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Iapygian-Tarentine Wars
The Iapygian-Tarentine Wars were a set of conflicts and wars between the Greek colony of Taras (Taranto) and the three Iapygian peoples, Messapians, Peucetii and Daunians. Conflicts started immediately after the foundation of Tars in 706 BC over domination of the fertile adjacent plains in southern Italy. The expansion of Taranto was limited to the coast because of the resistance of the populations of inner Apulia. In 473 BC, Taranto signed an alliance with Rhegion, to counter the Messapii, Peuceti, and Lucanians, but the joint armies of the Tarentines and Rhegines were defeated near Kaila (modern Ceglie), in what Herodotus[1] claims to be the greatest slaughter of Greeks in his knowledge, with 3,000 Reggians and uncountable Tarentines killed. In 466 BC, Taranto was again defeated by the Iapyges; according to Aristotle,[2] who praises its government, there were so many aristocrats killed that the democratic party was able to get the power, to remove the monarchy, inaugurate a democracy, and expel the Pythagoreans.
In c.440 BC the Messapian city-state of Brindisi entered into an alliance with Thurii. The Brindisi-Thurri army had a leadership advantage in the form of Cleandridas, an exiled Spartan general who had been banished from the Peloponnese for accepting an Athenian bribe as an advisor of the Spartan king Pleistoanax. Taranto supported the Peloponnesian side against Athens in the Peloponnesian War, refused anchorage and water to Athens in 415 BC, and even sent ships to help the Peloponnesians, after the Athenian disaster in Sicily. On the other side, Athens supported the Messapians, in order to counter Taranto power.[3] After 330 BC the Messapians joined forces with the Tarentines against an even greater force, that of Rome. The alliances with Taras and with Cleonimus of Sparta in 304 BC was an anti-Roman campaign. Thus towards the end of the fourth century Rome had become a common enemy for both the Iapygians and the Tarentines, even as far as ending the prolonged battles and causing them to make an alliance.[4]
Prelude
The Iapygians were an Illyrian people who had migrated to Italy from the Balkans from around 1000 BC-900 BC. The three Iapygian tribes were the Messapians, Daunians and the Peucetii. By around 500 BC the Messapians were organized into a confederation of city-states. In 706 BC Taras was founded by Dorian immigrants as the only Spartan colony. From its foundation the city had contested control of the areas rich Sallentine Peninsula with the Iapygians. The development of the city was restricted to the shoreline since the residents Iapygians resisted the rule of Taras.[5] Taranto increased its power, becoming a commercial power and a sovereign city of Magna Graecia, ruling over the Greek colonies in southern Italy. Conflict between the Iapygians and Taras was inevitable, resulting in a series of conflicts and wars during the 5th and 4th centuries. These battle were only the latest outbreak of violence in a long-running altercation that had been going on since the arrival of the Greeks in the region in the late 8th century BC.
Iapygian-Tarentine Wars
5th century BC
The first of the wars started with a defeat of the Iapygians around 500 BC.[6] In c.490 BC the Messapians moved against the Tarantines with a composite force of around 8,000 men including shield infantry, skirmishers, and their vaunted cavalry. According to Herodotus (iii 136), around 492 BC king Aristophilides ruled over the city. The Tarantines appear to have represented their Spartan roots well in this battle despite being outnumbered. Along with 4,000 hoplites and 1,000 light infantry in support, the Tarantines also employed both light and wealthy sword-wielding cavalry, due to their establishment of a feudal-like system of land ownership. Outside the walls of the city the Tarantines withstood not only the initial skirmishing, but also both their Messapians cavalry superiority and the inevitable highland charge. The Tarantines claimed victory, and continued to solidify their presence in Magna Graecia as the regions leading Greek power. After their crushing defeat the Messapians would not challenge the polis of Taras again for a generation, but would take care to learn important lessons from this first major encounter.[7]
Brindisi-Thurii alliance
In c.440 BC the Messapian city-state of Brindisi entered into an alliance with Thurii. The Brindisi-Thurri army had a leadership advantage in the form of Cleandridas, an exiled Spartan general who had been banished from the Peloponnese for accepting an Athenian bribe as an advisor of the Spartan king Pleistoanax. The combined force of Thurians and Messapians met the Tarantines somewhere between the two colonial poleis, likely in the disputed area of Siris. The composite force was smaller in hoplite numbers than the Tarentines, but likely with more cavalry and light troops than their opponents. The Messapians and Thurri armies failed to penetrate the Tarentine army and were defeated. Despite the defeat, Messapian and Thurri were in alliance again in 433 and 432 BC against the Lucanian invasions.
Peloponnesian War
Messapia and Taras had been both engulfed in the Peloponnesian Wars. Athens supported Artas of Messapia against Taras. For the Athenians to align themselves with Artas was an anti-Tarentine and thus an anti-Spartan act. The Athenian cultivation of Artas was therefore a good way to create difficulties for the Spartan colony of Taras. In 418 BC Artas renewed his old friendship with Athens at the time when Athens was beginning its operations in Sicily and was a proxenos of Athens.[11] In 413 BC Artas supplied the Athenians with one hundred and fifty javelin-throwers for the war against Syracuse.[12] Artas made the Messapian State into a major military and political centre in the affairs of Magna Graecia.
4th century BC
In the 4th century BC the Messapian-Lucanian alliance in 356 BC led to the conquest of Eraclea and Metaponto and then the subsequent intervention in support of Taras by the Spartan king Archidamus III, who would ultimately find his death in battle just below the walls of the Messapian city of Manduria in 338 BC. Between 333 BC and 330 BC, the king of Epirus Alexander the Molossian, called upon by Taras claimed a victory over the Messapians. After his death in 330 BC the Messapians joined forces with the Tarentines against an even greater force, that of Rome. The alliances with Taras and with Cleonimus of Sparta in 304 BC was an anti-Roman campaign. Thus towards the end of the fourth century Rome had become a common enemy for both the Iapygians and the Tarentines, even as far as ending the prolonged battles and causing them to make an alliance.
Iapygian-Tarentine Wars
Sea also
Messapi Peucetii Taranto Illyrian warfare
References
[1] Herodotus, vii 170. [2] Politica, v 1303a (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ cgi-bin/ ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 01. 0058& layout=& loc=5. 1303a). [3] Land Battles in 5th Century B. C. Greece: A History and Analysis of 173 ... By Fred Eugene Ray [4] Diodorus, XVI, 63. [5] http:/ / www. travelgrove. com/ travel-guides/ Italy/ Taranto-History-c1021994. html [6] http:/ / www. pugliainternational. org/ history. html [7] http:/ / www. ccancients. net/ Maps/ Magna-Graecia/ tt20-taras-490-bc. html [8] http:/ / www. mysteriousetruscans. com/ chronology. html [9] Hyria - 460 BC (http:/ / www. ccancients. net/ Maps/ Magna-Graecia/ tt22-hyria-460-bc. html), Tarantine vs Iapygian [10] Land battles in 5th century B.C. Greece: a history and analysis of 173 engagements. By Fred Eugene Ray, page:111, ISBN 978-0-7864-3534-0 [11] A Commentary on Thucydides: Volume III: Books 5.25-8.109 by Simon Hornblower, pg.57/306 [12] The emergence of state identities in Italy in the first millennium BC, pg.51
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