Battle Report #2 : Greeks vs. Achaemenids II

 

The Opposing Forces

The same battle was fought a few days later with both the Greeks and the Persians substantially reinforced. The former were still outnumbered, but the hoplite element had grown to 15,000 and they were able to cover their gaps with additional reserves. They also had 2,000 horse and 5,000 psiloi to face a renewed force of Persians supported by allies this time. The Persians numbered the same 6,000 heavy horse, 5,000 light horse, 24,000 foot and 4,000 lights with only half the Immortals, but they had added 1500 Skythian horse archers and 3000 Thessalian cavalry and, a novelty, Scythed Chariots.

 

 

The Deployment

The Greeks, being outscouted, had been forced to deploy first and had ranged themselves across a line of foothills stretching along their deployment area.

The right wing was held by the Spartans, their line on the hill summit, with their flanks strongly held by all the psiloi.

The centre and the left were held by the other Greeks, all in double lines, plus reserves. They were also well supported by psiloi slingers and a few archers. The Athenian cavalry was again on the left, but closer to the centre.

 

The Persians, always confident in their numbers, had changed their plan and had sent their allies on a wide-ranging outflanking move to their left, to fall on the flanks of the terrible Spartans. All the formations were heavily dependent on foot, except the division on the left. Here, were deployed the Scythed Chariots supported from behind by the Saka and Bactrian heavily protected cavalry, armed with lance and bow. These were flanked by Persian and Median heavy cavalry with foot archers to their left to provide missile support.

 

Persians

 

Greeks

 

The plan was complex and relied on the Spartans’ character: they expected they would meet the combined threat of the chariots and cavalry head-on thus allowing the outflanking force to surround them. The Spartans’ own sense of superiority was to be their demise.

The Battle

The Persian centre and right did not make the same mistake as they had a few days earlier and stayed well back from the Greek hoplites, waiting for their trap to spring on the Spartans first. Instead, they sent their light horse to harass the psiloi, who had advanced from the protection of the hoplites, and the missile duel that ensued favoured the horsemen. The Persian cavalry on the right found itself free of the bothersome skirmishers and immediately moved to menace the extreme left of the Greeks. The initiative was on the Persian side.

 

On the other side of the front, against the Spartans, the scythed chariots advanced in perfect unison with the heavy cavalrymen in support, approached to within a safe distance and halted. The hoplites felt instinctively that something was amiss and stayed on their ridge. The first plan to lure the Spartans down from the hill had failed. At that moment, however, arrived the outflanking force with the Skythians to the left and the Thessalians in the centre. The former were free and moved right behind the Spartan line, effectively surrounding them, while the Thessalians encountered heavy opposition from the numerous psiloi and were held up. Horse archer shooting, even if from behind, proved of little value against the dense hoplite phalanx, but some men began to drop here and there. What was worse was that as the scythed chariots began to advance, the Spartans decided that they would not open ranks to let them through, but would prefer to fight them head-on, just as the Persian commander had hoped.

At the crucial moment, as the Thessalians were finally extricating themselves from the skirmisher quagmire, the Skythian archers struck. Their missiles temporarily caused disorder in the centre of the Spartan line when a number of  hoplites were hit in succession and this is precisely where the chariot charge fell. With no light troops to maim the drivers or chariot horses, the attack was better than is usually associated with the use of scythed chariots and a whole mora was cut up in minutes. The rest of the chariot force was successfully halted and then destroyed, but the damage was done. Heavy Saka cavalry poured into the gap, completely breaking up the Spartan phalanx and it was every man for himself. The Skythians also moved in closer pouring missiles at every available target, while the Thessalians completed the encirclement after slaughtering or sending off the last of the psiloi.

 

In the centre, the Greeks had decided that they’d had enough of waiting and started moving downhill. As they began to move down, they witnessed the encirclement of the Spartans to their right and decided they had to help. Half the Greek command stayed put, while the other half turned to their right. The Persian commander was not about to let his chance be thwarted, however, and he sent his whole force ahead to pin the Greek centre and the reserve cavalry rapidly ahead, to drive a wedge between the other Greeks and the Spartans. The rescue force would have to fight its way through.

 

On the Greek left the situation was not propitious for offensive action either as the threat of the outflanking cavalry was always there, but the Greek commander decided that the time had come for taking risks. He attacked both the Persian foot with hoplites and the Persian cavalry with the Athenian horsemen and psiloi acting as hamippoi behind the cavalry. The Gods favour the valorous and the attack was a complete success with the Athenians immediately gaining the ascendancy over their enemies all along their front. Missile power was of no use, the hamippoi did their job splendindly and with few losses, the Persian right was soon in trouble.

 

The Persian commander had gambled on the destruction of the Spartan command to beat the Greeks, but he had failed to realize just how good the Spartans were. Having lost  all cohesion, the Spartans were desperately fighting many, smaller battles and most of the time were winning; the problem was that when they were winning the opposition simply broke-off, regrouped and came back. When the Spartans lost, they were invariably trampled and killed by the enemy cavalry. If the Saka and Bactrians were not enough, the Thessalians on their right, were beginning to tell, while on their left, the Persian cavalry sent to stop the Geek rescue force had split in half, falling on the Spartans from that flank as well.

            It took over an hour of desperate fighting to crush all Spartan opposition, but eventually most survivors trying to escape were picked off by horse archers and pursuing Thessalians. By that time, however, the Persian right had simply ceased to exist, while the Persian centre having lost most of its cavalry in the effort to isolate the Spartans, faced the onslaught of the hoplites on foot and could not hold them for long. The Spartans’ sacrifice, although tantamount to a Greek defeat, allowed the rest of the Greeks a free hand with the lesser Persians and gave them, yet again, a crushing victory.

 

The Greeks had won another clear – but Phyrric – victory.  The Spartans had suffered almost 3000 hoplites killed (Sparte would never be the same) and another 1000 psiloi. The other Greeks put together had lost another 600 hoplites and maybe the same number of psiloi.

Total losses on the Persian side exceeded 50% of the total infantry force plus about 1000 elite heavy horsemen and 2000 Persian cavalrymen. The Persians would never try to face the Greeks with infantry again.