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Κυριακή 18 Οκτωβρίου 2020

Which people gave the Greeks the most trouble militarily?

 

, lived in Greece

 

From a military standpoint, there can be none other than the Romans.

It was an accident of history that most Greek states were in decline at the very moment that Rome showed up and took an interest in them, starting with Italy and Sicily and moving from Epirus all the way to Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt.

There are very few Greek victories against the Romans in battles fought in the time period between the Pyrrhic Wars and the conquest of the last Mediterranean Greek state by the Romans and as far as I can remember Rome didn’t lose a single war.

Of course, Roman victories can be partially attributed to Rome's allies, many of whom were Greeks anyway, but that’s beside the point; the Greeks at Thermopylae, Salamis and Plataea also faced thousands of their compatriots.

There was however a significant difference: the Persian Wars was a fight between ascending powers and an established empire supported by unwilling subjects, while the Greco-Roman Wars was a fight between declining powers against an ascending empire supported by willing allies.

We could of course talk about more specifically military issues, like the phalanx vs legion comparison, highlight the declining standards of the diadochi armies and so on, but I think it’s fair to say that Rome won most wars against Greeks even before a single soldier had clashed shields with his opponent due to its overwhelming superiority in manpower, organisation, diplomacy and military culture.

Which is of course why Greeks eventually co-opted Roman military traditions and after becoming an integral part of the Empire, eventually took over the Eastern part while forming a hybrid “Romeic” identity, but that’s a topic for another question…

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