Megalopolis 331 BC

[Ghostmojo]

I have to admit to knowing little about this battle other than the famed death of Agis III.

I've read some of the ancient accounts but wonder if anybody can add anything to my knowledge of this massive but doomed uprising against Makedon.

[hoplite14gr]

Being crsushed at Issos Dareios thought to sent the survivng Greek mercenaries to start an uprisng in the Greek mainland to force the withdrowal of Alex.

With Phoinician ships they landed in Sparta. With their aid the Agis III proclaimed "end of Macedonian opresssion" because the spartans would overthroe the yoke.

Antipater settled tense affairs in the Macedonian border ans leading an army that included Thracians Illyrians even Celts(????) to provide cavalry and cover the phlanks of his phalanx mrache rapidly to Peloponissos.

with inferior cavlary and unable to face the pikes with spearmen, Agis was crushed and died fighting to avoid capture.

When Alexander heard the news after taking Tyros he said that he idnd know that a fight "between rats and frogs" had taken place.
He was making a joke on the poem VATRAXHOMYOIOMACHIA attributed to homer by some.

Kind regards

[Zenodoros]

I thought it was a battle between "mice", but if "rats and frogs" is indeed the right translation, I prefer it. :lol:

[PMBardunias]

This battle has often been dismissed the same way Alexander did, but it was a real challenge to Alexander's security. The Persians had sent money to Agis the remnants of their navy. They took over Crete as a naval base and then much of the peloponnese. They met a Macedonian general in battle, Corrhagus, and defeated him- so it was not simply a question of sarissa-vs-dory in deciding battle. The war lasted almost a year, long enough that Demosthenes was critisized for not Joining it.

The battle, like Sellasia, was not a foregone conclusion, moreso because Alex was sucking men from Macedon. It is only a minor battle because they won, had the macedonians lost we'd be comparing Alexander III's invasion to that of Agiselaos II.

[Johnny Shumate]

Paul,
Where can we read the details about this battle? Diodorus..?
Thanks

[hoplite14gr]

The source more probably are (Arrian, ii. 13 ; Diod. xvi. 63, 68, xvii. 62; Aesch. c. Ctesipli. p. 77; Curt. vi. 1; Justin,xii. 1.)

We don't know what troops Corrhagus had at his disposal.
Most probably garrison troops which most likely mean peltast mercenaries.
Not a nice match up against massed spearmen.
It is a possibility that Corrhagus might have been lousy in command.

We also do not know the exact composition of Antipater's army.
But he could have raised enough pikemen to punch through.

Kind regards

[PMBardunias]

My information comes from a few papers by Bosworth and Justin's epitome.


"After the departure of Alexander from Macedonia, almost all Greece, as if to take advantage of the opportunity for recovering their liberty, had risen in arms, yielding, in that respect, to the influence of the Lacedaemonians, who alone had rejected peace from Philip and Alexander, and had scorned the terms on which it was offered. The leader in this insurrection was Agis, king of the Lacedaemonians, but Antipater, assembling an army, suppressed the commotion in its infancy. The slaughter, however, was great on both sides; for king Agis, when he saw his men taking to flight, dismissed his guards, and, that he might seem inferior to Alexander in fortune only, not in valour, made such a havoc among the enemy, that he sometimes drove whole troops before him. At last, overpowered by numbers, he fell superior to all in glory. "

Curtius rufus called it something like the most viscious battle of its day, between the two most warlike nations. He says that the losses were high- something like 5,000 and 3,000, way high for the victors, and almost all the Macedonians wounded.

A large part of the Spartan forces contained the remnants of the Greek Mercs from Persian service, so they had already faced Alexander. Even with this they were outnumber almost 2 to one by Antipater. The Spartans were supposedly winning at first, then born down by Antipater's numbers, but as this seems to be almost a literary motif with Spartan losses who knows about it's accuracy.

As to Corrhagus, I don't know what he commanded, but would he have come down from Acrocorinth and faced Agis in battle with only peltasts?

Paul