Siege of Sparta
Siege of Sparta | |||||||
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Part of Pyrrhus' invasion of the Peloponnese | |||||||
The Siege of Sparta by Pyrrhus François Topino-Lebrun | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Epirus |
Macedon | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Pyrrhus Ptolemy † |
Acrotatus II Ameinias the Phocian | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
27,000 men, 24 elephants |
2,000 Spartan Youths, Periokoi, and Helots 6,000–7,000 Spartan Women |
The siege of Sparta took place in 272 BC and was a battle fought between
Following his
After this failure, Pyrrhus ravaged the Spartan hinterland whilst fending off counter-attacks by the victorious Spartans. On the invitation of an Argive ally, Pyrrhus attempted to seize
Background
In 281 BC, at the request of the
These victories proved to be very costly to Pyrrhus and he diverted his attention to Sicily, where the Greek states on the island were appealing for his help against Carthage.[4] Despite defeating the Carthaginians and occupying most of the island, Pyrrhus' behaviour alienated him from his Greek allies and he was forced to abandon Sicily and return to the Italian mainland.[5] Pyrrhus attacked the rebuilt Roman army and after the inconclusive Battle of Beneventum, Pyrrhus returned to Epirus after leaving a garrison at Tarentum.[6]
The war in Italy had drained Pyrrhus' financial and military resources.
Prelude
Upon his seizure of the Macedonian throne, Pyrrhus was approached by a
Pyrrhus was receptive to Cleonymus' appeals to install him on the Spartan throne and agreed to assist him. To achieve this, the Epiriote King assembled an army numbering of 27,000 men. It consisted 25,000
Upon his arrival in the Peloponnese, Pyrrhus was welcomed in
Battle
First day
At the time of the invading army's entry into Laconia, Sparta was only lightly defended. The majority of the Spartan army had accompanied Areus on campaign in Crete, where the Lacedaimonians were supporting the polis of Gortyn.[20] As such, Sparta must have seemed like an easy target to Pyrrhus.[15] Arriving outside Sparta in the evening, Cleonymus advised Pyrrhus to attack immediately to take advantage of the dearth of defenders. Pyrrhus decided against launching an immediate offensive as he feared the destruction that would be wrought by his Gallic soldiers if they were to enter the city at night.[21] Anticipating no resistance, Pyrrhus ordered his army to make camp and prepared to enter Sparta in the morning.[22]
The appearance of the Epirote army before their city caught the Spartans unprepared. Despite the Lacedaimonian
When daybreak approached and the Epiriote army was preparing its attack, the Spartans assumed defensive positions behind their trench. They were encouraged by the women who had remained and by the sight of Chilonis, who had placed a halter around her neck, declared that she would commit suicide rather than return to Cleonymus if Pyrrhus captured the city.[25] The besiegers, led by Pyrrhus in person, attempted to storm the Spartan defences but were repulsed as they were unable to secure firm footing in the face of Spartan attacks, rendering the trench impassable.[26]
Seeking to circumvent this obstacle, Pyrrhus sent a force of 2,000 Gauls and some picked Chaonians under the commander of his son Ptolemy to go around the trench.[26] These troops found their path blocked by the wagons which the Lacedaimonians had sunken into the soil. The wagons were planted so deeply that they hindered not only the Epiriote assault but also Spartan efforts to repel the foray.[26] Eventually the Gauls managed to remove some of the wagons, giving them the opportunity to burst into the city. Acrotatus, seeing the danger, exploited a series of depressions in the terrain to lead a force of 300 men undetected against the Epiriote rear. This manoeuvre evoked panic amongst the Gauls who were compelled to abandon their attempt to enter the city and had to turn around to confront the attack to their rear.[26] After a hard fought battle, the Epiriote flanking group was pushed back into the trench with heavy casualties inflicted upon them. The Spartans, elated by Arcotatus' leadership, told him to withdraw from the battle and return to Chilonis so as to beget more children like him for Sparta.[26]
Second day
Pyrrhus failed to breach the Lacedaimonian defences and when night fell, he withdrew back to his camp. According to Plutarch, Pyrrhus received an
In the face of the renewed Epiriote offensive, the Spartans held their defences with vigour. Due to the lack of manpower, the
In response to the Spartan
Fighting retreat
Following this unsuccessful foray, Pyrrhus ordered his army to fall back. He hoped that the Spartans would now be willing to come to terms due to the heavy casualties they had suffered.
Bolstered by the fresh troops, the Spartans and their Macedonian allies prepared themselves for Pyrrhus' next assault against the trench. The presence of more adversaries intensified Pyrrhus' determination to capture the city and he ordered another attack on the trenches. He was unable to accomplish anything and suffered further losses. The failure of this attack convinced Pyrrhus about the futility of persevering with the siege and he decided to lift it and withdraw.[31]
Pyrrhus intended to spend the winter in Laconia, possibly with the purpose of launching a fresh attack on Sparta and sent his army to begin ravaging the surrounding countryside. At this point, Pyrrhus received an emissary from Aristeas, a prominent citizen of the major Peloponnesian polis of Argos, seeking his assistance to overthrow the regime of Aristippus, which was supportive of Antigonus and the Macedonians.
His retreating army were continuously harried by the Spartans under the command of Areus. By setting ambushes and occupying important positions along the Epiriote line of retreat, the Spartans were able to inflict significant casualties on Pyrrhus' rearguard of Gauls and Molossians.[32] In an attempt to counter the panic and crumbling morale of his rear which was engaging the Spartans, Pyrrhus sent his son Ptolemy to take command. By doing this, Pyrrhus' hope was that his son's presence would rally the rearguard and give him enough time to extricate the rest of his army from the narrow pass through which they were marching.[33] The battle intensified around Ptolemy's position and he was set upon by a picked Spartan band led by Evaclus. In the fight that ensued, Ptolemy was slain and his remaining troops being overwhelmed by the triumphant Spartans.[31] Upon hearing of his son's death and the disintegration of his rearguard, Pyrrhus charged the Spartans with his Molossian cavalry, killing Evaclus with his own hand before destroying the remainder of his picked Spartan troops. With the defeat of Evaclus' force, Pyrrhus was able to withdraw the rest of his army from Laconia.[34]
Aftermath
After their evacuation of Laconia, Pyrrhus directed his army towards Argos and upon learning that Antigonus was in the vicinity pitched his camp at
Pyrrhus' defeat in the Peloponnese led to the diminution of Epirus' power and the loss of its Macedonian and Thessalian conquests.[37] Antigonus capitalised on his Peloponnesian victory to wrest back control of Macedonia and become the preeminent power in Greece.[38] The establishment of Macedonian dominance led to a breakdown of the Spartan-Macedonian alliance. In a bid to further his own royal ambitions, Areus had Sparta join a coalition of Greek poleis and fought Macedon in the Chremonidean War.[39] The war ended in a crushing Spartan defeat with Antigonus defeating and killing his former ally Areus in a battle on the Isthmus of Corinth in 265 BC.[40] The defeat was so disastrous for Sparta that they would not rise to be a regional power until the reign of Cleomenes III thirty years later.[41]
In popular culture
- The siege of Sparta is available to play as one of the historical battles in the award-winning video game, Rome: Total War. The user must command the army of Pyrrhus as he attempts to capture Sparta.
- French painter François Topino-Lebrunpainted a work entitled Siège de Sparte par Pyrrhus (Siege of Sparta by Pyrrhus) in 1799–1800 depicting the battle.
Citations
- ^ Plutarch 1973, 13.
- ^ Fox 2006, p. 294.
- ^ a b Plutarch 1973, 21.
- ^ Plutarch 1973, 22; Fox 2006, p. 306.
- ^ Plutarch 1973, 22–23.
- ^ Fox 2006, p. 306-7.
- ^ a b c Green 1993, p. 143.
- ^ Plutarch 1973, 26; Green 1993, p. 143.
- ^ a b Hammond 1988, p. 263.
- ^ Plutarch 1973, 26; Hammond 1988, p. 263.
- ^ a b c Plutarch 1973, 26.
- ^ Plutarch 1973, 26; Pomeroy 2002, p. 75.
- ^ a b Plutarch 1973, 26; Wylie 1999, p. 311.
- ^ a b Hammond 1988, p. 264.
- ^ a b c d Cartledge & Spawforth 1989, 33.
- ^ a b Wylie 1999, p. 311.
- ^ Plutarch 1973, 26; Cross 2015, p. 85.
- ^ Plutarch 1973, 26; Green 1993, p. 144.
- ^ Cartledge & Spawforth 1989, 34.
- ^ Plutarch 1973, 27; Hammond 1988, p. 266.
- ^ Plutarch 1973, 27; Wylie 1999, p. 312.
- ^ a b Plutarch 1973, 27.
- ^ a b Plutarch 1973, 26; Pomeroy 2002, p. 16.
- ^ Pausanias 1918, 1.13.6.
- ^ Plutarch 1973, 27; Pomeroy 2002, p. 75.
- ^ a b c d e Plutarch 1973, 28.
- ^ a b c d e f Plutarch 1973, 29.
- ^ a b c d Plutarch 1973, 29; Wylie 1999, p. 312.
- ^ Plutarch 1973, 29; Hammond 1988, p. 265–6.
- ^ Plutarch 1973, 29; Hammond 1988, p. 266.
- ^ a b c d Plutarch 1973, 30; Hammond 1988, p. 266.
- ^ Plutarch 1973, 30; Wylie 1999, p. 312.
- ^ Plutarch 1973, 30.
- ^ Plutarch 1973, 31.
- ^ a b Plutarch 1973, 31; Hammond 1988, p. 266.
- ^ Plutarch 1973, 32; Green 1993, p. 144.
- ^ Hammond 1988, p. 265.
- ^ Green 1993, p. 144.
- ^ Green 1993, pp. 146–7.
- ^ Green 1993, p. 147.
- ^ Walbank 1984, p. 465.
Sources
Ancient
- Pausanias (1918). Description of Greece. Translated by Jones, W. H. S. New York: Harvard University Press.
- ISBN 0-14-044286-3.
Modern
- Cartledge, Paul; Spawforth, Antony (1989). Hellenistic and Roman Sparta: A Tale of two Cities. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-03290-3.
- Cross, Geoffrey (2015). Epirus. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107458673.
- Fox, Robert Lane (2006). The Classical World. Maryborough: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-103761-5.
- Green, Peter (1993). Alexander to Actium: The Historical Evolution of the Hellenistic Age. Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 0-500-01485-X.
- Hammond, N. G. L. (1988). A History of Macedonia: 336–167 BC. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198148151.
- Pomeroy, Sarah (2002). Spartan Women. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-415-03290-3.
- Walbank, F. W. (1984). The Cambridge Ancient History, Part 1: The Hellenistic World. Vol. VII. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23445-X.
- Wylie, Graham (1999). "Pyrrhus Πολεμιστής". Latomus. 58. II (2). Societe d'Etudes Latines de Bruxelles: 298–313. JSTOR 41538744.