The Battle of Gelos is the first known battle of the Spartan-Argos wars and the archaic era .
| Battle of Gelos | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Main conflict: Spartan-Argos wars | |||
| date | The middle of the VIII century BC. e. | ||
| A place | Gelos , Laconia | ||
| Total | Victory of Sparta | ||
| Opponents | |||
| |||
Pausanias refers him to the reign of King Alcamena [1] (second half of the VIII century BC. E.), Modern researchers believe that it preceded the First Messenian War , which began around 740 BC. e. [2]
The struggle of Sparta and Argos, which began as a dispute over the border region of Kinuria , soon turned into a rivalry because of leadership in the Peloponnese , and in the early stages of the conflict, Argos, who was militarily the strongest of the Greek states, had an advantage [3] .
By the time the Spartan conquest of Laconia entered the final phase, they conquered the valley of Evroth and reached the shore of the Gulf of Lacon , where the last independence city of Gelos remained [1] . Pausanias reports that he was inhabited by "Achaeans", that is, some kind of pre-Dori tribe, the Ionians or the Pelasgians . NJL Hammond believes that it was a small town, but with walls of raw brick, which served as some protection in an era that did not know siege weapons [4] .
Argos sent help to the besieged [1] ; according to Hammond, it was a very cruel action, destroying the kinship ties established by the gods between the Dorians - the Argosts and the Spartans [3] (the Spartans, however, were not embarrassed by the consanguinity of their Doric relatives of the Messenians). Nevertheless, strategically it was a very reasonable move, since if successful it would allow blocking the Spartans in the valley of Evroth and the question of domination in the Peloponnese would have been resolved [3] .
Hammond believes that the Argos, who had a fleet, transferred troops to the sea, which Sparta, which did not have ships, could not interfere. In the battle under the walls of the city, the Argos landing was defeated, the Spartans took Gelos, destroyed it to the ground [1] , and the inhabitants were enslaved (according to legend, they became the first elots ), but they still preserved the cult of the Corus that existed among the natives [5] .
The victory at Gelos allowed the Spartans to begin the conquest of Messenia , and this conflict, in turn, exacerbated the confrontation with Argos.
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Pausanias. Iii. 2, 7
- ↑ Zaikov, 2013 , p. 31.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Hammond, 2007 , p. 388.
- ↑ Hammond, 2007 , p. 389.
- ↑ Pausanias. Iii. 20, 6
Literature
- Zaikov A.V. The Society of Ancient Sparta: the main categories of social structure. - Ekaterinburg: Ural University Publishing, 2013. - ISBN 978-5-7996-0886-6 .
- Hammond, N.J.L. The Peloponnese // Cambridge History of the Ancient World . T. III, Part 3. The expansion of the Greek world. VIII - VI century BC. er .. - M .: Ladomir, 2007. - ISBN 978-5-86218-467-9 .