The Lamian War : Freedom for the Greeks?

 

Pythagoras of Samos and some others of the ancient philosophers declared that the souls of men are immortal, and also that, in accordance with this doctrine, souls foreknow the future at that moment in death when they are departing from the bodies.  It seems that the poet Homer agreed with them, for he introduced Hector at the time of his decease foretelling to Achilles the death that was soon to come upon him.  Likewise it is reported that even in more recent times what we have described above has happened in the case of many men as they were coming to the end of life, and in particular on the occasion of the death of Alexander of Macedon. When he was quitting life in Babylon and at his last breath was asked by his friends to whom he was leaving the kingdom, he said, "To the best man; for I foresee that a great combat of my friends will be my funeral games." And this actually happened; for after the death of Alexander the foremost of his friends quarrelled about the primacy and joined in many great combats.

So begins Book 18 of the History of Diodorus Siculus, but as that book relates, even as Alexander's successors started to square off against each other they had to cope with revolts against Macedonian hegemony by Greeks both in the East and in the West.  Those in the East were the dissaffected Greeks whom Antipater, Alexander's regent in Macedon, had sent to Alexander as 'reinforcements' and Alexander had promptly settled in Bactria.  Diodorus says of them:

The Greeks who had been settled by Alexander in the upper satrapies, as they were called, although they longed for the Greek customs and manner of life and were cast away in the most distant part of the kingdom, yet submitted while the king was alive through fear; but when he was dead they rose in revolt. After they had taken counsel together and elected Philon the Aenianian as general, they raised a considerable force. They had more than twenty thousand foot soldiers and three thousand horse, all of whom had many times been tried in the contests of war and were distinguished for their courage.

They may be the subject of a future campaign but for the moment my thoughts are on the Greeks in the West where news of Alexander's death was the signal for a major revolt, led by Athens, attempting to throw off Macedonian domination of Greece.  Diodorus is our only significant source of information about this revolt and the detail is limited, but what there is provides ample scope for an intriguing campaign, pitting a large coalition of Greeks against various Macedonian generals on land and at sea.    My son has suggested that we have a go at this, so I am reviewing the troops I have available.

There is a Theban army consisting of HäT figures.  Thebes had been destroyed by Alexander in 335 BC but these could be used for the Boeotian forces that tried to prevent reinforcements from Athens joining the anti-Macedonian army as it assembled near Thermopylae, giving rise to the first engagement of the war.

There are plenty of hoplites to choose from : these being mostly Newline figures.

These are Zvezda figures - apart from the Linear A priests in the background

and there are some Newline Iphicritean Peltasts

Key players in the events of the war were Thessalian cavalry.  These are classical Newline figures

or perhaps I should be using these figures which are Zvezda Thessalian cavalry for Alexander's army (except for the command group who are out of place Newline Macedonians)

Diodorus hardly mentions light troops, except for some Persian bowmen and slingers accompanying Craterus' army, but it seems safe to assume that both sides were fairly well supplied with such troops.  Should these be included within the total numbers that Diodorus gives, or should we assume that the numbers he gives are for the hoplites and phalangites alone and the light troops need to be added to these figures?