Kassandros navy & troops

[ruthaki]

Another burning question. I've googled and checked my research notes but can't find anything exact. Does anyone (or any source) have an idea of how many ships and troops Kassandros might have had when he sailed into Pireaus in Spring 317 and routed Polyperchon's navy and army? And how many ships might Polyperchon have had?

Another of those niggly little details but it would be really cool if someone had the answer or tell me where I might find it. Thanks in advance.

[Paralus]

Indeed I do. Diodorus, XVIII. 68:

Cassander, after receiving from Antigonus thirty-five warships and four thousand soldiers, sailed into Piraeus. Welcomed by Nicanor, the garrison commander, he took over the Piraeus and the harbour booms, while Munychia was retained by Nicanor himself, who had enough soldiers of his own to man the fortress. Polyperchon and the Kings happened to be staying in Phocis , but when Polyperchon learned of Cassander's arrival in the Piraeus, he moved into Attica and camped near the Piraeus. He had with him twentythousand Macedonian infantry and about four thousand of the other allies, a thousand cavalry, and sixty-five elephants.

Just on Polyperchon's numbers, it is unlikely that he had 20,000 Macedonian infantry. We have attested at least 8,500 operating directly under Antigonus in the campaign of Iran over 318-16. These will not have been all of them. Others will have been in Phrygia and Alcetas will have had some 2,000 or more in Pisidia. Eumenes had 3,000 Argyraspids and likely a little more (2-3,000?) from the satrapal coalition as the description of a circle of "Companions of Alexander" in the army feast bunged on by the aggrandising Peucestas indicates. There is little likelyhood that Polyperchon would be in a position to raise 20,000.

That his forces contain no mercenary contingents at all leads one to treat the 20,000 with great caution.

[ruthaki]

Thanks for this info. I have read that there was a naval battle between Kassandros' ships and Polyperchon's and one historical account I read said Poly. 'defeated Kass. at Salamis.' Then in 317 Kass. sailed in with the rest of the fleet. This is confusing to me. What, if any 'navy' did Polyperchon have as I understood that at first he was in Megalopolis with his land troops before Kassandros arrived? Were there two separate naval 'invasions' or battles or just the one in 317 when Kassandros sailed in with his ships that Antigonos had given him.

[Paralus]

You might well be thinking of the naval battles in the Propontis in 319/18. Clietus The White and Arrhidaeus were taking on Antigonus.

I'm off to a 50th birthday and will have a look tomorrow - given I survive a party that promises to be of Alexandrian proportions.

[ruthaki]

Thanks Paralus, if there weren't two naval battles at Pireaus this simplifies things for me. I just checked thru my notes. A lot of info I gleaned from www. livius.org and those notes only seem to mention the naval defeats in the Bosphorus. As I only need to mention some of these battles and defeats in narrative it's not crucial, but when Kassandros seizes the port of Pireaus it's important to know a few more details.

Hope the party was fun. Your birthday? If so kronia polla!

[Paralus]

Our only real narrative source for this period is Diodorus (following Hieronymus). If you don't have a copy of books18-19 then I’d suggest you get a copy. The Loeb is the only one I know.

There are, of course, Plutarch's lives. Any reading of that, which passes for such, of Eumenes will show how useless they can occasionally be. Plutarch - as always - is far more interested in trite anecdotes and morals than in history. Indeed, his description of the campaigns of 318-16 is a travesty. These, without exaggeration, were the most important and defining campaigns of the Diadoch wars. It is too easy to say that Antipater, lacking the will and interest and likely already suffering from that which will kill him, ceded the “strategos of Asia” title to Antigonus in 319. Antigonus, as events proved, had to fight to win the title. A fight he very nearly lost. There will have been no third Diadoch war – as we have it – without Antigonus winding up as “great King” of Asia after – just – prevailing over Eumenes.

The lack of attention to this period utterly baffles me.

As far as I can recall, there was no naval battle at Athens. The only naval battle off Salamis (in Cyprus) during these times was the destruction of Ptolemy’s fleet in 306 by Demetrius.

[Paralus]

Yes - two battles near Byzantium in 318. White Cleitus was defeated - in the second - on land in a surprise attack by Antigonus' forces before he could put to sea in any order.

Lysimachus' sole contribution was to murder Cleitus as he attempted to escape back to Macedon.

The only other naval engagements around this time were lead by Seleucus in his over-running of Cyprus with Ptolemy's brother Menelaus in 315/14. He operated in the Aegean for some two years though the actions are not well attested. It would appear that his (and Ptolemy's) mastery of the sea was relatively unchallenged. He did send fifty ships to the Peloponnese to carry on the war against Polyperchon.

If you don't have it, Brian Bosworth's Legacy of Alexander The Great: Politics, Warfare and Propaganda under the Successors is an excellent work on the events from Alexander's death to the Peace of The Dynasts.

[ruthaki]

Thanks for all the handy tips you've given me. I think I have it sorted out now. A lot of the details will be conveyed in expository narrative or dialogue. Still I wanted to get them right.
In rechecked and it was at Pharygae where Phokion was put on trial, not Phocis. (I couldn't remember where Phocis was but have it all figured out now. These picky little details can get so confusing!