Читать книгу A Companion to Greek Warfare - Группа авторов - Страница 25

Sparta’s two Messenian Wars (c. 700/690–680/670 and 640/630–600),⁵⁷ fought in a developed phalanx tactic as reported by Tyrtaeus (fr. 11 Gerber),⁵⁸ resulted in a state of heiloteia of the central Messenian Stenyklaros-Pamisos plain (Tyrt. fr. 5f. Gerber); the historical events are completely superseded by myths.⁵⁹ The same applies for Sparta’s wars against Argos for the control of the intermediate region of the Thyreatis. The final engagement perhaps belongs to the middle of the sixth century. Herodotus (1.82) adopts a strongly reworked tradition: Spartans and Argives had allegedly limited their phalanx to 300 hoplites each—as many served in the guards of the Spartan kings, e.g. at the Thermopylae; but the chivalrous arrangement failed and an ordinary battle ensued, with a Spartan victory.⁶⁰

Against Arcadian Tegea, Sparta’s attack failed in the middle of the sixth century. The polis transferred her activities to the diplomatic field, by constituting a system of unequal bilateral alliances (“Peloponnesian League”) to secure her military supremacy.⁶¹ Also the tradition on Tegea in Herodotus (1.66ff.),⁶² written down after a longer process of oral tradition,⁶³ has undergone transformation into myth.