Kings, Tyrants and Bandy-Legged Men: Generalship in Archaic Greece

This chapter explores the nature of generalship in archaic Greece, attempting to disentangle the often conflicting, sometimes complementary, public and private factors which characterised the citizen militias of the early Greek poleis. Beginning with the Homeric epics, the discussion traces the changing principles of authority exercised by generals, that mirrored the wider military developments transforming the practice of war in Greece by the end of the Archaic period. In addition, account is taken of the variety of sources dealing with early concepts of generalship, including the poems of Archilochus and Tyrtaeus, which offer a glimpse into the more pragmatic realities of commanding warriors in battle. Looking at Homer’s Hector and Achilles, through the ‘short’ and ‘bandy-looking’ army generals of Archilochus, and finally the elite, publicly-funded captains who marshalled troops in archaic Athens, it is shown that concepts of generalship, and its institutional and ideological foundations, were under constant negotiation reflecting the changing nature of war in early Greece.