A History of Thessalian Cavalry Part 4

The following is part 4 of a 10 part brief outline of the history of ancient Thessaly highlighting the famous Thessalian cavalry—and Greek cavalry in general—up to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE. If you encounter a word with which you are unfamiliar, be sure to check the ‘Glossary of Names and Terms’ (see the link on the right under Reference Aids).

Ancient Thessaly

The Campaign of the Lakedaimonian [Spartan] King Latykhidas Against the Thessalians

At some point following the defeat of the Persians and their withdrawal from Greece in 479 BCE, the Lakedaimonians [Spartans] dispatched an army against the Thessalians. The goal of this expedition was, no doubt, to extort the tithe that the allies had vowed to levy for Apollo Pythios at Delphi from those who had sided with the Persians. The army was commanded by the senior Lakedaimonian king Latykhidas/Leotykhidas (reigned ca. 491–478/476 BCE). [1] We are not given any indication of when this campaign was fought, so in order to determine the date it is necessary to outline the background to this campaign against the Thessalians. (Herodotos 7.132)

In the year 479 BCE, Pausanias, the son of Kleombrotos, had commanded the Lakedaimonians [Spartans] and an allied Greek army which decisively defeated Mardonios and the main Persian land forces at Plataia in Boiotia. Incidentally, the commander of the large Athenian contingent at the battle of Plataia was Aristeides, who had been one of the ten Athenian stratēgoi at the battle of Marathon eleven years earlier. Pausanias was epitropos (guardian, regent) for his first cousin Pleistarkhos (reigned ca. 480–458 BCE), the young son of the deceased Agiad king Leonidas. Kleombrotos, the father of Pausanias, was the younger triplet or twin brother of Leonidas, who had perished at Thermopylai in the late summer of 480 BCE. Kleombrotos himself had died shortly thereafter—evidently of natural causes perhaps due to old age—after building a wall across the Isthmus of Korinth. Reputedly on the very same day as the battle of Plataia, Sparta’s Eurypontid king Latykhidas had commanded an allied Greek fleet at the victorious landing at Mykale in Ionia. (Herodotos 5.41, 7.205, 8.71, 9.10, 9.28, 9.59–65, 9.90–105; Plutarch Aristeides 5)

Following their victory at Mykale, Latykhidas and the allied Greek fleet sailed to the Hellespont in order to break up the Persian bridge of boats which linked Asia and Europe. However, upon their arrival they found that the bridge had already been dismantled. Thereupon, Latykhidas and his fellow Peloponnesians returned home, but the Athenians under the command of Xanthippos—the father of Perikles—stayed behind. During the winter of 479–478 BCE, the Athenians along with the Ionians and Hellespontine Greeks besieged and captured Sestos on the European side of the Hellespont. Sestos was a Greek city, but it was the main Persian stronghold on the Hellespont, the strategic strait between the Propontis (modern Sea of Marmara) and the Aegean Sea. (Herodotos 9.114–121; Thoukydides 1.89.2)

Ostrakon from Athens ca. 484 BCE inscribed ‘Khsanthippos [son] of Arriphron’.
(Ancient Agora Museum in Athens)
Xanthippos, the son of Ariphron, was ostracized in ca. 484 BCE, but
was recalled in 480 BCE to participate in the fight against the Persians.
(Image compliments of the Wikimedia Commons)

Immediately following the Persian withdrawal from mainland Greece in 479 BCE, the Athenians under the guidance of Themistokles began to hurriedly rebuild their city walls, which had been destroyed by the Persians. This greatly displeased the Lakedaimonians [Spartans], who did not wish to see the Athenians increase in strength and thereby become rivals to themselves. Nevertheless—with Themistokles cleverly hoodwinking the Lakedaimonians—the Athenians also went on to quickly fortify their new port at Peiraieus. (Thoukydides 1.89.3–1.93; Plutarch Themistokles 19)

On the diplomatic front, the Lakedaimonians proposed motions at several Amphiktyonic councils to the effect that all of the cities that had not been part of the alliance against the Persians should be excluded from the Amphiktyony. Fortunately for the Thessalians, Argives, Thebans, and others, the Athenian leader Themistokles convinced the Pylagorai (delegates) to reject these motions. (Plutarch Themistokles 20.3–4)

In the spring of 478 BCE, the Lakedaimonian [Spartan] regent Pausanias was sent out in command of an allied Greek fleet to Cyprus and subdued most of this large eastern Mediterranean island. Cyprus had a large Greek population and contributed a sizeable number of ships to the Persian navy. Its loss was a considerable blow to the Persians. Pausanias then sailed back west to the Aegean Sea and thence north to the Thracian Bosporos, the strategic channel between the Pontos Euxeinos (Black Sea) and the Propontis. There Pausanias besieged and captured Byzantion (modern Istanbul), the Greek city which controlled the strait. Byzantion was held by the Persians and wresting control of both the Hellespont and the Thracian Bosporos from the Persians was essential to the Greeks in order to guarantee the free passage of vital grain ships from Scythia to Greece. The siege of Byzantion probably lasted until the spring of 477 BCE. With his harsh and tyrannical behaviour having become abhorrent to the Ionians amongst others and also under suspicion of intriguing with the Persians, Pausanias was recalled by the Lakedaimonians presumably in the spring of 477 BCE. Once back in Sparta, Pausanias stood trial, but was acquitted on the most serious charge of committing treason with the Persians. Nevertheless, Pausanias was never again entrusted with a command. In his place, the Lakedaimonians dispatched an otherwise unknown commander named Dorkis, but he was rejected by the allied Greeks operating in Asia and returned home. (Thoukydides 1.94–95, 1.128.3; Plutarch Aristeides 23; Plutarch Kimon 6.1–3)

[insert map]

Thus, the Athenians succeeded to the command of the Greek allies in the Aegean in 477 BCE. Under the leadership of the veteran Aristeides and the neophyte Kimon (the son of Miltiades, the victor at Marathon), the Athenians founded the league of allies known to modern scholars as the Delian League. (Thoukydides 1.95–96; Plutarch Aristeides 23–25.1–3; Plutarch Kimon 6.1–3)

The above was the state of affairs around about the time of the Thessalian expedition of the Lakedaimonian [Spartan] king Latykhidas, who was reportedly victorious in every battle and put an end to the power in Thessaly of Aristomedes and Angelos, who are unfortunately otherwise unknown. However, Latykhidas was caught in camp with a sleeve full of silver coins in the act of having accepted a bribe from the Aleuadai of Larisa. Brought before a court, he was banished from Sparta and his house was razed to the ground. Latykhidas went into exile for the remainder of his life at Tegea in southeastern Arkadia. (Herodotos 6.72; Pausanias 3.7.9–10; Plutarch Moralia 859C aka On The Malice of Herodotos 21)

Also at some point following the withdrawal of the Persian king Xerxes, a fleet of the allied Greek states spent a winter in the Thessalian port of Pagasai. More than likely the Greek fleet was there supporting the Thessalian campaign of Latykhidas. Plutarch related a bizarre tale regarding the Greek fleet wintering at Pagasai. Themistokles supposedly said that he had a plan that could not be discussed in public, so the Athenians instructed him to tell it to his rival Aristeides—who was known as Dikaios (“The Just”) [2]—and, if the plan was approved by Aristeides, the Athenians would then carry it out. Aristeides heard the plan and declared it to be advantageous, but morally wrong. As a result, the Athenians rejected Themistokles’ mysterious scheme. Somehow, Plutarch claimed to know what this secret proposal had been! According to Plutarch, in order to secure Athenian naval supremacy, Themistokles had proposed burning the Greek fleet at Pagasai! (Plutarch Themistokles 20; Plutarch Aristeides 6.1, 22.2)

Modern port of Volos, Thessaly, Greece looking south from Mt. Pelion
Ancient Pagasai is only a few kilometres south of Volos in the bay marked on the map.
(Image compliments of the Wikimedia Commons)

Taking all of the above into consideration, it is plausible that Latykhidas’ Thessalian expedition could have taken place in either 478 or 477 BCE. Thoukydides (1.89.2) makes it clear that Latykhidas and the Peloponnesian fleet “departed home” from the Hellespont in late 479 BCE while the Athenians remained at Sestos over the winter of 479–478 BCE. Therefore, the earliest that the Thessalian campaign could have begun would have been the spring of 478 BCE. The Lakedaimonians [Spartans] could have sent out King Latykhidas against the Thessalians in 478 BCE at the same time that they sent the regent Pausanias to Cyprus and Byzantion. This division of Lakedaimonian forces would have mirrored the twin campaigns of Latykhidas and Pausanias in 479 BCE. If this hypothesis is correct, then the winter that an allied Greek fleet spent in Pagasai in Thessaly was likely the winter of 478–477 BCE, the same winter during which Pausanias was becoming so detested in Byzantion. On the other hand, Latykhidas could have begun operations against the Thessalians in 477 BCE at about the time that Pausanias was recalled. The Greek fleet could then have spent the winter of 477–476 BCE in Pagasai. In that case, this allied Greek fleet might not have included many, if any, ships from the newly disaffected Athenians and their allies. If the fleet at Pagasai had consisted primarily of Lakedaimonian and other Peloponnesian ships, that might reasonably explain Themistokles’ alleged plan to burn the Greek fleet at Pagasai. A date after 477 BCE for the Thessalian campaign of Latykhidas seems unlikely. [3]

Go to Part 5

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Footnotes:

[1] Since the Lakedaimonians [Spartans] spoke a Doric dialect, I prefer to use the Doric spelling for Lakedaimonian names in preference to the spelling in other Greek dialects. In the case of Latykhidas, the variety and inconsistency of the spellings is actually very annoying!
Latykhidas (presumably Λατυχίδας in Doric per Alkman) – see West, M. L. “Alcmanica” The Classical Quarterly New Series volume 15 no. 2. (Nov. 1965): p. 189 and D. L. Page, D. L. “Oxyrhynchus Papyri XXIV” The Classical Review New Series volume 9 no. 1 (March 1959): p. 19.
Leotykhidas (Λεωτυχίδας in Diodoros 11.48.2; Plutarch Lysander 22.4; Xenophon Agesilaos 1.5)
Leotykhides (Λεωτυχίδης in Diodoros 11.34–37; Pausanias 3.4.3, 3.7.9 passim; Plutarch Agesilaos 3.1 passim; Plutarch Alkibiades 23.7–8; Thoukydides 1.89.2; Xenophon Hellēnika 3.3.1–3)
Leutykhides (Λευτυχίδης in the Ionic dialect used by Herodotos 6.65, 9.90 passim)

[2] Plutarch (Aristeides 7) related a delightful anecdote about Aristeides, the son of Lysimakhos, that seems too good to be true. The Athenians would periodically vote to ostracize or banish a prominent citizen for 10 years. In 482 BCE, a vote was held and an illiterate and rustic fellow asked an individual at random to scratch the name Aristeides on his ostrakon (potsherd). It so happened that he asked Aristeides himself! Astonished, Aristeides asked the man what wrong Aristeides had done to him. He replied that he was just annoyed with hearing Aristeides everywhere called “The Just”. Hearing this Aristeides did not defend himself, but scratched his name on the ostrakon and gave it back to the fellow. In this vote, Aristeides was ostracized by the Athenians! He was recalled in 480 BCE to fight against the Persians.

Ostrakon from Athens ca. 482 BCE inscribed ‘Aristeides [son] of Lysimakhos’.
(Ancient Agora Museum in Athens)
(Image compliments of the Wikimedia Commons)

[3] For the dates of the Lakedaimonian regent Pausanias immediately following the battle of Plataia in 479 BCE, I concur with William T. Loomis. Pausanias, Byzantion and the Formation of the Delian League: A Chronological Note (Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, Bd. 39, H. 4, 1990), pp. 487–492.