Abstract
Some researchers noted that the key features of Scythian warfare were the use of the bow as the main armed element and a good command of the skills of “small war”. The leading role was assigned to the cavalry. However, some of the “Scythian” methods of warfare in 5th – 4th centuries BC were typical as well as for the Thracians. This fact can be explained by direct borrowings and similar development of the military and political institutions. The Macedonian king Philip II, performing his military reforms, focused his attention on the necessity of fi ghting against the Thracians. Due to this, the Macedonian army was able to counteract the enemy effectively, whose military art was similar to Scythian. This circumstance allowed Philip II to win the battle against Scythian king Ateas in 339 BC. The next Macedonian king Alexander at the period of military campaign of 335 BC was able to defeat the army of Getae in the battle on the banks of the Danube, who had adopted the Scythians’ military methods. This experience prepared the Macedonian army to the military actions against the nomads of Central Asia and contributed to the successful completion of the conquest of Bactria and Sogdiana campaign. It is stated that the Scythians’ victory over the Macedonian commander Zopyrion, unsuccessful campaign of the diadochos Lysimachus against Getae of Dromichaetes and the defeat of the Macedonian corps in the battle at the Polytimetos River cannot be regarded as an evidence of the total inability of the Macedonian army to confront the enemy, fi ghting in the Scythian tactics.
Keywords
Warfare, Scythians, Thracians, Philip II, Alexander the Great
Alekseev, A.Yu. 2003: Hrronografi a Evropejskoj Skifi i VII–IV vv. do n.e. Saint-Petersburg.
Andruh, S.I. 1995: Nizhnedunajskaya Skifi ya v VI – nachale I v. do n.e. Zaporozhia.
Ashley, J.R. 1998: The Macedonian Empire: The Era of Warfare under Philip II and Alexander the Great, 359–323 BC. Jefferson.
Billows, R.A. 1997: Antigonos the One-eyed and the Creation of the Hellenistic State. Berkeley– Los Angeles–Oxford.
Blavatskaya, T.V. 1952: Zapadnopontijskie goroda v VII–I vv. do n.e. Moscow.
Blavatskiy, V.D. 1950: O strategii i taktike skifov. Kratkie soobshcheniya Instituta istorii materialnoj kul’tury 34, 19–30.
Blavatskiy, V.D. 1954: Ocherki voennogo dela v antichnyhr gosudarstvahr Severnogo Prichernomor’ya. Moscow.
Braund, D. 2015: Thracians and Scythians: Tensions, Interactions and Osmosis. In: J. Valeva, E. Nankov, D. Graninger (eds.), A Companion to Ancient Thrace. Oxford, 352–365.
Chernenko, E.V. 1968: Skifskij dospehr. Kiev.
Chernenko, E.V. 1971: O vremeni i meste poyavleniya tyazholoj konnicy v stepyahr Evrazii. Materialy i issledovaniya po arhreologii 177, 35–38.
Chernenko, E.V. 1981: Skifskie luchniki. Kiev.
Chernenko, E.V. 1984a: Bitva pri Fate i skifskaya taktika. In: E.V. Chernenko (red.), Vooruzhenie skifov i sarmatov. Kiev, 59–75.
Chernenko, E.V. 1984b: Dlinnye kop’ya skifov. In: A.I. Melyukova, M.G. Moshkova, V.G. Petrenko (red.), Drevnosti Evrazii v skifo-sarmatskoe vremya. Moscow, 231–235.
Chernenko, E.V. 1984c: Skifo-persidskaya voyna. Kiev.
Delev, P. 2004: Lysimach. Sofi a.
Efremov, N.V. 2008: K istorii yuzhnopontijskogo regiona v ellinisticheskoe vremya. Vestnik drevney istorii 1, 112–128.
Gabriel, R.A. 2010: Philip II of Macedonia: Greater than Alexander. Washington.
Gabriel, R.A. 2015: The Madness of Alexander the Great: And the Myth of Military Genius. Barnsley.
Gaebel, R.E. 2002: Cavalry Operations in the Ancient Greek World. Norman.
Gafurov, B.G. 1972: Tadzhiki. Drevnejshaya, drevnyaya i srednevekovaya istoria. Moscow.
Gafurov, B.G., Tsibukidis, D.I. 1980: Aleksandr Makedonskij i Vostok. Moscow.
Garneau, A. 2013: “The Heads of Hydra which ever grew again”: Alexander the Great’s failed counterinsurgency in Afghanistan. The General Sir William Otter Papers. A Publication of the Royal Canadian Military Institute 4/13, 1–8.
Glotz, G., Cohen, R. 1936: Histoire grecque, III. Paris.
Grakov, B.N. 1971: Skify. Moscow.
Griffith, G.T. 1979: The Reign of Philip the Second. In: N.G.L. Hammond, G.T. Griffi th, A History of Macedonia. Vol. II: 550–336 BC. Oxford, 201–646.
Griffith, G.T. 1980: Philip as a General and the Macedonian Army. In: M.B. Hatzopoulos, L.D. Loukopoulos (eds.), Philip of Macedon. Athens, 58–77.
Hammond, N.G.L. 1979: The Development of the Macedonia State and the Struggle for Survival. In: N.G.L. Hammond, G.T. Griffi th (eds.), A History of Macedonia. Vol. II: 550–336 BC. Oxford, 1–200.
Hammond, N.G.L. 1988: From the Death of Philip to the Battle of Ipsus. In: N.G.L. Hammond, F.W. Walbank (eds.), A History of Macedonia. Vol. III: 336–167 BC. Oxford, 3–96.
Hammond, N.G.L. 1991: The Sources of Justin on Macedonia to the Death of Philip. CQ 41, 2, 496–508.
Hammond, N.G.L. 1994: Philip of Macedon. London.
Hammond, N.G.L. 1997: What May Philip Have Learnt as a Hostage at Thebes? GRBS 38, 4, 355–372.
Hammond, N.G.L. 1998: The Genius of Alexander the Great. London.
Hazanov, A.M. 1968: Katafraktarii i ihr rol’ v istorii voennogo iskusstva. Vestnik drevney istorii 1, 180–191.
Head, D. 1992: The Achaemenid Persian Army. Stockport.
Holt, F. 2005: Into the Land of Bones. Alexander the Great in Afghanistan. London–Berkeley– Los Angeles.
Ivanov, S.S. 2012: Voennoe delo rannihr kochevnikov Srednej Azii v evrazijskom kontekste. Vestnik Kyrgyzskogo nacionalnogo universiteta im. Zh. Balasagyna. Tr. IIMOP, 644–649.
Kallistov, D.P. 1968: Rabstvo v Severnom Prichernomor’e V–III vv. do n.e. In: D.P. Kallistov (red.), Rabstvo na periferii antichnogo mira. Leningrad, 193–221.
Kleymenov, A.A. 2014: Bitva pri Politimete: krupneyshee porazhenie armii Aleksandra Makedonskogo. Voprosy istorii 12, 84–97.
Kleymenov, A.A. 2015: K voprosu o strategii Philippa II v voennoy kampanii 340–339 gg. do n.e. Sociologiya 3, 216–220.
Kozulin, V.N. 2015: Obraz skifov v antichnoj literaturnoj tradicii. Barnaul.
Krykin, S.M. 2008: Derzhava Odrisov: bazis rannej “varvarskoy” gosudarstvennosti. Vestnik Moskovskogo gorodskogo pedagogicheskogo universiteta. Seriya: Istoricheskie nauki 2, 74–88.
Lee, J.W. 2008: A Greek Army on the March: Soldiers and Survival in Xenophon’s Anabasis. Cambridge.
Lonsdale, D.J. 2007: Alexander the Great: Lessons in Strategy. London–New York.
Melyukova, A.I. 1964: Vooruzhenie skifov. Moscow.
Melyukova, A.I. 1965: Skifskie ehlementy v getskoy kulture. Kratkie soobshcheniya Instituta arheologii 105, 32–41.
Melyukova, A.I. 1979: Skifi ya i frakiyskiy mir. Moscow.
Nikonorov, V.P. 1997: The Armies of Bactria 700 BC–450 AD. Vol. I. Stockport.
Nikulitse, I.T. 1977: Gety IV–III vv. do n.e. v Dnestrovsko-Karpatskihr zemlyahr. Kishinev.
Polin, S.V. 1992: Ot Skifi i k Sarmatii. Kiev.
Popov, D. 2009: Drevna Trakiya. Istoriya i kultura. Sofi a.
Ray, F.E. 2012: Greek and Macedonian Land Battles of the 4th Century BC. Jefferson.
Shahrermayr, F. 1986: Aleksandr Makedonskiy. Moscow.
Sekunda, N. 2004: Armiya Aleksandra Makedonskogo. Moscow.
Sekunda, N. 2010: The Macedonian Army. In: J. Roisman, I. Worthington (eds.), A Companion to Ancient Macedonia. Oxford, 446–471.
Shelov, D.B. 1971: Skifo-makedonskiy konfl ikt v istorii antichnogo mira. Materialy i issledovaniya po arhreologii 177, 54–63.
Shofman, A.S. 1976: Vostochnaya politika Aleksandra Makedonskogo. Kazan.
Smith, M. 2009: The Failure of Alexander’s Conquest and Administration of Bactria-Sogdiana. Hirundo: The McGill Journal of Classical Studies 8, 64–72.
Stoyanov, T. 2015: Warfare. In: J. Valeva, E. Nankov, D. Graninger (eds.), A Companion to Ancient Thrace. Oxford, 426–442.
Vinogradov, Yu.A. 2006: Shchastlivyy gorod v voyne. Voennaya istoriya Olvii Pontiyskoy (VI v. do n.e. – IV v. n.e.). Saint-Petersburg.
Vinogradov, Yu.A., Goroncharovskiy, V.A. 2008: Voennaya istoriya i voennoe delo Bospora Kimmeriyskogo (VI v. do n.e. – seredina III v. n.e.). Saint-Petersburg.
Vinogradov, Yu.G., Karyshkovskiy, P.O. 1983: Kallinik, syn Evksena. Problemy politicheskoy i social’no-ekonomicheskoy istorii Olvii vtoroy poloviny IV v. do n.e. Vestnik drevney istorii 1, 21–39.
Worthington, I. 2014: Philipp Makedonskij. Saint-Petersburg–Moscow.
Yaylenko, V.P. 2007: Ocherki etnicheskoy i politicheskoy istorii Skifi i v V–III vv. do n.e. In: A.A. Maslennikov, N.A. Gavrilyuk (red.), Antichnyy mir i varvary na yuge Rossii i Ukrainy: Olviya. Skifi ya. Bospor. Moscow–Kiev–Zaporozhia, 61–118.
Zlatkovskaya, T.D. 1971: Vozniknovenie gosudarstva u frakiycev. Moscow.