Battle of Byzantion

Battle of Byzantion

Part of: Diadoch Wars

date	317 BC Chr.
place	Sea of ​​Marmara
output	Victory of the opponents
consequences	strategic advantage of the opponents

Parties to the conflict
Representative of royalty	Opponents
Commander
Clitus the White	Antigonos Monophthalmos Nikanor
Troop strength
unknown	according to Diodor:more than 100 ships
losses
according to Diodor:Loss of the whole fleet	according to Diodor:17 ships sunk

The Battle of Byzantion was a military clash in the Sea of ​​Marmara near the ancient city of Byzantion , now Istanbul . It took place in the summer of 317 BC. Chr. Instead.

As a confrontation in the second Diadoch war, the battle is one of the historical events in the age of the Diadochs , which followed the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC. Was followed.

background

Since the death of Alexander, his generals, "successors" (called Diadochi), were in a relentless struggle for supremacy in his world empire. Since 319 BC They waged the second diadoch war, in which the coalition between Cassander and Antigonus Monophthalmos stood against that of the regent Polyperchon with the defender of the kingdom of Eumenes . While the war of Antigonus and Eumenes was being fought in Asia, the regent Polyperchon and Kassander fought in Europe, that is, in what was then Greece .

In doing so, Polyperchon soon fell behind against his adversary, especially after he died in 317 BC. At the siege of the allied with Kassander megalopolis had failed. In order to improve the situation in his favor and to separate his opponent spatially from his most important ally, Antigonus, Polyperchon sent in 317 BC. A fleet under the command of Kleitos the White to the Hellespont , the strategically important transition between Europe and Asia. In addition, the general Arrhidaios operating there should be supported, who persisted in kios under pressure from Antigonus .

The battle

After Kleitos had reached the Hellespont, several cities of the Propontis went over to him, and he was able to take the troops of Arrhidaios on his ships. After the Hellespont was secured, he sailed up the Dardanelles into the Sea of ​​Marmara to the mouth of the Bosporus at Byzantion. Kassander then sent his henchman Nikanor , the commander of Munychia near Athens , with his own fleet to intercept Kleitos. Both fleets met in front of Byzantion to battle, from which Kleitos emerged victorious. He was able to sink 17 ships of the enemy and capture no less than 40 ships and their crews. Nikanor withdrew defeated with the rest of his ships in the port of Chalcedon .

Assured of his victory, Kleitos landed his fleet on the European side of the Bosporus, where his troops set up camp. But when Antigonus learned of the defeat of his ally, he marched himself to the Bosporus and commandeered transport ships from Byzantion in one night unnoticed by Kleitos. On them he transferred mainly light infantry units, especially archers, to the European side, with which he attacked the camp of Kleitos on the coast at dawn. The men of Kleitus, who were not prepared for a fight, were completely surprised and panicked. In a tumult, they tried to get on their ships and pull them out to sea, where they were hindered by their own prisoners, had to give up their entourage and several thousand of them were taken prisoner. Those who had made it out to sea were also harassed there by Antigonus, who had manned several of his ships with warriors trained in naval combat, who now intercepted the fleeing ships of Kleitos. The battle lasted all day and continued the following night. Nikanor also intervened again by leaving the port of Chalcedon with his remaining fleet. With the ram rams of his ships he stabbed the sides of the fleeing enemy, seized and sank all his ships, including the admiral's ship. With that the fight was over.

consequences

Kleitus escaped captivity by swimming to the European coast. He intended to make his way to Macedonia by land through Thrace , where the followers of Polyperchon still had the upper hand. In Thrace, however, he was taken prisoner by the governor Lysimachus there, who had decided on the side of Cassander and had Kleitus killed.

For Nikanor, too, the ultimately victorious battle of Byzantion was to be fatal. Upon his arrival in the port of Piraeus , Kassander received him solemnly, but only a short time later he was imprisoned and executed. Apparently, Nikanor had made himself suspicious of an arrogant demeanor appropriated as a result of his victory, which is why he was perceived by Kassander as a potential rival for power.

For the representatives of the kingship around Polyperchon, Byzantion represented the second heavy defeat after Megalopolis. It failed to spatially separate Cassander and Antigonus from each other, instead, by the loss of the Hellespont, Polyperchon was cut off from Eumenes. As a result of Antigonus he was pushed further and further into the Asian East and consequently Polyperchon could no longer come to the aid of Cassander. That in turn could still be 317 BC. Gain control of Athens and finally in 316 BC. Also seize power in Macedonia. Eumenes came to an end after the Battle of Gabiene (winter 316 BC) and Polyperchon had to retreat defeated to the Peloponnese.

literature

• Robert Malcolm Errington : Diodorus Siculus and the Chronology of the Early Diadochoi, 320-311 BC In: Hermes 105 (1977), pp 478-504.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Diodorus located the battle of Byzantion in the tenure of Archon Archippos of Athens (317/316 BC). It is therefore referred to in the historical literature as the summer of 317 BC. Dated, see Errington, pp. 484–485.
2. ↑ Diodor 18, 72, 2-4.
3. ↑ Diodor 18, 72, 5-8.
4. ↑ Diodorus 18, 72, 9.
5. ^ Diodor 18, 75, 1.
6. ↑ Nikanor had decorated his ships with the ramming spurs of the sunken ships of Kleitos as trophies and entered Piraeus in this way, see Diodorus. Since the days of Karanos it had been a sacrilege and a sign of arrogance for the Macedonian warrior ethos to take trophies from defeated opponents, something that not even Alexander had dared to do against the Persians. See Pausanias , Helládos Periēgēsis , 9, 40, 8–9.