The (Unofficial) Great Battles of History
By Stephen Jackson
I designed a Sellasia scenario based on the Lyginus map, and submitted it to Richard in 1995. I'm glad to see Richard designed it with it’s own map and counters, as its a much improved product. I offer here some detailed background, as well as a couple of rule variants that shouldn’t have much impact on balance but may add flavor. Enjoy!
The supremacy of Sparta over all of Greece was shattered at the Battle of Leuctra (371 B.C.), fifteen years before the birth of Alexander the Great. After standing aloof from the bid for Greek independence at Chaeronea in 338, the Spartans led an uprising against the absent Alexander eight years later, but were decisively defeated by Antipater (Alexander's viceroy). Over the next dozen decades, many Spartans looked back on their former days of glory with longing.
When Cleomenes III succeeded his father, Leonidas II, as a king of Sparta in 235 BC, the different city-states and leagues were pawns in the power struggles between the great powers of Macedon, Seleucid Syria, and Ptolemaic Egypt.
Detesting the ‘decadence’ of modern Spartan life, Cleomenes sought to restore the old constitution set up by Lycurgus, the legendary founder of Spartan culture. Cleomenes abolished the power of the ephors (aristocrats) and made the traditional dual kingship the supreme power (with his brother Eucleidas as the other king). He extended citizenship, redistributed land, canceled debts, and restored the austerity programs in which boys at the age of seven were taken to communal barracks and trained for war.
Over a period of several years, Cleomenes subjugated several cities in the Peloponnesus, ejecting Achaean garrisons and ensuring Spartan hegemony over the region. In three battles from 227 to 226 B.C. Cleomenes defeated the armies of the League decisively, taking control of most of the Peloponnesus, including the strategically vital Corinth.
These events alarmed Antigonus III Doson of Macedon, who now sided with the League and several other groups, such as the Boeotians, against Sparta. In a way, the Peloponnesus was a sideshow in the power struggles of the Diadochoi. Ptolemy III Eurgetes of Egypt had been supporting the Achaeans as a restraint on the power of Macedon. Indeed, the Achaean League had put a strong brake on Macedonian ambition, but in the typical method of Hellenist politics, alliances shift quickly. With the League now allied to Antigonus, Ptolemy put his financial support behind Sparta.
In 224 B.C. Cleomenes was entrenched on the Isthmus of Corinth and the larger Macedonian/ allied army did not dare to attack him head-on in prepared positions. At this point, Argos rose in revolt against the Spartans, aided by Achaean forces. Rather than have an enemy army in front of him and a hostile city in the rear, Cleomenes abandoned his positions and moved to retake Argos. This action allowed entrance of the Macedonian army into the Peloponnesus.
For two more years the kings engaged in the usual actions of ravaging the countryside and smaller towns while recruiting and training more troops and allies, as well as conducting the occasional siege. As the Macedonian army was larger (28,000 foot, 1,200 cavalry vs 20,000 foot and perhaps 650 cavalry) Cleomenes avoided a decisive battle, perhaps hoping the something would happen to force Antigonus home (which very nearly happened).
In 222 B.C. Cleomenes received word that his Egyptian aid was being cut off. The reasons for this are unclear; perhaps the Egyptians were more concerned with the Seleucid threat - Raphia being only five years in the future. Facing an imminent Macedonian invasion of Laconia (the southern district of the Peloponnesus in which Sparta lies), he decided to offer battle. In a narrow pass near the Spartan town of Sellasia, flanked by two hills, he drew up his army. He placed his elite Spartan phalanx on the rightmost hill, dubbed Olympus (not Mount Olympus, which lies in northern Greece) supported by light mercenary troops. On the left hill, named Evas, he placed his brother Eucleidas in command of the allied troops and the Perioeci phalanx, which was made up of Spartiate colonists to the local hills, who were in effect second class citizens. In the center defile between the hills, he placed the Spartan cavalry, supported by more lightly armed mercenaries.
With this formation, he probably felt that his numerically inferior forces could adequately defend the hills against the attacking Macedonians. In addition, if Antigonus instead attempted to force the pass, he could wheel and charge down into their flanks from both sides.
Antigonus drew up the allied army in an interesting fashion. Opposite Cleomenes and the Spartan phalanx on Olympus, he placed the Macedonian phalanx, drawn up in a tight formation of thirty-two ranks. He had a screen of light mercenary troops in front of his phalanx. He placed his own cavalry opposite the enemy center. Possibly because Evas had an initial steep slope out of a dry stream bed, Antigonus did not form his right flank into a phalanx. Instead he dispersed the formation of Macedonian and allied troops in what was nearly a manipular formation, perhaps reasoning that they would thus have better chances going up the hill without breaking formation. These were drawn up in alternate formation with his Illyrian forces which had occupied the base of Evas the night before.
The Macedonian right was under the command of Demetrius of Pharos, a rather talented leader who had previously allied with the Romans in the Illyrian campaign of 229 B.C. He later betrayed Roman interests and turned to piracy, but was put down by Lucius Aemilius Paullus, spending the rest of his life as a refugee at the Macedonian court.
The battle led off with the light forces charging up Evas, followed by the heavier infantry. The mercenaries who were supporting the Spartan cavalry noted that the flank and rear of the Macedonian right wing was vulnerable, and the Macedonian cavalry was not making any move. Accordingly, they lit off and slammed into the rear of the Macedonian right wing.
The cavalry, a hodgepodge of Macedonians, Achaeans, Boeotians, and mercenaries under command of Alexander, made no move. At this point, according to Polybius, Philopoeman of Megalopolis (a city north of Sparta which had often suffered from Spartan aggression), saw what was happening and urged Alexander to charge. Alexander ignored him, perhaps because of his youth. Philopoeman urged his fellow citizens to follow him and charged the Spartan cavalry. Enough horsemen followed him to create a diversion and force the Spartan mercenaries to turn back to the defense of the cavalry, allowing the right wing to continue their advance against Eucleidas.
Eucleidas in the meantime, was apparently suffering from the same bout of inaction which afflicted Alexander. Instead of counter-charging the right wing as it came up the hill in some disorder, he stood his ground and waited for their attack. This respite allowed the Macedonians to regroup and charge afresh. The staggered formation was able to pin the Perioeci and allies until the heavy infantry could slam into them. Eucleidas defended on the summit of the hill, so once he was forced back, it was downhill and the Macedonians gained momentum. After some savage fighting, Eucleidas’ forces disintigrated into a retreat over broken ground, during which most of them were killed.
On the hill of Olympus, the light units of both kings engaged with equal valor, but neither side could force the other back. At this point Cleomenes saw that his brother had been routed, and his cavalry on the low ground were also in danger of giving way. He therefore ordered the Spartan phalanx forward, hoping to break Antigonus and salvage a victory. Antigonus drew back his light units and brought his own phalanx forward with sarissas leveled to meet the Spartans shouting their war cries. Apparently, one side (it isn’t clear which) of the Spartan phalanx forced the Macedonians back, while the other side was forced back itself, so the forces pivoted around each other. Eventually, the close ordered and double ranks of the Macedonians routed the outnumbered Spartan phalangites, and the men were cut down as they fled.
Aftermath: Cleomenes III fled to Sparta and thence to Egypt where Ptolemy III welcomed him. However, Ptolemy died within a year and his son, Ptolemy IV Philopator (of Raphia), considered the Spartan and his followers a threat. Cleomenes was placed under house arrest. He broke out in 220 B.C. and tried to muster a revolt, but failed. Cleomenes then committed suicide.
Antigonus III proceeded to Sparta and restored it’s pre-Cleomenean government. He was then called back to Macedonia to deal with an Illyrian invasion. During his victory over the Illyrians he shouted so violently to encourage his troops that his throat hemorrhaged and he fell, vomiting blood and dying soon after. He was succeeded by Philip V (of Cynoscephalae), for whom he had originally been regent.
Sparta reluctantly (i.e. forcibly) joined the Achaean League (under Philopoeman) until the League was destroyed by Rome in 146 B.C. Under Roman rule, Sparta enjoyed prosperity and a certain vogue partly due to Roman admiration of the ancient Spartan ideal, and became a major tourist attraction.
Variant Rules