03-16-2007, 11:56 PM
Quote:Thanks again for all the information. I remember reading in Thucydides that the Spartans had one hell of a time actually countering the Athenian raids on the Peloponnese because they lacked cavalry and light infantry. That might be the subject for a thesis paper later in the year, which I'll be sure to utilize RAT members.
Stefanos -- did you read Hanson's Warfare and Agriculture in Classical Greece? I picked it up a couple of months ago and I was amazed at his conclusions. I'm curious because if it was so hard to devastate the land, then why do all of the ancient author's mention ravaging? Seems to me that agricultural devastation was done more to entice the enemy to fight, than to ruin the food supply? I wonder why the Spartans kept coming back year after year if the Athenians never took the bait?
Anyway, thanks for all your comments!
A couple of thoughts: first, the Spartans probably figured they only needed one big battlefield triumph to end the war, and with the vagaries of Athenian democracy, perhaps they thought that sooner or later some Athenian politician would want to charge out against the Spartan army.
Second, Sparta was a land power, and armies do what they are good at and used to - inWW I, the conventional wisdom was to breakthrough with more men and more artillery; it took enormous casualties and some unconventional thinking to come up with tanks or the stosstruppen. Eventually, the Spartans (and their allies) did take to the seas and attack Athens' jugular; but it took a lot of struggle to get that kind of radical plan into their heads.
Felix Wang
