them down in a shower of arrows. From foot archers. Artilllery had been used 500 years before by the Assyrians. Unfortunately for the Greeks they were too conservative in warfare for this. And they could have paid a very hight price indeed. They were lucky. Hope this helps.