WAR OF ALLIANCES

Homeric warfare traditionally refers to the study of the weapons and military tactics described in the Iliad. Views on the topic range from a complete rejection of the epic’s historicity to a more nuanced approach that considers the poem’s many Late Bronze Age characteristics. The detractors’ suspicions are reasonable. Warfare in the Iliad initially resembles a one-dimensional brawl of clashing blocks of infantry and heroic duels between leaders. Within the epic, such a narrative is to be expected. But even so, it suggests that Homeric strategy was more complicated, a view that finds support in the Late Bronze Age records concerning the historical thirteenth century BC conflict fought around Troy.

By Michele Gama Sosa

The strategy underpinning Homeric warfare, that of the period of the Trojan War, finds its basis in the Hittite records regarding Wilusa (Troy), Western Anatolia, and the Mycenaean Greek-speaking Kingdom of Ahhiyawa (Achaea). The records suggest that the Ahhiyawan mode of warfare was not based around a brute force assault against Troy. Instead, it methodically isolated Troy from its allies, destroyed its economy, and strained its supplies. This strategy also ensured that Troy’s Hittite allies, who politically dominated Anatolia, did not intervene. Thus, Homeric warfare was a sophisticated, multi-faceted affair, which looked not only to destroy a rival’s force, but also his very ability to fight and defend himself. The actual siege of Troy was simply the final act of this ten-year-long conflict. The Hittite angle Relative to the Hittite evidence, a…

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Ancient Warfare (Digital) - 1 Issue, AW XV.3

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