Ancient Greeks at War: Warfare in the Classical World from Agamemnon to Alexander

CHAPTER 1

MINOANS, MYCENAEANS AND THE SEA PEOPLES

A small Minoan votive, double-headed axe brooch, in the style of a typical Minoan ceremonial weapon. Found in the Arkalochori Cave, Crete. (Wikimedia Commons)

This chapter focuses on some of the earliest civilizations in Europe and their respective military systems, starting with the Minoan culture that flourished on Crete and the islands of the Aegean Sea from 2,700 BC. These were joined from 1,650 BC by the Mycenaean culture in the Peloponnese and Attica on the Greek mainland. The Mycenaeans conquered the Minoans around 1,450 BC, they themselves then suffering a major societal failure around 1,250 BC in the context of the Late Bronze Age Collapse. This was the event that began the Greek Dark Age/Geometric period.

The downfall of the Mycenaeans caused widespread economic disruption across the eastern Mediterranean, the event a causal factor in the emergence of the Sea Peoples at this time. These tribes of maritime raiders attacked the coastal regions of Hittite Anatolia, the Hurrian Levantine coast and New Kingdom Egypt, inflicting widespread damage. They often settled where they were most successful, a prime example being the Peleset who, colonizing Gaza (most likely at the behest of the Egyptians to act as a buffer state) founded the Philistine Pentapolis there. This culture is considered here given its likely links to the Mycenaean collapse. It is also from the word Philistine that we get the name for this region today, Palestine.

This period in European history is also famous for being the setting for Homer’s semi-legendary Trojan War, this considered here also, with the chapter more broadly setting the scene for the advent of Dark Age/Geometric, Archaic and ultimately Classical Greece in the next chapter.

The Minoans

The Minoan Empire was a thalassocracy knitting together the numerous city-states on Crete and across the Aegean Sea. The Minoans did not speak an Indo-European language and so were not Greek, with their actual origins unknown.

Neolithic farming began on Crete around 3,000 BC, with the use of copper and then bronze swiftly following as their use spread around the Aegean. The first evidence of what later evolved into the Minoan culture dates to this time, with the vector of cultural transmission seemingly from Libya based on similarities in burial customs, art styles and dress. The Libyan tribes there were those that proved so troublesome to the pre-Dynastic and Old Kingdom Egyptians, as they lived in the vast swathes of semi-desert stretching westwards from the Nile Valley. The first two tribes referenced by the Egyptians were called the Tjehenu and the Tjemehu. The former were depicted as physically akin to the Egyptians and are thought to have moved westwards and away from their Nile Valley neighbours around the time of the unification by Narmer of Upper and Lower Egypt around 3,000 BC. However, the latter were depicted as being physically distinct and it is this group which some think may have had pre-existing links, or later developed them, with the early Minoans.

The first large cities in Minoan Crete emerged around 2,000 BC, in association with an increase in centrally controlled agriculture. At first sight this seems an unlikely development given Crete lacks any continental-scale rivers and associated extensive fertile land, but here the Minoans proved truly innovative, developing a highly successful system of intensive farming based on vines, olives and wheat. The first two grew well on the island’s rocky mountainsides, while the latter thrived on the fertile soils of the numerous small river valleys where it was increasingly the only crop grown there. Sheep were also kept in large flocks in the extensive mountain pastures for their wool.

Soon the Minoan cities were producing a surplus, with, for example, woolen textile goods being shipped southeast to Egypt and north to the Greek mainland, Aegean islands and western Anatolia. The development of improved maritime technology enabled this trade to grow in the early 2nd millennium BC and soon many of the Cretan cities were rich. Evidence of their far reach across the seas of the eastern Mediterranean can be found in Egyptian wall paintings created in a Minoan style, showing Cretans wearing their traditional kilts bearing gifts for the Egyptian king Thutmoses III. These wealthy city-states then expanded their power in their own localities, resulting in the creation of flourishing city-states featuring numerous smaller satellite cities and towns. Later, fine quality Minoan pottery and copper and bronze metalwork were added to a growing list of goods they exported.

A classic Minoan-style, two-horse chariot painted on a limestone sarcophagus, found in a tomb north east of the Minoan villa site at Hagia Triada. (Wikimedia Commons)

Minoan society was dominated by the huge palaces that formed the centre of each city. These are sometimes referred to as court buildings given they were all built in a similar design around a large central courtyard. The leading cities by 1,800 BC included Phaistos, Mallia, Khania, Zakro and Knossos. It is from Minos, the mythical king of the latter, that the name Minoan is derived. Nearly all of the cities also had easy access to the coast, reflecting the maritime nature of Minoan civilization. Writing at the end of the 5th century BC, the Athenian historian Thucydides shows this in detail, using Minos as his example, he saying (The History of the Peloponnesian War, 1.4).

Minos is the first to whom tradition ascribes the possession of a navy. He made himself master of a great part of what is now termed the Hellenic sea; he conquered the Cyclades, and was the first coloniser of most of them, expelling the Carians and appointing his own sons to govern in them. Lastly, it was he who, from a natural desire to protect his growing revenues, sought, as far as he was able, to clear the sea of pirates.

Knossos in particular has become synonymous with Minoan civilization. Located on the northern coast of Crete, with a fine harbor now beneath the Katsabas district of Heraklion (the modern capital of Crete), it had unrivalled access to the Bronze Age Aegean maritime trade routes. Knossos was first controversially excavated and interpreted by Sir Arthur Evans in the early 20th century AD, who rebuilt many of the buildings there as he imagined them to have been. While this has created a confusing situation regarding architectural interpretation, what is not in doubt is the vast wealth on display there in the archaeological data, with a wide range of high-quality jewellery, metalwork and pottery found in situ amid the ruins.

A Minoan bull’s head pottery rhyton (a conical container for fluids) dating to around 1,500 BC. (Wikimedia Commons)

A Minoan two-horse chariot in stylized form on a larnax (a type of small, enclosed coffin). (Wikimedia Commons)

The court palaces in each major Minoan city, for example at Knossos, reveal much about the highly organized nature of Minoan civilization. Each featured enormous storehouses for agricultural produce, including grain and oil. This indicates a high level of centralized control, allowing the rulers to gather the produce from the city-state populations as a tax, and then profiting from its export. The surplus also allowed the citystates to support a highly structured network of administrators, and an equally advanced military establishment. To facilitate this complex political system the Minoans used an as yet undeciphered writing system known to us as Linear A. Already in use by 2,600 BC, this utilized a script based on conjoined lines that were used to make hundreds of different signs. The writing system, mainly used for accounting, remained in use until 1,450 BC when the Minoan Empire fell to the Mycenaeans.

Warfare was endemic between the various Minoan city-states, though interestingly most cities lacked a defensive wall circuit. This indicates that control of the sea was the most important aspect of Minoan conflict, with frescos at some sites showing amphibious assaults from monoreme (single bank of oars) galleys equipped with rams. At one time or another one of the cities would rise to dominance, but around 1,700 BC the internecine warfare peaked with many of the palaces burnt to the ground. Most were soon rebuilt, though only Knossos regained anything like its former splendor. In short order this city-state seized control of the whole island and reduced the other Cretan city-states to vassal status. It is around this time that archaeologists believe Minoan culture reached a peak of artistic achievement, with fabulous wall paintings and pottery of the highest quality created. The latter included ceramics produced using the faience technique, imported from Egypt, which used an advanced glazing technique that proved so popular in Crete that it was soon being used for mosaic inlays and jewelry.

Then in 1,626 BC the palaces were again badly damaged, this time by the devastating eruption of the volcano on the Cyclades island of Santorini that sent enormous ash clouds as far east as Cyprus. The tsunami this created would have ravaged Minoan Crete, given the coastal location of most of its key cities and towns.

The ruins of a fine Minoan villa at Amnisos, destroyed in 1,450 BC as part of the wave of deliberate sacking events which are found across Crete at this time. (Wikimedia Commons)

However, the palaces were again soon rebuilt, and this time the regional devastation presented the resilient Minoans with the opportunity to become the overwhelmingly dominant cultural influence throughout the entire eastern Mediterranean. Though Minoan colonies had appeared from around 2,000 BC on islands such as Kythera on the south-eastern tip of the Peloponnese and on Santorini, new outpost settlements now appeared (by 1,500 BC at the latest) as far afield as Melos and Kea in the Cyclades, Rhodes in the Dodecanese, and to the south at the Egyptian city of Avaris on the Nile Delta. By this time, this huge Egyptian trading settlement and military garrison was the capital of Lower Egypt under the Hyksos Dynasty. The legend of Theseus, dating to this period, may also indicate that some of the contemporary settlements in the Peloponnese and Attica in mainland Greece may also have fallen under Minoan control around this time, at least as vassals. Theseus was the Greek mythological hero who became an early king of Athens, best known for events earlier in his life when he fought villains, slew Amazons and centaurs, and most famously killed the fearsome half-bull/half-man Minotaur of king Minos in its labyrinth beneath the royal palace at Knossos.

However, this newfound post-apocalyptic prosperity was to prove short lived. Around 1,450 BC nearly all of Crete’s prosperous cities and their satellite towns were destroyed in deliberate sacking events, with even the fine country houses of the regional elites destroyed, never to be reoccupied. Only at Knossos is there evidence of any degree of urban survival, and even here the art forms on display now feature a particularly militaristic leaning, drastically at odds with earlier Minoan styles. Further, and most tellingly, a new form of script appears. This has enabled archaeologists to clearly identify the origins of the arbiters of such wanton destruction, namely the Mycenaeans of mainland Greece.

Minoan armies were based around a chariotmounted nobility and dense phalanxes of spearmen. The first chariots appear on Crete and across the Aegean from around 1,600 BC. This technology was introduced after contact with the coastal regions around the eastern Mediterranean. They were initially direct copies of the light chariots used by the various Maryannu there (see detail on pages 30–31), though in Crete they gradually became heavier with a larger fighting platform. To help the horses pull this more substantial design an additional pole was added to the yoke pole, mounted horizontally with the first. It has been argued that this second pole actually went into the cab, dividing it into two fighting compartments.

A Minoan galley depicted on a larnax. The Minoans were arguably the world’s first great sea-going culture. (Wikimedia Commons)

The Origins of the Chariot

Given the importance of the chariot in the armies of the Minoans, Mycenaeans, Sea Peoples and Philistines, here I detail the origins of this most enigmatic form of Biblical-era military technology.

The well-travelled Hurrians were the vector of transfer of chariot technology into the Levant and eastern Mediterranean. These were a Bronze Age people from eastern Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia who spoke a Hurro-Urartian language. They proved highly successful traders and farmers and soon began to expand their cultural influence south and eastwards, eventually dominating an arc of fertile farmland from the Khabur river in modern Turkey (the largest perennial tributary of the Euphrates) to the Zagros Mountains in modern Iran. They benefited in particular from the Hittite conquest of the northerly Amorite city-states in Syria. In the early stage of their expansion the first known Hurrian kingdom was that which flourished from the 3rd millennium BC around the city of Urkesh (modern Tell Mozan) in the Taurus Mountains of northeastern Syria. These were allies of the Akkadian Empire in northern Mesopotamia from the time of the latter’s king Naram-Sin who ruled there from 2,254 BC to 2,218 BC. The Hurrians also migrated further south at this time and by 1,725 BC were in parts of northern Syria, for example at the city of Alalakh. From here the mixed Amorite-Hurrian kingdom of Yamkhad is recorded in Hittite records attacking the Hittite king Hattusilis I around 1,600 BC. Hurrian influence continued to spread southwards and eventually they replaced the Semitic-speaking Amorites as the dominant culture in Canaan. Across this region, culturally now known as Syro-Canaanite, they came to rule a patchwork of prosperous and highly successful city-states, some of which became the centre of wide-ranging empires. The most successful was the Kingdom of Mitanni. Others included the major coastal trading city of Ugarit and its hinterland in northern Syria, today on the outskirts of modern Latakia, this covered later in this chapter in the context of the savage predations of the Sea Peoples.

The original Hurrian homeland was well placed to control trade between the Central Asian Steppe and the Levant, this being one of the reasons for their success. It was in the former huge region that recent archaeological investigations have found the earliest-known chariots. These were in kurgan (burial mounds) excavated in the Sintasha-Petrovka region at the southern end of the Ural Mountains dated to between 2,100 and 1,800 BC. They have yielded the imprint of chariot wheels and other chariot-related grave goods showing a clear lineage with those of the later Levant. Such technology would have travelled south along the trade routes to the Mediterranean, first through the lands of the Hurrians and then being vectored from there south into Canaan and later Egypt, and west through the lands of the Hittites and ultimately on to the Balkans through western Anatolia and the Aegean.

The arrival of the chariot had a major societal impact in the Levant, with the introduction of a new class of chariot-mounted hereditary warrior nobility called the Maryannu. The name is first mentioned in the Amarna letters, a clay tablet administrative archive written between 1,360 BC and 1,332 BC by Egyptian scribes in this Upper Egyptian town who were corresponding with the northerly Egyptian outposts in Canaan and Syria. The word comprises the singular Sanskrit marya, meaning ‘young warrior’, with a Hurrian suffix. Though service as Maryannu differed in each individual state, such troops were usually hereditary landholders. There could also be more than one grade of service in the Maryannu, and to confuse matters not all Maryannu owned chariots, and not all charioteers were Maryannu. Based on evidence from the Mitanni empire, the term Maryannu only detailed the chariot owner who is often referenced as the driver, with the bowman and chariot groom (the latter known as a kizy in Hurrian) being separately assigned crewmembers.

The Hurrians were also known in the region as expert horsemen, over and above their introduction of the Maryannu system of chariot warfare. A Hurrian manual on this subject written by one Kikkuli was found at Hattusa written in Hittite cuneiform. It details that for both chariot and cavalry horses training began at one year old, though the former didn’t pull chariots until they were three years old. Those with the required skill would then be assigned to a chariot unit from the age of four, serving there until they were nine. Kikkuli’s manual indicates that the horses were fed on barley and were regularly exercised by being driven or ridden a prescribed distance daily.

The ultimate evolution of the Maryannu chariot. New Kingdom Egyptian chariots featuring the pharaoh Tutankhamen in action. (wikicommons)

The crew of these chariots differed substantially from their near-eastern counterparts. This was because instead of the fighting crewman being a bowman, here he was armed with a long thrusting spear. This could be used either like a lance, or once the warrior had deployed on foot a spear, indicating that the aristocratic chariot owner was this time the fighting crewman rather than the driver as was often the case with the Maryannu. The earlier chariot designs are known as boxchariots in a Cretan context, while the heavier later ones are called dual-chariots. It has been argued that these later designs were more akin to battlefield taxis rather than being used as a fighting platform.

Minoan spearmen depicted on the ‘Expedition Frieze’ wall painting found in Akrotiri, Santorini. Note the tower shields and long spears. (Wikimedia Commons)

Over time the warrior in the chariot came to wear heavy armour, certainly by the time of the Minoan/Mycenaean transition. A fine example is provided by the Dendra panoply found at the village of that name in the Argolid, Greece. This was the location of the royal cemetery of the city of Midea. The armour dates to the end of the 15th century BC (though the type was seemingly in use earlier) and features a cuirass of hoops of overlapping bronze plates from the chest to the knees, with substantial three-piece bronze plates covering the shoulders and with a large tubular turret neck protector sitting atop them. This ingenious corselet, called a torake (thorax), was assembled in two halves, with the plates backed with leather and held together with a series of loosely fastened leather thongs. The individual plates were called opawota. The noble warriors equipped in this way also wore bronze lower arm protectors called qero and bronze greaves, and a boar’s tusk helmet with bronze cheek pieces. The chariot driver was less well protected. They are commonly shown wearing a padded quilt tunic.

Meanwhile, Minoan spearmen are also widely depicted across Crete and the Aegean, for example on frescos from Santorini and later on a silver crater and decorated dagger from Mycenae. They carried a very long spear called an eka-a. This was held two handed above the chest in a similar manner to the way pikemen carried their weapons in the European Renaissance. For protection the spearmen are shown with boar’s tusk helmets and very large body shields held in place by a leather strap given both hands were being used to fight with the spear. Archaeologists call these tower shields. Given the size of this shield, few spearmen are depicted in any armour as, provided they kept their formation, there would be no need, with most simply wearing a loincloth. They formed up in a shield wall, with archers and javelinmen often shown skirmishing out from their ranks. Interestingly many of the spearmen are depicted armed with elaborate bronze swords, indicating they were supplied from state-run armouries based in the major Minoan cities.

Given the maritime nature of Minoan culture across the eastern Mediterranean, sea power played a significant role in their military capability. This is considered in detail below in the context of their Mycenaean vanquishers and successors, where we have specific detail in the written and archaeological records about contemporary naval warfare.

The Mycenaeans

The Balkans Peninsula has always been a place of transit for ideas entering Europe from the east, through Anatolia and across the Aegean Sea. It has also been a frequent route through which migrating peoples have travelled to Europe, either again from the east, or more frequently from the northeast having looped round the Black Sea from as far afield as the Central Asian Steppe.

Mesolithic hunter-gatherer sites are well recorded in Greece, for example at the Franchthi Cave site overlooking Kiladha Bay in the Peloponnese. Here artefacts associated with a male burial have been dated to 8,500 BC, including fine-quality obsidian tools. The latter indicates a high degree of economic sophistication given the nearest source for this fine-quality lithic material was the Cyclades island of Milos and that, even with the prevalent lower sea levels at the time, this would have still required a significant maritime journey by either the cave’s occupants, or those they were trading with.

Later, Neolithic farming arrived in the Balkans around 6,000 BC from Anatolia. It was initially thought this was mainly through the transfer of ideas to the indigenous Mesolithic population there. However, recent archaeological data increasingly suggests this may actually have been through the migration of entire peoples to the Balkans, bringing with them early farming expertise. The causal factor behind such extensive migrations may have been a climate change event in the Levant.

With the arrival of the Neolithic, the first settlements also appear in the Balkans. A fine example is found at Sesklo in coastal Thessaly, north of the later key religious site at Delphi. Here, a sizeable site mound of a type called a tell in Arabic, huyuk in Turkish and tepe in Persian, indicates a lengthy period of occupation. In its earliest phase this was a sizeable village, featuring simple houses of timber and sub-dried mud, with the inhabitants growing primitive wheat and barley on the nearby hillsides and keeping goats and sheep. It proved highly successful and soon grew to a settlement over 32 acres in size, with modern estimates indicating a population of around 500. A key find there amid the archaeological data is a small clay model of a contemporary house, showing them to be roughly square with rectangular openings on all four sides which corresponds with the foundations of early structures found there. As time went on the buildings at Sesklo got bigger, with more formal societal organization evident by the beginning of the fourth millennia BC when a large building with extensive stone foundations, mud-brick walls and a timber roof was erected in the centre of the site. This may be associated with the onset of the Chalcolithic period here, given two copper axe-heads have been found amid the ruins dating to this period, which was a precursor to the arrival of the earliest phases of the Bronze Age around 3,000 BC.

By this time proto-Greek speakers had arrived in the northern Balkans, having travelled from the Pontic Steppe north of the Black Sea. Speaking their Indo-European language (see Chapter 2 for full detail of the development of the Greek language), they had begun to settle by 3,200 BC and may have been the vector by which bronze metallurgy arrived in Greece. These were the ancestors of the Mycenaeans, whose culture first appears in the archaeological record around 1,900 BC. Far more warlike than their early Greek and Minoan neighbours, by 1,650 BC they ruled the entire Balkans Peninsula through a series of large cities. Reflecting their martial nature, by 1,500 BC these all featured extensive cyclopean wall circuits which, built from huge unworked blocks of local limestone, included complex defended gateways. Major examples included Mycenae itself (which, as the largest city gave the culture its name), Dendra, Pylos, Athens and Tiryns, with over 20 cities ultimately existing over the period of Mycenaean dominance in Greece. While many had earlier Neolithic and Chalcolithic origins, for example Athens, it was under the Mycenaeans that they first rose to dominate their respective regions of control. We have real insight into the lives of those who lived there through the works of the Greek poet Homer, who names Mycenae as home to the Mycenaean over-king Agamemnon.

Mycenae, the centre of the Mycenaean world. Panoramic view across the citadel. (Jekatarinka/Shutterstock)

Hunting dogs chase down a wild boar in a hunting scene from the Mycenaean palace at Tiryns in the Peloponnese. (Wikimedia Commons)

Through trade with Crete and the Aegean, the Mycenaeans adopted the Minoan Linear A script for use with their own proto-Greek language. By 1,450 BC this had evolved into their own bespoke syllabic script called Linear B, the earliest written form of actual Greek. We are fortunate that this script, featuring around 200 signs, has been deciphered. At a number of sites, for example Pylos, thousands of court records have been found on clay tablets which were baked when they were destroyed. These provide great insight into the daily workings of Mycenaean Greek government. For example the rulers were called wa-na-ka, an archaic form of the later Greek word anax meaning ‘master’ or ‘lord’, while the leading members of the aristocracy in each city-state were called lawagetas. A key feature of each city’s royal court were the large numbers of craftsmen present, particularly metal-smiths, with the ruler of Pylos known to have employed over 400 bronze-smiths alone. In this way the ruler of each Mycenaean city-state controlled the supply of this most important material in their respective regions. Thousands of slaves, mostly women, were also an important feature of each royal court.

Further understanding of this warrior-centered society comes from the large number of richly furnished shaft graves excavated at their key settlements. These show great wealth, with the grave goods including gold, silver and electrum jewelry and tableware, gold face masks (including the famous ‘Mask of Agamemnon’ found at Mycenae) and bronze weapons and armour. From the 15th century BC such burials evolved into even finer affairs, featuring vaulted tholos (beehive-shaped tombs).

As with the Minoans, the kings of Mycenaean cities lived in large palaces that formed the centre of urban life, with the rulers often the centre of cult worship.

Warfare between the cities over control of regional agricultural produce and metallic raw materials was a frequent occurrence, and from the beginning of the 15th century BC such competition for resources began to drive Mycenaean expansion across the Aegean. This proved highly successful and by 1,450 BC they had conquered all of their major regional rivals, including the Minoans, with Mycenaean colonies appearing as far afield as the Ionian coast of western Anatolia.

As with their Cretan predecessors, the Mycenaeans enjoyed a thriving maritime trade across the eastern Mediterranean. A startling example of this has been found off Cape Uluburun, 8 km away from the modern holiday resort of Kaş in southwestern Turkey. Here a Mycenaean wreck dating to 1,300 BC has been the subject of a meticulous investigation. Its hold was found to be carrying 10 tons of copper ingots and a ton of tin, the key ingredients to make bronze. The metal originated from Cyprus and the vessel was almost certainly on its way back to Greece when it founded trying to sail round the headland.

Later Mycenaean warriors depicted on a krater found in Mycenae. Note the boar’s tusk helmets. (Wikimedia Commons)

The prosperous Mycenaean culture came to a shattering end sometime after 1,250 BC when all of the key cities were burnt to the ground. A common explanation for this event has until recently been the arrival of the so-called Sea Peoples as seaborne raiders. However, similar collapses are now known to have occurred elsewhere in the eastern Mediterranean at this time, for example at the Hittite capital at Hattusa 320km to the east of Ankara in modern Turkey which was similarly destroyed. Archaeologists have now turned to climate change once more to provide an explanation for this region-wide catastrophic event, with pollen samples from cores taken from the bed of Lake Galilee showing a sharp rise in plants that thrived in desert terrain occurring between 1,250 BC and 1,100 BC. This may have particularly affected Greece and Anatolia, with the Egyptian king Merenptah reporting in hieroglyphic inscriptions that he had ‘… sent grain in ships to keep alive the Hatti [Hittites].’ This indicates a major famine.

The results in Greece itself were dramatic, with violent conflict between the cities on a scale previously unseen breaking out over diminishing resources as the fragile long-range maritime trading networks collapsed when the climate change event took hold. Soon Mycenae and the other cities were deserted, with the palace culture and the Linear B script abandoned. A true dark age then descended over the Greek mainland, before the arrival of the Dorian Greeks who from 1,100 BC brought a new culture to the region, which saw the use of iron occurring for the first time (see Chapter 2).

A final note here in this historical narrative on the Mycenaeans concerns the Trojan Wars. These are detailed in the Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, both most likely written in the late 8th century BC. The poems have an Ionic dialect, indicating they were written down among the Greek-speaking peoples of western Anatolia, the eastern Aegean Sea or the large island of Euboea just off the eastern Greek coast. They are amalgamations of many earlier oral stories and are often dated towards the end of the Mycenaean period. The poems recall the abduction of queen Helen of Sparta by prince Paris of Troy, and the resulting Greek crusade to rescue her led by Agamemnon, king of Mycenae.

This conflict, as portrayed by Homer, is of a different type to that normally waged by the various Mycenaean city-states when fighting each other until the time of the Late Bronze Age Collapse. Given it was economically far less viable to destroy a neighbouring state than to reduce it to vassalage, such earlier conflicts fitted the classic description of a war of choice, certainly until regional desperation set in with the collapse.

However, when the conflict-hungry Mycenaeans fought others, the story was very different. We have already seen the fate that befell the Minoans, as they found themselves on the losing side of a war of survival. The same was true of Agamemnon’s campaign against Troy, who the Mycenaeans viewed as foreigners and thus fair game for their predations. Further, given the abduction of Helen as detailed by Homer, this war had a particularly savage quality. One can imagine that, as soon the Mycenaean vessels arrived off the coast of Troy, its king and inhabitants knew the fate that awaited them if they succumbed. Certainly Homer leaves us in no doubt, having Agamemnon say to his brother Menelaus when the latter asked how he should treat his prisoners (Iliad, 6.57–9):

No: we are not going to leave a single one of them alive, down to the babies in their mothers’ wombs – not even they must live. The whole people must be wiped out of existence, with none to shed a tear for them, leaving no trace.

That seems pretty clear, an order to kill everyone the Mycenaeans could get their hands on, prisoners or not. Such was the power of these words that they were later used by Classical historians keen to emphasize brutal intent, with for example Cassius Dio having the great warrior emperor Septimius Severus quote them to his massed troops before his AD 210 campaign in Scotland when its seems, based on archaeological data, his words led to a genocide (Roman History, 76/77.15.1–4).

Ancient Troy, which sits in the northwestern corner of Anatolia, is an interesting site in the wider context of Mycenaean regional power given it