Battle of Thermopylae (Romans)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Second Battle of Thermopylae in 191 BC BC was the first major field battle of the Roman-Syrian War . A Roman army under the consul Manius Acilius Glabrio triumphed over the allied troops of the Seleucid king Antiochus III. and the Aitolian Federation .

prehistory

Antiochus had landed in Greece in the autumn of 192 BC. BC brought a large part of central Greece under his control with the help of the Aitolians. A Roman-Macedonian counterattack in the spring of 191 BC. BC made these successes largely reversed and drove the Seleucid garrisons from the conquered cities. Then the Roman commander-in-chief Manius Acilius Glabrio advanced with about 30,000 men against Antiochus' base in Chalkis .

Map of Thermopylae

Large parts of the Aitolian troops had stayed behind to guard their home areas, so that they only made 4,000 men available to Antiochus. The Seleucid King himself only had 10,000 more under his command. In view of this clear numerical inferiority, Antiochus avoided an open field battle and had Thermopylae fortified. These were a narrow area between the Oite Mountains and the Gulf of Malia . There, 480 BC. The Spartans tried unsuccessfully in the First Battle of Thermopylae to stop an invading Persian army.

The Seleucids fortified the narrowness with ditches and ramparts. The Aitolians split up: 2,000 stayed in the city of Herakleia at the western end of Thermopylae to tie up Roman troops there. The others occupied the three most important mountain passes of the Iti Mountains in equal parts: Kallidromos, Rhoduntia and Tichios.

Course of the battle

Consul Glabrio attacked Antiochus' fortifications head-on. But he did not break through the line of the Seleucid phalangites , which were additionally supported by long-range fighters. At the same time, in the rear of the Romans, their camp was conquered by the Aitolians from Heraklea, but this had no consequences.

Glabrios flank maneuvers proved to be decisive in the battle: he had sent two detachments of 2,000 men each to conquer the mountain passes. The military tribune Lucius Valerius Flaccus failed in the attempt to take Rhoduntia and Tichios. However, his colleague Marcus Porcius Cato won the battle at Kallidromos against the Aitolians.

Cato now attacked the Seleucid army in the flank from the mountain, whereupon it began a disorderly retreat. The majority of the army was captured by the Romans or was killed. Antiochus himself escaped with about 500 men of his cavalry to Chalkis, from where he sailed to Asia Minor .

consequences

The victory of the Romans at Thermopylae decided the first phase of the Roman-Syrian War, namely the struggle for supremacy in Greece, in their favor. Antiochus had to give up all bases in Greece, as these could no longer be held militarily. The Aitolians, who had previously been the only significant allies of the Seleucids, were on the defensive from this point on. In addition, their troops were now separated from the Seleucid units.

With their victory, the Romans had also bought time to bring in further reinforcements for the attack on Antiochus' territories in Asia Minor. Late 190 BC They finally defeated the Seleucid king in the Battle of Magnesia , whereby Rome gained hegemony over the entire Mediterranean area.

literature

swell

  • Titus Livius : Ab urbe condita libri , book 36, 15-19, in: Hans-Jürgen Hiller (ed.): Roman history: Latin and German. T. Livius , Munich 1982.
  • Appianos of Alexandria : Syriaka 17–20, in: Kai Brodersen (Ed.): Appians Abriss der Seleukidengeschichte , Munich 1989.

Secondary literature