This chapter focuses on the history of siege warfare in ancient Greece. The techniques of siege warfare began to develop once states such as Athens and Syracuse acquired the institutional, economic and logistical structures to prosecute sieges to their conclusion. In the fifth century, Athens became apparently the foremost exponent of siege warfare in the Aegean region, capable of removing Persian garrisons from bases across the Aegean and beyond, such as the strongly fortified Sestus and Eion. After the Peloponnesian War, the techniques and technology of siege warfare continued to develop and the fourth century saw the first systematic use by the Greeks of mechanised projectile launchers.

This chapter describes battlefield engagements in ancient Greece during the age of the hoplites. Many battles appear to have been fought on relatively level plains that allowed the deployment of the opposing armies. The nature of hoplite combat is controversial because most explanations have been based partly on evaluations of the individual manoeuvrability of the hoplite and the density of the phalanx, as well as debate about the nature of the ōthismos. After the battle, the victors are sometimes too exhausted and had taken too many casualties to follow up an enemy withdrawal. This chapter suggests that military engagements fought by the Greeks were often limited only by the practicalities of organising and motivating large groups of men to realise their capacity for destruction.

This chapter examines how the religious values of the ancient Greeks influenced their conduct of wars, campaigns and battles. It discusses how Greek communities prepared for and came to terms with war through their methods of communication with the divine and use of rituals and it asks what the Greeks believed was the contribution of their gods to war. This chapter explains that the Greeks believed their gods to have been actively involved in the mortal pursuits of warfare and combat, and the nature of Greek polytheism allowed for a bewildering fragmentation of the roles and responsibilities of war-gods. It also discusses the Greeks' pre- and post-battle rituals, their funerals and mourning and commemoration.

This chapter describes the makers of war or Greek warriors during the archaic period. During this period, Greek communities developed conceptions of citizenship expressing a range of communal duties, rights and privileges and they asserted their territorial integrity and boundaries against their neighbours through recourse to diplomacy, negotiation and war. The members of community armies were composed of citizens called hoplites who usually used bronze equipment. This chapter also discusses the role of citizens as phalanx-fighters and their employment as mercenaries.

This chapter discusses what can be discerned of the nature of Greek warfare in the Bronze and Iron Ages and analyzes what the Homeric poems have to tell us. It suggests that Mycenaean palace authorities appear to have possessed sufficiently centralised resources to supply at least some of their warriors with standard equipment and, by the thirteenth century, also appear to have been capable of organising some fighters into military units with, perhaps, distinct functions. This chapter explains that Homer's poem represented real social and military practices and his poems appears to have a distinctive and generally coherent character, where combat between large groups is dominated by brave fighters surging through the throngs of warriors to fight among the promachoi.

This chapter examines the nature of naval warfare in ancient Greece. It explains that concerted military action against enemy shipping by Greek communities does not appear to have been undertaken until the seventh century, according to Thucydides. It describes the preparations and outfitting for a major campaign and highlights the role of thalassocracy in providing economic strength and resources and in enabling a state to weather local crop conditions by importing from regions of plenty.

This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this volume, which is about developments in warfare in Greece from the Late Bronze Age to the end of the classical period. It explains that it was usually the citizens who both assembled to take the decision to march out and armed themselves for the undertaking when city-state like Athens and Sparta went to war. This volume considers the role of religion, the nature of the economy and the relationship between the individual and his or her community, before, during and after wars.

This chapter analyzes the impact of war on the individual and the community in ancient Greece. It suggests that for those who survived the personal brutality and trauma of combat, the social pressure could be intense but for those who succumbed to defeat, there was the real possibility of humiliation, enslavement or death. It suggests that war created and confirmed gender roles. It explains that though women may not usually have risked their lives on the battlefield, the consequences of the defeat of their men could fall upon them nonetheless.

This chapter examines the concept of war and peace in ancient Greece. It explains that the Greek word for war, polemos, often retained the physical resonance of fighting, combat or battle and that the Greeks thought of war as an activity that the gods themselves engaged in and approved of. The ancient Greeks invoked a range of justifications for their actions in order to persuade themselves and others to overlook any ties of kinship or any formal agreements that had been made with their erstwhile foes. Internal differences about whether violence was the right option, or even over the causes of conflict, were as common then as they are in today's societies.