APARECE LA INQUISICIÓN

Another type of vulnerability existed in the higher level of politi-cal and economic organization of certain of Macedon’s neighbors.

By 530, Kyros of Persia had conquered a massive territory extend-ing from central Asia to the Mediterranean. Durextend-ing his reign from 522 to 486, King Dareios I had organized an administrative struc-ture in which local regions were governed by officials appointed by, and responsible to, a central hierarchy headed by the Great King of the entire realm. In wealth, numbers of subjects, and coordination of economic and military activities, the accomplishment of Persia dwarfed earlier impressive states not only in the ancient Near East but also throughout the entire world.

The conquest had been rapid under Kyros the Great; in his reign of 29 years, Kyros extended the boundaries from the Indos River in the east, through modern Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq to the Mediterranean coast, and to Anatolia in the north. His son and suc-cessor, Kambyses, added Egypt, and the third Great King of Persia, Dareios I, began to push across the Hellespont into Thrace. Attempts

at adding further territory here were foiled by the Skythians.

However, Herodotos reports that Dareios sought to establish ties with the king of Macedon by sending envoys and, somewhat later, through a marriage alliance between a Persian commander and a royal Argead woman (V.17–20). Persian activity in the northern Aegean would be slowed by the outcome of the attack on Greece in 480–479, but it revived in the circumstances of the fourth century.

Armed confrontation with the Persians would have quite a dif-ferent nature than conflicts with tribal neighbors. In the first place, the Persian army was a professional force, with members of the Persian elite trained to serve as generals and officers. The Persian Empire’s size and its variety of peoples produced large numbers of troops; a reasonable estimate for the Persian forces led to Greece in 480 is 250,000. Even by the end of the fifth century, the entire population of Macedon within the region effectively possessed was only 228,000. The military talents contributed by individual Persian contingents were diverse: the Persians themselves were expert horsemen; others were well-trained archers; some units fought with battle-axes while other carried spears, javelins, and daggers. In addi-tion to his army, the Persian king had a large and effective fleet. To use numbers from the Persian Wars of 480–479 again, the navy may have consisted of about 1,200 ships. It was not until the reign of Philip II that Macedon would undertake serious ship construction.

Greece too had reached a higher level of sophistication than the young Macedonian kingdom possessed, and interest in the area of Macedonia on the part of the Greek world was closer and far more constant than that of the Persians. Even in the Bronze Age, pottery is evidence of contact with the Mycenaean world by the fourteenth century and continuing into the twelfth century. In addition to imports from Greece, local production imitates Mycenaean exam-ples. The contact seems not to have produced in Macedonia a citadel-centered system akin to that of Greece, at least according to current evidence. On the other hand, it does illustrate the fluidity of contact between Greece and Macedonia. The interaction ended

with the collapse of the Bronze Age kingdoms in most of the eastern Mediterranean region. As a result, there was little contact between Greece and Macedonia in the late second millennium and the early centuries of the first millennium.

That situation changed in the ninth century when mainland Greeks began to venture again to the sea. Not surprisingly, the first attempts were made in more local waters, such as the coastal region of the northern Aegean. As early as the ninth century, Greeks from the island of Euboia were founding trading settlements in that region such as Sindos, near modern Thessalonike, which had its origins in the ninth century and enjoyed a long life into the late Roman period. Its early prosperity is demonstrated by the richness of burial offerings there, including elegant gold jewelry by the sixth century and, by the fourth, wealth that allowed the sacrifice of five horses and two dogs in a cemetery of 47 graves – an offering nor-mally associated with elite burials. Greeks from other regions fol-lowed suit in planting settlements particularly in the three-pronged peninsula known as the Chalkidike, opposite the small core of the realm of the Macedonian people. In the late seventh and sixth cen-turies, other Greek states penetrated the Propontis and beyond into the Black Sea. Eventually the littoral of that sea would be the loca-tion of many independent Greek communities. Certainly there were non-Greek people dwelling behind the coastal band, but they too would experience both the pressure and the cultural influence of their Greek neighbors.

While the Greek states, or poleis, were small and autonomous, their common culture had produced a powerful military machine in the form of the hoplite phalanx that had been employed by most of the Greek world since the seventh century. Clad in helmets, cuirasses, and greaves, and carrying a round shield called a hoplon on the left and a long spear on the right, the hoplites marched into combat in unison in ranks and rows, protecting one another and ready to step forward should a soldier in the front rank be wounded or killed. The effectiveness of the phalanx defeated the vast army of the Persians at Marathon in 490 and again at Plataia in 479, after

which it remained the redoubtable tool of land warfare to the second century. Regular warfare between the poleis was a primary, but not an exclusive, reason for calling up the citizen hoplites;

neighboring regions drew the attention of the Greeks more and more in the fifth and fourth centuries.

Naval power as well had grown steadily since the late Dark Age.

It was essential for the trade and colonization that jointly propelled the extension of Greek communities from the late eighth to the mid-sixth centuries. But military use of Greek ships is attested early in the Archaic period. That naval superiority was not achieved immediately is revealed by the rout of a Greek fleet off the south-ern coast of Anatolia reported to have occurred in 696, but the important point is that Greek society was marked by the need for and interest in seafaring from the Neolithic Age. By the early fifth century, when the Athenians had requested Apollo’s advice con-cerning the best means to withstand the Persian attack, the answer of the Delphic oracle was “Rely on the wooden wall.” Rightly interpreting this, the Athenians used the find of a new vein of silver to create a fleet of 200 triremes. The fleet proved the wisdom of Apollo, particularly at the battles of Salamis and Mycale but later as well.

Once the Persian menace had been repulsed, the fleet served as the core of a league of primarily Aegean states whose purpose was to end the Persian threat permanently. With that goal accomplished, the fleet became the linchpin of the powerful Athenian Empire that grew from the once voluntary league. As discussed in chapter 4, Macedonian timber was essential to the construction of ships for that fleet, one strong lure for Athenian intervention in Macedonian affairs. Athens’ interests in the northern Aegean, established perhaps as early at the late sixth century, were another magnet. Athens grew increasingly dependent on external sources for grain, and an excel-lent source existed in the states of the Black Sea. The rapidly expanding polis also required ships to deliver that grain, but lacked timber for their construction. Macedonia was one of the best sup-pliers of timber.