Study tour notes for Marathon, Attica

Marathon.

What can anyone here tell me about Marathon? (Athenians and Plataians defeated Persians here in 490 BC, the Spartans arrived too late to fight, the story of the runner who expired upon reaching Athens probably an invention since it's not mentioned by any contemporary or near-contemporary.)

The plain of Marathon lies on a broad bay with long sandy beaches, perfect for landing an ancient invasion force. The water here is shallow. In the north the Kynosoura (dog's tail) peninsula bounds the bay, where the remains of fortification walls have been identified: the hills of the Pentelikon border the plain in the west. The land has changed much here since antiquity: where once there were marshes, now there are well-drained plains.

This is what Herodotos has to say about the battle - although the scholarly consensus on Herodotos' account is that he leaves much to be desired as a war correspondent.

"112. The lines were drawn up, and the sacrifices were favorable; so the Athenians were permitted to charge, and they advanced on the Persians at a run. There was not less than eight stades in the no man's-land between the two armies. The Persians, seeing them coming at a run, made ready to receive them; but they believed that the Athenians were possessed by some very desperate madness, seeing their small numbers and their running to meet their enemies without support of cavalry or archers. That was what the barbarians thought; but the Athenians, when they came to hand-to-hand fighting, fought right worthily. They were the first Greeks we know of to charge their enemy at a run and the first to face the sight of the Median dress and the men who wore it. For till then the Greeks were terrified even to hear the names of the Medes.

113. The fight at Marathon went on for a long time, and in the center the barbarians won, where the Persians themselves and the Sacae were stationed. At this point they won, and broke the Greeks, and pursued them inland. But on each wing the Athenians and the Plataeans were victorious, and, as they conquered, they let flee the part of the barbarian army they had routed, and, joining their two wings together, they fought the Persians who had broken their center; and then the Athenians won the day. As the Persians fled, the Greeks followed them, hacking at them, until they came to the sea. Then the Greeks called for fire and laid hold of the ships.

114. At this point of the struggle the polemarch [Callimachus] was killed, having proved himself a good man and true, and, of the generals, there died Stesilaus, son of Thrasylaus. And Cynegirus, the son of Euphorion, gripped with his hand the poop of one of the ships and had his hand chopped off with an axe and so died, and many renowned Athenians also.

115. In this fashion the Athenians captured seven of the ships. With the rest of the fleet, the barbarians, backing water, and taking from the island where they had left them the slaves from Eretria, rounded Cape Sunium, because they wished to get to Athens before the Athenians could reach it. There was a slander prevalent in Athens that they got this idea from a contrivance of the Alcmaeonidae, in accord with a covenant they had made with the Persians, showed a signal, the holding-up of a shield, for those barbarians who were on shipboard.

116. They rounded Sunium, all right; but the Athenians, rushing with all speed to defend their city, reached it first, before the barbarians came, and encamped, moving from one sanctuary of Heracles – the one at Marathon – to another, the one at Cynosarges. The barbarians anchored off Phalerum – for in those days that was the harbor of Athens – and, after riding at anchor there for a while, they sailed back, off to Asia.

117. In this battle of Marathon there died, of the barbarians, about six thousand four hundred men, and, of the Athenians, one hundred and ninety-two. Those were the numbers of the fallen on both sides."

The victory of the Athenians over the Persians here played a key role in establishing Athens' position as one of the, if not the premier poleis in Classical Greece. This is what we actually understand of the battle: The Athenians held the centre and the right wing, while the Plataians anchored the left wing. The Persians, deceived by a feigned retreat of the centre of the Athenian line, were drawn out of position and flanked by the wings of the Greek line. Surprised by the speed and force of the counterattack, they broke and ran for their ships, beached in the north of the bay. We should not be surprised that a numerically inferior force overcame a larger one: throughout history, the feigned retreat followed by a rapid counterattack has been frequently successful in breaking the momentum and the spirit of an unwary attacker.

After the battle, the fallen Greeks were buried in two tumuli. The 192 Athenians were buried together with mortuary gifts in a tumulus close to where the battle-lines were joined, while the Plataians were buried further west, at the point where they anchored the left wing of the battle-line. (An aside here: the right wing on the battle field is the place of honour and greater danger, because the opposing line has a tendency to sidle left if not rigidly dressed. Why left? Because the sharp pointy things are carried in the right hand of the opposite line, and sensible people prefer not walking into them. So the weight of the enemy attack often lands on the right wing.)

Who wants to tell me about hoplite warfare? No one? Okay, go look up the works of Phillip De Souza. UCD folks, you should be familiar with him. Stand up for the honour of your college and tell me who aren't remembered at Marathon.

Right. Light troops. Lightly armoured skirmishers. Anyone who didn't wear bronze armour. You know why, right? They weren't citizens, or if they were, they weren't part of the hoplite class. They might have been here, too, but if you ain't rich, you ain't nothing.

The Plataian grave mound lies on the road to the Museum. Both grave mounds have been excavated, and the mortuary offerings mostly consisted of weapons and pottery. The Athenian mound had marble stelai on it with the names of the fallen: the stele there at present is a modern imitation of a grave stele found in Athens dating from 510 BC.

The Greeks set up a trophy, a tropaion (turning-point) at the place where the enemy broke and ran. Or as close to it as they could guess, anyway. The remains of the Marathon tropaion are built into a medieval tower, which stood roughly in the middle of the plain, by the church of Panaghia Mesosporitissa (today off the road to Rhamnous).

The Athenian grave-mound at Marathon is not one of the most fascinating pieces of architecture ever. But it is not simple in its significance. It looks forward to the citizen-centred Athenian democracy of Perikles, and at the same time, back to the elite aristocratic ethos of the Archaic period. It commemorates a battle and a burial place, and in later times was a focus for hero-cult. But it is, no less than monuments to the dead of the World Wars, the Cenotaph in London, the Washington monument, a political monument, intimately connected with Athenian self-image. As a hero-cult, it also partook of the elements of ancestor-cult and of tomb cult: the dead of Marathon - and indeed the living: it is said of the tragedian Aeschylus that he would have no other memorial inscribed on his grave-marker than the fact he served at Marathon, and the veterans of Marathon, while they lived, were objects of an extraordinary amount of respect as a class - became the beau ideal of the Athenian polis: they fought for self-determination, eleutheria, the virtues of the new democracy against the tyrannical, barbarous Persian enemy. They beat the dirty foreigner, essentially.

And from at least the 1st century BC they received heroic honours and the attendant offerings. We may see the increased attention to the heroising of the Marathon dead as a response to Athenian national trauma: in 86BC, the Roman general Sulla sacked the city, and the streets, as I told you yesterday in the Kerameikos, ran red with blood.

If you want to know more about the tombs themselves and their relationship with hero cult, I direct your attention to James Whitley's 1994 article in the American Journal of Archaeology, available on JSTOR: "The Monuments That Stood Before Marathon: Tomb Cult and Hero Cult in Archaic Attica."

But before we shuffle along to the museum exhibits, and thence to Gla and Osios Loukos, let's talk a little bit about the memory of Marathon. Anyone want to share their thoughts on that?

And please don't get Marathon confused with Thermopylae and the battle at Plataia. Those happen ten years later, in 480/479. This is the Persian emperor Darius, not Xerxes.

But Marathon is, in memory, intimately connected with those events. Its 2500-year anniversary occurred in 2010, and there was much analysing and talking and commemorating. Marathon, like Salamis, like Thermopylae, like the last days of Constantinople and the burly, moustachioed rebels of the Greek War of Independence and the fall of Mesolonghi, is part of the national self-image, the national myth of Greece. "We few, we lucky few, we band of brothers," turned back the attack of the evil empire. It is impressed into the public consciousness as a clash between the rational democratic Greek west and the superstitious, tyrannical, cruel Persian east - certainly until the latter half of the 20th century, it was consistently analysed even by scholars and academics in those terms. The Greeks won, and SO THE WEST WAS ENLIGHTENED...

That's a very rosy view of the Greeks and a very biased view of the Persians, so bear in mind, when you come across Grand Simple Historical Narratives like this, that the reality's much more complicated, and much less black-and-white. Robert Graves has a poem which probably represents the view from the Persian side of things. It's called "The Persian Version."

Truth-loving Persians do not dwell upon
The trivial skirmish fought near Marathon.
As for the Greek theatrical tradition
Which represents that summer's expedition
Not as a mere reconnaisance in force
By three brigades of foot and one of horse
(Their left flank covered by some obsolete
Light craft detached from the main Persian fleet)
But as a grandiose, ill-starred attempt
To conquer Greece - they treat it with contempt;
And only incidentally refute
Major Greek claims, by stressing what repute
The Persian monarch and the Persian nation
Won by this salutary demonstration:
Despite a strong defence and adverse weather
All arms combined magnificently together.

Edited Aug 2, 2012

Study tour notes for Messene, Peleponnese

Messene: a potted history

The early history of the area known as Messene or Messenia is obscure. A Linear B tablet from Mycenaean Pylos refers to an area called Mezana, and it's not too great a stretch to believe that it refers to the plain overlooked by the inaccessible Mt. Ithome. But since the history of Messenia down to 371 BC is a history of struggling with and mostly losing to their Spartan neighbours. The First Messenian War took place in the 8th century BC. The Spartans won, though according to Tyrtaeus it took them 19 years. The Messenians were made helots and perioikoi (dwellers-about) to the Spartans. When the Argives beat the Spartans in 669 BC, the Messenians rebelled. This was the Second Messenians War, and lasted about 12 years, after which the Messenians were no longer perioikoi, but entirely helots.

The helots: (Εἵλωτες / Heílôtes) were an unfree population group that formed the main population of Laconia and the whole of Messenia. Their exact status was already disputed in antiquity: according to Critias, they were "especially slaves" whereas to Pollux, they occupied a status "between free men and slaves". Tied to the land, they worked in agriculture as a majority and economically supported the Spartan citizens. They were ritually mistreated, humiliated and even slaughtered: every autumn, during the Crypteia, they could be killed by a Spartan citizen without fear of repercussion

The Third Messenian War took place in the middle of the 5th century BC, and because of an earthquake which damaged Sparta, the Spartans were a bit worried. They even asked the Athenians for help - but for fear the Athenians would side with the helots, sent them home in a hurry. After ten years, the Spartans won a victory and expelled the rebel Messenians (who were only a few holdouts), first to Naupactos, and then during the Pelepponnesian War, from Greece entirely.

Fast forward a century or so, and the Thebans have beaten the socks off the Spartans at the Battle of Leuctra. (The Thebans then became the chief part of the Boeotian League.) After they and the Arcadians beat the Spartans again, the allies in the League decided to deprive Sparta of a large part of her territory. But they wanted to make it a symbolic, as well as physical deprivation, so under the aegis of the Theban general, Epaminondas, they restored and re-organised the polis of Messenia, founding its capital, Messene, here on this spot in the winter of 369 BC.

However, there are some traces of Geometric and Archaic occupation on this site, and some clay votives dating to the Archaic period suggest that there was an existing cult of Asklepios here prior to the foundation of the city. On the mountain top there was a sanctuary of Zeus.

This was most likely the site of the last stand by the Messenians who revolted against the Spartans in the Third Messenian War. Siting the city here after the battle of Leuctra was probably due to its association with Messenian heritage. In addition, it's a naturally defensible site: the city proper lies in a hollow between three hills, but the acropolis is to the north on Mt Ithome.

The city was built in local limestone on a grid system. Its 4th century fortifications feature a large encircling wall and with a system of towers, which at the time was an innovative development.

In 214 BC the Macedonian general Demetrios of Pharos attacked the city. The said general was killed in the siege. Later Nabis, tyrant of Sparta in 202BC, made an attempt. It was taken by the Achaean League in 182 BC, and finally came under Roman rule in 146 BC. At this point it became an important administrative and economic centre. Occupation continued on the site until at least the 5th century CE. There is some evidence of a later church.

SITE

Military Architecture

The city walls are 9km in length, featuring at least four gateways. They stretch between the two peaks of Ithome and Eua. They was all built in one phase entirely of stone, and encompass a large internal area - perhaps to allow for the continued growing of food during a siege, a revolutionary approach to a new city. Innovations were incorporated into the defences: a double doorway, the towers for catapults, etc. The walls are cut blocks, unmortared, coursed with a rubble core up to 2.5m thick. The towers every 30-90m (about 30 total) were to permit the use of catapults.

The Gate

The Arcadian gate: features a circular gateway with two doorways. The internal door is a double doorway. Pausanias remarks on there being a staute of Hermes in the gateway.

Outside the gate lie two mausolea, one dating from the 1st century BC and one from the 2nd century AD. We possess no information about their owners.


Theatre

The theatre was one of two at the site. The other is an odeion in the Asklepion, presently unexcavated. It was used, in addition to its dramatic functions, for political meetings. Philip V of Macdeon and Aratos the Sykionian met here in 214 BC, during one of the Macedonian Wars with Rome, and an inscription records a meeting here in the 1st century BC relating to unpaid taxes owing to Rome. Unsurprisingly, the style of construction is similar to the fortification walls.

Fountain House of Arsinoe

Thus called due to its location beside a spring sacred to Arsinoe, daughter of the mythical King Leukippos of Messene, and mother of Asklepios (in one rendition of the story), It is mentioned by Pausanias, and its initial form had a Doric colonnade. It was repaired in the 1st century CE, and later in the 4th century CE, at which time the Doric colonnade was removed.

The Agora is largely unexcavated, but some architectural and sculpted fragments found in the vicinity are believed to belong to temples of Zeus, Poseidon and Aphrodite. The Doric stoa (90m long) facing the agora was begun in the 3rd century CE but never finished. Possibly due to other trouble in Greece around this time - remember, the Herulians invaded Athens in 267 CE.

The Asklepieion

The Asklepieion at Messene is a complex of several buildings. There are 140 bases for bronze statues bases of prominent locals. The interesting thing about the Asklepieion at Messene is that it appears to have been a wholly civic cult, with very little connection to healing cult, as in Asklepieia elsewhere.

The Asklepion proper has four stoas facing each other, dated to about 215-00 BC. The column capitals are Corinthian and feature a winged Nike. The frieze was decorated with bull skulls and garlands. They create a courtyard which housed the temple. A second row of columns divided these stoas internally.

It is important to remember that this was a planned city. What you're seeing is a purpose-built city centre with public and religious buildings. Unlike other cities, this was no organic accretion: like the Cylons of Battlestar Galactica, they had a plan.

Unlike the Cylons, it seems to have actually made sense.

The North Side featured a monumental staircase leading from the courtyard. Here was a Sebasteion or Caesareum, a temple of the Roman imperial cult. Prior to the Roman times, this structure had been used for dining rooms during festivals.

The West Side possessed a large temple to Artemis, located northwest of the complex, replaced by a later shrine to Artemis (Artemision). Debate continues over the cult appellation of this Artemis - Orthia (upright), or Phosphorous (light bringer)? The shrine featured a colossal statue, a cultic table with lions' feet, and attendant statues, all sculpted by Damophon, a local sculptor. A JSTOR search on Damophon of Messene will bring you much of interest.

Outside this temple, now missing, was a pillar.

The structure beside the Artemision housed a shrine to Herakles.

A room with a curved base housed a shrine to nine muses, sculpted by local sculptor Damophon. We remain uncertain of the identification of other rooms in this area. Most likely they were shrines or cult buildings.

Temple

Although it is called the Asklepieion, Pausanias mentions that several deities were worshipped here. This was in fact a not uncommon practice in ancient Greek temples: you have seen an example of synnaoi theoi, temple-sharing gods, at the Erechtheum on the Athenian acropolis. Asklepios, Hygieia, Asklepios's daughter and often synnaia thea with him, and the mythical queen, Messene, from whom Messenia gets its name, are among the possibilities for the synnaoi theoi here.

The temple is fairly typical, oriented east-west with 6 and 12 Doric columns on its stylobate. Mostly made of local limestone but the colonnade uses sandstone, also used in the foundation. The antydon was screened by a wall, but featured a gold covered statue of the goddess Messene. The altar sat in front of the pronaos (porch) of the temple.

East Side

The entrance, the Propylon, is on the east side, aligned with the temple. Here too was the ekklesiasterio or pdeion, used for musical and theatrical performances during festivals. Note, if you please, the tiled floor in plain coloured squares.

Moving along, we come to the Boulouterion (or Synedrion or council chamber) with a bench on three sides where 76 elders oversaw the running of the temple complex - but not the city, don't be confused by the name! Temple only. Beside this, in the SE corner, was a room which acted as an archive.

South Side

South of the temple complex is a Hellenistic bath complex,with drainage and water system. It also features an apartment for a priest, Roman in date.

Two rectangular tombs from the 3rd century BC are located east of the baths, perhaps for a public figure. Some suggest one is for Damophon. A column dedicated to him from seven cities adds support to this claim but it would have been unusual.

Further on lies a posited sanctuary to Demeter with statues of Dioskouroi west of the Asklepieion. The building is in poor condition, and although it is mentioned by Pausanias, its identification with Demeter is not secure. Some plaques found in the Sebasteion are dedicated to the Dioskouroi.

The Stadium Area

Further south is a stadium. Only part of it has been excavated. It was framed by three Doric stoas, with a double stoa to the north. The stadium is part of the same complex as the gymnasium. Construction and upkeep was paid for by local Messenians, as we know from the inscriptions

The road from the Asklepion to the stadium joins the western stoa at a roofed propylon with a dedicatory inscription. The western stoa does not follow the entire length of the stadium. This stoa has in addition statue bases belonging to statues of gymnasium officials. It also featured a sanctuary to Herakles and Hermes.

The eastern stoa has collapsed. In front was a monument to Messenians dead in battle, with representations of shields, perhaps in an attempt to associate training with military activity. The eastern side of the stadium features seats for judges, priests and dignitaries.

Further south a building with a Doric facade has been termed an Heroon or mausoleum dated to the 1st century CE and is associated with a wealthy Messenian family.

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Delphi is next up. At least I am already vaguely familiar with Delphi. Messene? New to me. It will be my first visit. (Don't tell anyone.)

Books 2012: So much to do! So little time! Send help!

I was going to try get my tour notes for Delphi knocked off the list today, but I begin to think discretion may be the better part of valour. So I will instead get my booklog caught up.


Books 2012: 133-135


133. Ari Marmell, Thief's Covenant. Prometheus Books, 2012.

A slight but nonetheless extremely engaging fantasy novel, marketed as Young Adult. I am delighted at reasonably good fantasy that falls under thieves or spies do politics, and Thief's Covenant, while a bit melodramatic and overfond of Killing Off Characters, fits very pleasantly into the subgenre.

I am not entirely convinced at the resolution, but I'll be looking out for the next one.


134. Madeleine E. Robins, The Sleeping Partner. Plus One Press, 2011.

The third Miss Sarah Tolerance novel. Like both its predecessors, this is an immensely appealing book, with a reasonably well-constructed mystery: Miss Tolerance does seem a little slow on the uptake about other possibilities than the one presented to her by her employer, but it is nonetheless an entertaining ride. Yet again, Robins demonstrates a penetrating sympathy for the women of her slightly-alternate-history Regency London, and particularly for the hypocrisies of the men around them.

Highly recommended.


nonfiction

135. Margaret Cavendish, the Duchess of Newcastle, The Blazing World and Other Writings. Penguin Classics, London & New York, 1994. Edited by Kate Lilley.

The 17th century gives us the inimitable Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle. A prolific writer on any number of topics - including science, philosophy, mathematics and fiction. The Blazing World collects her utopia, The Blazing World, and two of her other fictions. It is... interesting.

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And I am so tired. So tired! I went for a stroll this morning in the brilliant sun on the beach at low tide, went for a dip in the sea at high tide, and (apart from talking to the parent) spent the rest of the day seated, writing those notes. It should not be possible to be so tired.