Photo cover: The mid-7th century BC Chigi Vase depicts ‘hoplites’ (heavy infantry) carrying spears and large round shields (hoplons).

Before the Battle of Amphipolis, the Spartan general Brasidas delivered a speech to his soldiers, about 2.000 hoplites and 300 cavalry, in which he said, among other things:

“Men of Peloponnese, it is enough simply to remind you that we come from a country that is our homeland, which has always been free thanks to the courage of its men, and that you are going to fight, Dorians against Ionians, whom you are accustomed to defeating. (…) I suppose that the enemy has ascended the hill not because he expects how we are likely to appear to attack him, but because he underestimates our strength and therefore, preoccupied with looking right and left, he follows no strategy and does not take us into account.

Yet most of the time, success in war comes to those who clearly discern such mistakes of the enemy and simultaneously, by calculating their available means, make their attack not so openly, but mainly exploiting the prevailing circumstances. And those strategic maneuvers bring the greatest glory, through which one manages to deceive the enemy more and benefit his own friends more. (…) Because the reinforcements that arrive as the battle progresses cause the enemy more fear than the enemy force against which he is already fighting. Show yourself as brave man (to Clearchus), as befits Spartans, and you allies follow with courage, always keeping in mind that there are three virtues of a good soldier: determination, high sense of honor, and discipline. (…) As for me, I will prove that I am better at implementing my own advice than urging others to do so.”

His positions were fully justified: seeing subsequently the movements of the 2.500 enemies (of which 1.500 were Athenians and the rest allies) and considering the opportunity appropriate, he said, “These people do not intend to resist, as is clearly shown by the movement of their spears and their heads. People who intend to resist those who attack do not move in this way. Open the gates which i ordered and let’s attack them with courage and without losing a minute.” The Athenians, astonished and in disorder, ran away, and simultaneously with Clearchus’ move, they withdrew leaving 600 dead behind, while the Spartans and their allies 8 – according to Thucydides. Among them, however, were both the architect of the Spartan victory, Brasidas, and his opponent, Cleon.

Brasidas was buried in Amphipolis with great honors, the entire army armed in the procession, and at public expense. The Amphipolitans began to regard him as a hero, instituting games and yearly offerings in his honour. They also made him the city’s founder and dedicated it to him, pulling down the buildings which Hagnon the Athenian general had erected and destroying any memorials which might have remained to future time of his foundation.

The significance of this battle is evident from the fact that after it, the two major adversaries, Sparta and Athens, entered into a peace agreement known as the “Peace of Nicias.” However, it proved short-lived and would be merely a brief interlude in the exceptionally bloody Peloponnesian War.

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Book.5, 6.1-14.4 (Another text, of a case study in Political Realism of Thucydides here )