The Lelantine War was a military conflict between the two Ancient Greece polis Chalcis and Eretria in Euboea which took place in the early Archaic Greece period, between c. 710 and 650 BC.[19th-century historians preferred an early dating, in the late 8th century; more recent scholars have gravitated towards later dates: older datings are noted in Donald W. Bradeen, "The Lelantine War and Pheidon of Argo", Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 78 (1947:223-241) p. 223 note 1.: Bradeen links the extension of the war to the rise of Pheidon.] The reason for war was, according to tradition, the struggle for the fertile Lelantine Plain on the island of Euboea. Due to the economic importance of the two participating polis, the conflict spread considerably, with multiple further city states joining either side, resulting in much of Greece being at war. The historian Thucydides describes the Lelantine War as exceptional, the only war in Greece between the mythical Trojan War and the Persian Wars of the early 5th century BC in which allied cities rather than single ones were involved.[Thucydides I. 15.]
Ancient authors normally refer to the War between Chalcidians and Eretrians (ancient Greek: πόλεμος Χαλκιδέων καὶ Ἐρετριῶν pólemos Chalkidéon kaì Eretriōn).
The length of the war, as well as the cities involved, and even the historicity of the Lelantine War remain debated among modern historians.[Hall, History of the Archaic Greek World, pp. 1–8, writes "In short, we do not know when – or even whether – the Lelantine War occurred."]
Date of the war
There is no direct information in ancient sources to date this war. Indirect evidence in Thucydides points towards a date
ca 700 BC, that situates it halfway between history and legend. At the very same time, the site of
Lefkandi was being incrementally deserted, perhaps as a consequence of the turmoil. The
Aition of the joint Euboean colony at
Ischia suggest that at the mid-8th century Chalcis and Eretria were cooperating. Furthermore,
Theognis can be read to imply
[Not all agree: "Theognis 891-4 certainly does not refer to the war: the verses imply social stasis," observes Robin Lane Fox ( Travelling Heroes in the Epic Age of Homer, 2008:158 note 16).] there was a conflict between Eretria and Chalcis in the middle of the 6th century BC. While a few historians have suggested this as the date of the Lelantine War, it is more probable that Theognis refers to a second, smaller and even less known Lelantine War: "we are certainly not dealing with a 'Hundred Years Lelantine War'", remarks Robin Lane Fox.
[Fox 2008, eo. loc..]
Sources
Since the conflict took place at an early point in
Greek history, before
historiography had developed, there are no contemporaneous written sources on the events. The few later sources and the much more copious
archaeology allow for a sketchy picture of the Lelantine War. However, as a result of the ambiguity of the surviving written sources, date and extent of the war are disputed among Classical scholarship. Some authors have even suggested that the war may be entirely
[Klaus Tausend: „Der Lelantische Krieg – ein Mythos?", in: Klio 69, 1987, p. 499–514, esp. p. 513f.] or even
.
[Detlev Fehling: „Zwei Lehrstücke über Pseudo-Nachrichten", in: Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 122, 1979, p. 199–210, esp. p. 204f.]
Written sources
No detailed record of the Lelantine War was produced by a contemporary author (such as Thucydides for the Peloponnesian War), as Greek historiography only developed 200 years later, starting with the works of
Herodotus. The Greek literary tradition as a whole started only in the late 8th century BC, with
Homer. Therefore, the only contemporary sources about the Lelantine War are references in the early poets
Hesiod and
Archilochos. The first references in historical works are from the 5th century, two centuries after the events, and remain vague and brief.
In the introduction of his work on the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides (460 BC to early 4th century) gives a short summary of earlier Greek history, stating that there were no major collective military actions by Greeks between the Trojan War and the Persian Wars. As an exception, he mentions the War between Chalcidians and Eretrians, during which most of the rest of Hellas joined one of the warring parties:
Herodotus (484 BC to 425 BC) mentions the same war as the reason why in 494 BC, after the Ionian Revolt, Eretria sent military support to Miletus, then under threat from the Persian empire, attributing the support to Miletus having supported Eretria in her war against Chalcis, while Samos Island had taken the opposite side:
An even later author, Plutarch (c. 45 to 125 AD) mentions traditions regarding the Lelantine War twice. In his Moralia[Plutarch, Amatorius 17, in Moralia 760E—761B.] he states that during the war, the Chalcidians felt on a par with the Eretrian foot soldiers, but not with their cavalry. Thus, he writes, they procured the aid of a Thessaly, Cleomachus (Cleomachus) of Pharsalos, whose cavalry defeated the Eretrians in a battle. According to Plutarch, Kleomachos himself was killed during the battle and received an honourable burial as well as a commemorative column on the agora of Chalcis from her grateful citizens.
Elsewhere, Plutarch mentions the tradition of a poetic competition between Homer and Hesiod on the occasion of the funeral games of a Chalcidian nobleman called Amphidamas. Plutarch states that Amphidamas fell in the struggle for the Lelantine Plain, after performing several heroic deeds fighting the Eretrians.
Plutarch's source was traditionally attributed to Hesiod himself. Hesiod does mention, in Works and Days, a contest in honour of the late Amphidamas, but without mentioning Homer or linking Amphidamas to the Lelantine War.
In his Geographica, Strabo (c. 63 BC to 23 AD) reports that the two poleis, Chalcis and Eretria had once been friendly. He states that their former friendship resulted in both parties to the conflict agreeing before battle on contractually determined conditions, especially on not using missiles.
A similar agreement is indirectly referred to by Archilochos (7th century BC), the second contemporary author to refer to the Lelantine War. He tells how the "warlike lords of Euboea" will not use bow or sling, but only swords, in a coming battle.
On the basis of these literary sources, and assisted by a variety of archaeological finds, modern scholarship has reconstructed an outline of the Lelantine War.
Archaeological evidence
Archaeological study has shown that the first warrior burials in the area of the later
heroon of Eretria took place around 740-730 BC.
[A.M. Ainian: "Geometric Eretria" in: Antike Kunst 30, 1987, p. 3–24.] The last such burial dates to around 690 BC.
The site of Chalcis, still occupied, has been subject to little archaeological research, but similar burials of warriors are indicated by written sources, especially in reference to Amphidamas.
[Plutarch, Septem sapientium convivium X 153f. (= Moralia 153f–154a).] Around 680 BC, a triangular building was erected atop the warrior graves at Eretria and used to dedicate offerings to the fallen heroes.
[C. Bérard: L'Hérôon á la porte de l'ouest (= Eretria 3), Bern 1970.] This may be connected to a rekindling of the conflict after a lull or truce (see below), leading to the Eretrians seeking the aid of their dead
. The occupation of the Xeropolis settlement and use of the cemeteries at
Lefkandi, situated between Chalcis and Eretria on the Lelantine plain, ceased at approximately the same time as the Lelantine war and the emergence of Eretria as a major archaeological site. The excavators have speculated that Lefkandi may have been the predecessor of Eretria and abandoned as the result of the victory of Chalcis in the war.
[M. R. Popham, and L. H. Sackett, Excavations at Lefkandi, Euboea, 1964/1966. A Preliminary Report, Thames and Hudson, London 1968.]
Background
Chalcis and Eretria are ports on the west coast of Euboea. Both cities claimed the Lelantine Plain, perhaps originally made fertile by the river Lelas, which traverses the plain from north to south, as a natural border. Although, strictly speaking, Eretria is located outside the plain, it had a historical claim to it. The reason is that Eretria was probably initially the port for a mother town situated further west. That town was located at the mouth of the Lelas, near modern
Lefkandi. Its ancient name is unknown, so it is generally called by that of the modern settlement. Lefkandi suffered heavy destructions in c. 825 BC,
[M.R. Popham & L.H. Sackett: Lefkandi 1: The Iron Age, London 1980.] after which the majority of its population probably moved to Eretria.
Eretria and Chalcis originally had a political union with Athens as they were all of the Ionians tribe. Evidence of this is that the two Ionian seats in the Amphictyony were given to Athens and the Ionians of Euboea; Chalcis and Eretria. The two soon turned towards the nearby Cyclades islands and to locations further abroad for expansion and trade.
In the 8th century BC, Euboea was one of the economically strongest regions of Greece.[V. Parker: Untersuchungen zum Lelantischen Krieg, Stuttgart 1997, p. 167.] The two leading powers of the island, Chalcis and Eretria were among the driving forces behind the apoikiai of the Mediterranean, acting for a long time not as competitors but as collaborators. Around the mid-8th century, they jointly founded Al Mina, a colony conceived to facilitate trade with the eastern Mediterranean.[Thukydides VI 4,5–6.]
Reason for war
According to tradition, the war was caused by a conflict about the Lelantine Plain.
This fertile area had for a long time been used for agriculture, including the cultivation of
. In Greece, where fertile land is scarce, wars for agriculturally attractive terrain were not uncommon, especially in the Archaic period, e.g. between
Megara and
Athens.
[Plutarch, Solon 7–10.] Nevertheless, it remains unclear why Chalcis and Eretria suddenly came to blows over the Lelantine Plain after apparently being in agreement on its use for a long time.
The origin of the conflict could be connected to a natural disaster. At the end of the 8th century BC, Attica, Euboea and other nearby islands suffered from a severe drought.
Course of the war
The war between Chalcis and Eretria probably began around 710 BC. Although both cities must have possessed large fleets, it was waged on land.
[According to Thucydides (I 3), the first Greek naval battle took place between Corinth and Kerkyra in 664 BC.] Since the war took place before the development or introduction of
hoplite warfare, but under exclusion of bows and slings,
[Strabon X 1,11–12.] most of the combatants were probably lightly armed
.
[V. Parker: Untersuchungen zum Lelantischen Krieg, Stuttgart 1997.] According to another view, the war consisted mainly of
cavalry engagements.
The relevant lines by
Archilochus indicate that the war was still ongoing through the poet's lifetime (he is usually thought to have died c. 645 BC). It is possible, and likely, that the conflict was subdivided in several phases of warfare and ceasefires, as were e.g. the Peloponnesian War and the Messenian Wars.
Troops
Eretria at its height (a period brought to an end by this war) could field 3,000
hoplites, 600 cavalry and 60
. This implies that this conflict took place at the transitional time between the
Homeric aristos, entering the war on chariot and fighting his enemies like the heroes of the
Iliad, and the classical hoplite. The size and numbers of Chalcis's forces are unknown. We only know that their infantry was superior and their cavalry inferior to that of Eretria.
Alliances and extent
Primarily, the war would have involved the two conflicting cities and their territories. At the time of the war, the state of Eretria included one quarter of the island of Euboea as well as the nearby Cyclades (
Andros,
Tenos, and Kea). The expansion of the conflict into other regions and the number of allies are disputed. There are direct references to three further participants apart from Chalcis and Eretria:
Miletus[Herodotus V 99.] on the side of Eretria and
Samos Island as well as
Thessaly[Plutarch, Amatorius 17 (= Moralia 760e–761b).] on that of Chalcis. Beyond these, the enmities and alliances between Archaic Greek states known from other sources have led to further suggestions of parties involved, leading some scholars to propose up to 40 participants.
Such numbers would, however, imply broad-ranging political alliance systems, which the majority of scholars do not consider likely for the 8th century BC.
[E. Will: Korinthiaka, Paris 1955, p. 398–404.] Even if multiple other cities were involved in warfare at the same time, it cannot, however, be argued that every conflict between Greek states of the time was part of this war. Thus, most scholars assume that, apart from the cities mentioned above, only
Aegina,
Corinth and
Megara,
[M. Cary: Cambridge Ancient History III, 1929, S. 622f.] and perhaps also
Chios and
Erythrai took part.
However, there is speculation that the ongoing
Messenian war between
Sparta and the Messenian cities had also some connection with the Lelantine war, since there was a conflict between Sparta and
Ancient Argos at the same time, with Argos perhaps joining with her neighbor Aegina on the side of Eretria and Sparta supporting Chalcis.
[W.G. Forrest, A History of Sparta 950-192 BC, (Hutchinson University Library, London, 1968), ch. 4, pp. 35, 36] Herodotus mentions a Samian expedition in aid of Sparta against the Messenians,
[Herodotus, The Histories, (Penguin Books, Suffolk, England, 1983), III., p. 223] and this would favor the hypothesis of Sparta siding with her and Chalcis in the Lelantine war. A war of Miletus against the island of
Melos, which had affiliations with Sparta, gives additional evidence.
[Forrest, p. 36]
The island state of Aegina was mainly active in the trade with Egypt, where its major competitor was Samos. Samos was allied with Chalcis, which suggests that Aegina took the side of Eretria.[Pausanias I 44.1.] The actions of Chalcis and Corinth in the context of western colonisation suggest that the two cities were allied, or at least friendly; Chalcis had prevented Megarian settlers from establishing themselves at Lentini,[Thucydides VI 4.] while Corinth had driven Eretrian settlers from Kerkyra.[Plutarch Quaestiones Graecae XI.] In analogy, a friendship between Megara and Eretria is assumed. Herodotus reports that Chios supported Miletus in the Ionian Revolt, because Miletus had previously assisted the Chiotes against Erythrai.[Herodot I 18.] Thus, based on the allegiance of Miletus, an alliance between Chios and Eretria, as well as one between Erythrai and Chalcis can be suggested.
Most current scholarship is of the opinion that such long-distance alliances cannot have existed in the 8th century BC. Instead, there may have been alliance-like based on personal relationships among the nobility, so that the struggle involved only Eretria, Chalcis and the Thessalian aristocrat Kleomachos of Pharsalos with his own troops.
Around 700 BC, the Eretrian mother town at Lefkandi was finally destroyed, probably by Chalcis.
Effects
After the long war Euboea, once the leading region of Greece, had become a backwater.
The defeated Eretria and the probable victor Chalcis had lost their former economic and political importance. On the Mediterranean markets, Corinthian vase painting had taken over the dominant role previously occupied by Euboean pottery (see Pottery of ancient Greece). The leading role in colonisation was taken over by the
poleis of
Asia Minor, such as
Miletus (eastern colonisation) and
Phokaia (western colonisation). Chalcis entered a long decline while the islands in the Cyclades that Eretria controlled earlier seem to have become independent. From Theognis, another conflict over the Lelantine field is implied in the 6th century, so it seems the two cities fought again. In any case, after the war both cities continued the colonisation of the
Chalcidice peninsula in Northern Greece. Eretria felt compelled by the help Miletus had given her during the war to repay its debt by assisting Miletus during the
Ionian Revolt. This led to Eretria's destruction prior to the battle of Marathon in 490 BC. Chalcis retained control of the Lelantine Plain until 506 BC, when
Athens established a
cleruchy in it.
Bibliography
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Jonathan M. Hall, A History of the Archaic Greek World, ca. 1200–479 BCE, 2nd Edition, Chichester, Wiley Blackwell, 2014.
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