Dawson notes how Aristotle regarded Plato’s ultimate ideal of an un - walled city was ultimately un-realistic, but still thought it was dishonourable to stay within the city walls when an enemy force lay in wait outside the city walls (Aristotle, Politics: 7. 11, 1330, cited by Dawson, 1996: 105). This goes again to show the change in attitude to warfare by writers like Aineias where they didn’t hold it in some political ideal, but instead as a pragmatic, do – what – it – takes approach to battle.
A more successful way to gauge if Aineias shows any political bias would be to compare him with other Greek 4th century BC writers (Whitehead, 2001: 32). The Old Oligarch’s writings on the Athenian constitution demonstrate a lofty approach to the Athenians who have decided that it is right for the people to have more than the rich, because the poor man the ships (Old Oligarch, Constitution of the Athenians :1.2). Xenophon, Aineias’ contemporary who wrote about capturing cities in Hellenica (Xenophon, Hellenica, 3.1.7), gave a good indication as to his political views when he wrote about the ‘Constitution of the Lacedaimonians’ and how he admired their old aristocratic ideals (Xenophon, Const. Lac.: 14.1). Aristotle was another who openly displayed his political ideals in ‘Politics’. He believed that democracy was the safest form of constitution (Aristotle, Politics: [1302a][1]).
Whitehead chooses to focus on a particular word which appears throughout Aineias’ text: Homonia – literally of one mind, which refers as to how the polis should be during times of strife (Whitehead, 2001:28 - 9). For Whitehead, this meant the imposing of Martial law as the most important factor in maintaining security within the polis (Whitehead, 2001:26, Whitehead, 1990; 268). In Aineias’ work, it does say that the announcement of martial law should scare the plotters from hatching their plans (Aineias the Tactician, How to Survive under Siege:10.3).
Whitehead’s other work ‘The Lakonian Key’ tells us of the oft ‘brutal’ but necessary extradition of xenoi – foreigners – from the city (Whitehead, 1990: 268). This would have certified that everyone was of ‘one mind’ and was taken as a precaution in case any of the resident aliens happened to be communicating with the enemy and it seems like a sensible precaution to take. Victor Hansen’s entry in the Journal of Military History concurs with this idea that every city state was paranoid and very suspicious of outsiders, so it seemed only natural that foreigners should be expelled as a matter of precaution (Hansen, 1999: 385). Aristotle also mentions in ‘Politics’ that some of the major causes of strife were fear and contempt of ‘aliens’ (Aristotle, Politics, [1302b][1]), so there is good reason to believe Whitehead’s view that foreigners were expelled as a necessary caution.
Perhaps the most salient point that we take from the reading is that more often than not, a city was captured from the inside rather than the outside because besieging a town was a massively expensive affair (Whitehead, 2001:25). This would appear to be supported by the text as Aineias talks just as much about preventing the city falling from the inside due to enemy collaboration than defending against siege engines and why he goes into such descriptive detail on how to stop secret messages being passed into the city (Schrader, 1991: 237 – 8). Whitehead also notes how Aineias places a lot of emphasis on the loyalty of those who are in authority (Aineias the Tactician, How to Survive under Siege: 22.4 – 10 and 16 – 17) as their potential corruption could spell disaster if invasion by stealth were to occur (Whitehead, 2001:26).
Xenophon’s writings on Cavalry command in his ‘Minor Works’ support Whitehead’s analysis that those in power were just as susceptible to corruption. Xenophon tells us how he believes that it would be in the state’s best interest to have cavalry commanders assisted by regiment colonels and to be overseen by a ‘council’ (Xenophon, Minor Works: Cavalry Commander; 1.8). Whitehead didn’t acknowledge this part of Xenophon in his comments about the text in his translation of ‘How to Survive Under Siege’ but if you wanted to enquire further into the loyalty of commanders, Xenophon’s writings show that even the most powerful could not be trusted in comparison with money – worrying gatekeepers.
Victor Hansen makes an interesting point about Aineias’ approach to the safeguarding of crops outside the city walls; that it was the state’s responsibility to make sure that the citizens had taken their crops into the city (Aineias the Tactician, How to Survive under Siege: 10, cited by Hansen, 1998: 106). However, as Hanson also notes, Xenophon explains in ‘Hipparchus’ that even a small contingent of cavalry could be used to collect up agricultural resources laying outside of the city walls (Hansen, 1998: 106). A further approach would be to ascertain why it was so necessary to bring in the crops when all the enemy would do is destroy them? Perhaps, as Parker discusses (Parker, 1995: 29), the nature of warfare adapted (due to military writers like Xenophon and Aineias (Parker, 1995: 29) to the effect that land acquisition and the occupation of it became an integral part of Greek warfare instead of the out – dated mode of crop destruction (Foxhall, in Rich and Shipley, 1993: 135).
To answer the original question, the reading of Aineias’ text changes little of my political viewpoint on Greece. Ancient Greece was always a hotbed of territorial, fiercely independent city states; some only a few miles away from each other. ‘How to Survive Under Siege’ was a purely practical work that dealt with harsh realities of city warfare and tried hard to create a politically neutral text. However, Whitehead’s research does tell us of disloyal commanders as well as wealthy guardsmen. He also focuses on Aineias’ obsession with Homonia, how he thought the expulsion of xenoi was crucial and how the state should encourage its citizens to bring their crops into the city.
Bibliography:
Ancient Authors:
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Aineias the Tactician. How to Survive under Siege, 2nd Ed., translated by D. Whitehead (Bristol Classics). London: Bristol Classical Press. 2001
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Aristotle. Politics, translated by E. Barker and R. F. Stalley (Oxford World’s Classics). Oxford/ New York: Oxford University Press. 1998
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Old Oligarch. Xenophon in Seven Volumes, 7, translated by E. C. Marchant (Loeb Classical Library). London: Heinemann/Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. 1925
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Xenophon. Hellenica, Books 1 – 2, translated by C. L. Brownson (Loeb Classical Library). London: Heinemann/Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. 1918
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Xenophon. Minor Works, translated by E. C. Marchant and G. W. Bowersock (Loeb Classical Library). London: Heinemann/Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. 1925
Modern Authors:
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Dawson, D. 1996. The Origins of Western Warfare: Militarism and Morality in the Ancient World. Colorado, U.S. & Oxford, U.K.: Perseus.
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Foxhall, L. 1993. Farming and Fighting in Ancient Greece. In J. Rich and G. Shipley (eds), War and Society in the Greek World (Leicester – Nottingham Studies in Ancient Society, 4), 134 – 146. London and New York: Routledge.
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Hansen, V. 1995. Genesis of the Infantry 600 – 350BC. In G. Parker (ed), Cambridge Illustrated History of Warfare, 12 – 31. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Hansen, V. 1998. Warfare and Agriculture in Classical Greece. Berkeley and Los Angeles, U.S. & London, U.K.: University of California Press.
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Hansen, V. 1999. The Status of Ancient Military History: Traditional Work, Recent Research and On – Going Controversies. Journal of Military History, vol. 63, 2: 379 – 413.
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Hudson – Williams, T. 1904. The authorship of the Greek military attributed to “Aeneas Tacticus”. American Journal of Philology, 25. 4: 390 – 405.
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McCartney, E.S. 1925. Review of Aeneas Tacticus; Aclepiodotus; Onasander. Classical Philology, vol. 20, 2: 183 – 185.
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Randsborg, K. 1999. Into the Iron Age: a discourse on war and society. In J. Carman and A. Harding (eds), Ancient Warfare: Archaeological Perspectives, 203 – 218. Wiltshire: Sutton.
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Schrader, C. R. 1991. Review of Aineias Taktikos’ ‘How to Survive under Siege’. Journal of Military History, vol. 55, 2: 237 – 238.
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Whitehead, D. 1990. The Lakonian Key. Classical Quarterly, New Series, vol. 40, 1: 267 – 268.
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Whitehead, D. 2001. How to Survive under Siege, 2nd Ed., translated by D. Whitehead (Bristol Classics). London: Bristol Classical Press.
