… Changes in Southern Greek Tactics.
Part 1.
"In 366 BC the metropolitan Greeks watched the Gauls in combat for the first time, and they were certainly impressed. It was then that Dionysius of Syracuse, who had many Celtiberian and Padanian Gallic mercenaries in his service, sent 2,000 of them to aid his overseas ally, Sparta. Thucydides describes the flexible tactics used by the Celtic horsemen against their Greek opponents. Theopompos of Chios mentions the conflicts between the Galatians (Gauls, in the Greek lang.) and the Illyrian tribes in an area located in the vicinity of the river Naro of Dalmatia. During the Archaic Period, the Glasinac culture flourished in modern Bosnia; a culture that later became the powerful tribal union of the Autariatae Illyrians. In 359 BC Bardylis, probably the king of the Autariatae, and his forces defeated the Macedonian army killing the king Perdiccas and 4,000 of his men, paving the way for Philip II to the Macedonian throne. Next year, Philip II avenged by crashing the Autariatae and killing 7,000 of them. However the worst for the Autariatae was the beginning of their war with the Danubian Gauls.
In 335 BC, Alexander the Great marched up to the Danube River, in order to secure the subjugation of the tribes of the Balkan Peninsula and thereby the security of Greece, when he would be marching in Asia. Following his victory in the region, several tribes sent embassies to earn his friendship and alliance, among them the Gauls of Pannonia and Northern Illyria. Arrian recounts the episode of the meeting of the Galatian envoys with Alexander. He describes the first as people with a striking look and high stature. When the king who was meant to become the greatest conqueror of world history, asked them what they fear most, the Gauls replied that "we only fear lest the sky fall on our heads". However, the Galatians added diplomatically that they were interested more than anything else, in the friendship of a man like Alexander. The response of the Gauls to Alexander was not accidental. In essence it was an implicit statement that they do not fear him, considering him as an equal in power, but they wanted an agreement and alliance with him. The Celts were not wrong. The interests of the Greeks and Danubian Gauls in the region were identical because they were both fighting against the interlaying between them, Illyrian and Thracian tribes. The two nations had not yet territorial contact and at this time, the Gallic threat would seem very distant for the Greeks. Alexander who appreciated brave men, seemed to be satisfied with the Gallic answer, although he ironically commented on their barbaric pride (Arrian). Seeing his common interests with them, he made an alliance with the Celts and probably allowed them to expand in the territory of the Autariatae. This was the first Gallic invasion or raid in the land of the Autariate.
Modern scholars such as P.B. Ellis, consider that Alexander misunderstood the Gallic answer. As he observes, a thousand years later the Irish Celts swore to honor an agreement, by saying the stereotype oath of their island: "We shall not break our oath but only if the sky fall on us and crush us or the earth open and swallow us or if we will be covered by the sea …" The Gauls probably replied to Alexander on the standards of a similar Celtic oath, wanting to demonstrate their good faith together with the implicit statement that they considered themselves equivalent to the Greek power and not inferior. Twelve years later, another Gallic embassy made the long journey to Babylon to congratulate Alexander for his conquest of the Persian Empire and the Valley of the Indus, and to renew the alliance with him…"
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Part 2.
"The hordes of Bolgios and Kerethrios were the vanguards of the Gauls because shortly after (279 BC) the main Gallic army appeared led by Brennos (Brennus) and Akichorios, which invaded Macedonia through the Axios Valley. The Senonian Gaul conqueror of Rome (387 BC) was also called Brennos, a ‘name' which was probably the Celtic title for the king. Centuries later, the Welsh word brennin had the same meaning (king). Brennos was the supreme warlord of the Galatians while Akichorios, Bolgios and Kerethrios were probably his lieutenants (commanders). The Celts were marching with their families in wagons, evidence that they intended to settle in the area. They were strengthened by their vassal warriors: Illyrians, Dardanians, Thracians, fugitive slaves and others. The ancient sources quote that the third (and main) Gallic horde consisted of 150,000 infantry and 15,000 to 60,000 cavalry, figures generally dismissed as exaggerated. The number of infantry is almost common in all ancient writers and probably account for all combatants and non-combatants. If we remove from that number the non-combatants (about 3/4 of the ancient populations), then the warriors would be around 35 to 40,000 men. The real number of the cavalry cannon be estimated, but a figure of 10,000 is plausible. Each Gaul cavalryman (a noble with armor) was accompanied by two horsemen. This military unit of three riders was called "Trimarkesia" (from the Celtic word "mark" which meant among other things, the horse).
Sosthenes understood that he could not fight a battle against the large barbarian force, and so continued the tactics of sudden attacks and guerilla warfare. The Southern Greeks watched the invasion taking place in Northern Greece, remaining inactive. It seems that the main reason for their inaction was that they saw the Gallic invasion as a good opportunity to get rid of the 60-year old suzerainty of Macedonia on South Greece (which was initiated since the Macedonian victory at Chaeronea in 338 BC against the Athenians and Thebans). According to their point of view, the Gauls would weaken Macedonia and then would withdraw to their homes, while the southern Greeks could again be involved in endless wars between their city-states. If this was their assessment, it was completely wrong. Brennos left a Gallic force in Macedonia under Bolgios to maintain communications with their bases in the North, and marched with the bulk of the army in Thessaly (Central Greece). The Thessalian landowners were forced to conciliation with him and allow him to cross their lands on the condition not to harm their crops and their country. The attitude of the Thessalians, analogous to that which they had during the Persian Wars (480-479 BC), was a consequence and result of the neglect and misunderstanding of the Southern Greeks, the same with those which characterized them during the Persian Wars and prompted the Thebans, Boeotians and Thessalians to the Persian alliance. The Spartans and generally the Peloponnesians were indifferent to the Gallic threat and did not join the South Greek alliance then set up against it. The Peloponnesians, protected by the "natural moat" of the Corinthian Gulf, knew that the barbarians had no fleet. Thereby if the Peloponnesian forces gathered at the Isthmus and the Achaean coast (North Peloponnesian coast), it would be very difficult for the Celts to invade Peloponnesus. There was additionally a political expediency for the able king of Sparta, Areus. The invasion of the Gauls would weaken his Aetolian enemies, who were evolving in a significant politico-military power…"
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Hope you enjoy!.
Amicalement
Armand
considers the Battle of Delium, 424 B.C.