The Grand Army of Demetrius Poliorcetes
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THE GRAND ARMY OF DEMETRIUS POLIORCETES
Demetrius Poliorcetes spent seven years of his turbulent life as the king of Macedonia and the ruler of a large part of Greece. Two sources by the same author, Plutarh of Chaeronea (the biography of Poliorcestes himself and that of his protégé and nemesis, Pyrrhus of Epirus), credit the king with extensive military preparations that allegedly resulted in the creation of one of the largest military and naval forces in the Ancient history. Supposedly, in the final years of his reign, Poliorcetes commanded power that dwarfed that of Philip II and rivaled the strength of Alexander the Great. Strangely, when the actual conflict finally began, these forces suddenly disappear from the narrative. Modern historians, although generally highly skeptical of military and population figures asserted by ancient authors, showed surprising tendency to believe Plutarch’s claims and to build wider theories around them. Thus, the grand army Poliorcetes allegedly... built was heavily used as an argument in the debate surrounding the effects of Alexander’s conquest on Macedonia proper, and the demography of Macedonia in the 3rd century BC. Few scholars made attempts to question these figures, in spite of strong reasons to do so, and in spite of the fact that several ancient sources – including Plutarch’s biographies themselves! – do supply information that directly contradicts these claims. In this paper I claim that the whole story of Poliorcetes’ exceptional military preparations for the alleged reconquest of his father’s Asian Empire, as well as the very size of the supposed army, should be rejected as false, as is already the case with many such episodes in writings of Plutarch.
Кључне речи:
Demetrius Poliorcetes / Plutarch of Chaeronea / Pyrrhus of Epirus / Hellenistic Macedonia / population of Ancient Macedonia / Macedonian armyИзвор:
ΤΗ ΠΡΟΣΦΙΛΕΣΤΑΤΗ ΚΑΙ ΠΑΝΤΑ ΑΡΙΣΤΗ ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΙΑΡΧΙΣΣΗ: Students and Colleagues for Professor Fanoula Papazoglou (International Conference, Belgrade, October 17-18, 2017), Belgrade 2018, 2018, 221-241Издавач:
- Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti
Институција/група
Istorija / HistoryTY - CONF AU - Vujčić, Nemanja PY - 2018 UR - http://reff.f.bg.ac.rs/handle/123456789/5744 AB - THE GRAND ARMY OF DEMETRIUS POLIORCETES Demetrius Poliorcetes spent seven years of his turbulent life as the king of Macedonia and the ruler of a large part of Greece. Two sources by the same author, Plutarh of Chaeronea (the biography of Poliorcestes himself and that of his protégé and nemesis, Pyrrhus of Epirus), credit the king with extensive military preparations that allegedly resulted in the creation of one of the largest military and naval forces in the Ancient history. Supposedly, in the final years of his reign, Poliorcetes commanded power that dwarfed that of Philip II and rivaled the strength of Alexander the Great. Strangely, when the actual conflict finally began, these forces suddenly disappear from the narrative. Modern historians, although generally highly skeptical of military and population figures asserted by ancient authors, showed surprising tendency to believe Plutarch’s claims and to build wider theories around them. Thus, the grand army Poliorcetes allegedly built was heavily used as an argument in the debate surrounding the effects of Alexander’s conquest on Macedonia proper, and the demography of Macedonia in the 3rd century BC. Few scholars made attempts to question these figures, in spite of strong reasons to do so, and in spite of the fact that several ancient sources – including Plutarch’s biographies themselves! – do supply information that directly contradicts these claims. In this paper I claim that the whole story of Poliorcetes’ exceptional military preparations for the alleged reconquest of his father’s Asian Empire, as well as the very size of the supposed army, should be rejected as false, as is already the case with many such episodes in writings of Plutarch. PB - Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti C3 - ΤΗ ΠΡΟΣΦΙΛΕΣΤΑΤΗ ΚΑΙ ΠΑΝΤΑ ΑΡΙΣΤΗ ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΙΑΡΧΙΣΣΗ: Students and Colleagues for Professor Fanoula Papazoglou (International Conference, Belgrade, October 17-18, 2017), Belgrade 2018 T1 - The Grand Army of Demetrius Poliorcetes EP - 241 SP - 221 UR - https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_reff_5744 ER -
@conference{ author = "Vujčić, Nemanja", year = "2018", abstract = "THE GRAND ARMY OF DEMETRIUS POLIORCETES Demetrius Poliorcetes spent seven years of his turbulent life as the king of Macedonia and the ruler of a large part of Greece. Two sources by the same author, Plutarh of Chaeronea (the biography of Poliorcestes himself and that of his protégé and nemesis, Pyrrhus of Epirus), credit the king with extensive military preparations that allegedly resulted in the creation of one of the largest military and naval forces in the Ancient history. Supposedly, in the final years of his reign, Poliorcetes commanded power that dwarfed that of Philip II and rivaled the strength of Alexander the Great. Strangely, when the actual conflict finally began, these forces suddenly disappear from the narrative. Modern historians, although generally highly skeptical of military and population figures asserted by ancient authors, showed surprising tendency to believe Plutarch’s claims and to build wider theories around them. Thus, the grand army Poliorcetes allegedly built was heavily used as an argument in the debate surrounding the effects of Alexander’s conquest on Macedonia proper, and the demography of Macedonia in the 3rd century BC. Few scholars made attempts to question these figures, in spite of strong reasons to do so, and in spite of the fact that several ancient sources – including Plutarch’s biographies themselves! – do supply information that directly contradicts these claims. In this paper I claim that the whole story of Poliorcetes’ exceptional military preparations for the alleged reconquest of his father’s Asian Empire, as well as the very size of the supposed army, should be rejected as false, as is already the case with many such episodes in writings of Plutarch.", publisher = "Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti", journal = "ΤΗ ΠΡΟΣΦΙΛΕΣΤΑΤΗ ΚΑΙ ΠΑΝΤΑ ΑΡΙΣΤΗ ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΙΑΡΧΙΣΣΗ: Students and Colleagues for Professor Fanoula Papazoglou (International Conference, Belgrade, October 17-18, 2017), Belgrade 2018", title = "The Grand Army of Demetrius Poliorcetes", pages = "241-221", url = "https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_reff_5744" }
Vujčić, N.. (2018). The Grand Army of Demetrius Poliorcetes. in ΤΗ ΠΡΟΣΦΙΛΕΣΤΑΤΗ ΚΑΙ ΠΑΝΤΑ ΑΡΙΣΤΗ ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΙΑΡΧΙΣΣΗ: Students and Colleagues for Professor Fanoula Papazoglou (International Conference, Belgrade, October 17-18, 2017), Belgrade 2018 Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti., 221-241. https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_reff_5744
Vujčić N. The Grand Army of Demetrius Poliorcetes. in ΤΗ ΠΡΟΣΦΙΛΕΣΤΑΤΗ ΚΑΙ ΠΑΝΤΑ ΑΡΙΣΤΗ ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΙΑΡΧΙΣΣΗ: Students and Colleagues for Professor Fanoula Papazoglou (International Conference, Belgrade, October 17-18, 2017), Belgrade 2018. 2018;:221-241. https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_reff_5744 .
Vujčić, Nemanja, "The Grand Army of Demetrius Poliorcetes" in ΤΗ ΠΡΟΣΦΙΛΕΣΤΑΤΗ ΚΑΙ ΠΑΝΤΑ ΑΡΙΣΤΗ ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΙΑΡΧΙΣΣΗ: Students and Colleagues for Professor Fanoula Papazoglou (International Conference, Belgrade, October 17-18, 2017), Belgrade 2018 (2018):221-241, https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_reff_5744 .