Battle of Paraitakene

Battle of Paraitakene

Part of: Diadoch Wars

date	Fall 316 BC Chr.
place	Paraitakene / Iran
output	draw
consequences	Battle of Gabiene

Parties to the conflict
Representative of royalty	Opponents
Commander
Eumenes Eudemos	Antigonos Monophthalmos Peithon
Troop strength
according to Diodor: 35,000 infantrymen 6,300 cavalrymen 125 elephants	according to Diodor: 28,000 heavy infantry unknown number of light infantry 10,600 cavalrymen 65 elephants
losses
according to Diodor: 500 fallen infantrymen , low number of fallen cavalrymen, 900 wounded	according to Diodor: 3,700 fallen infantrymen 54 fallen cavalrymen 4,000 wounded

The Battle of Paraitakene was a military clash in what is now Iran near Isfahan . It probably took place in the autumn of 316 BC. Chr. Instead.

As part of the Second Diadoch War, the battle is one of the historical events in the age of the Diadochs , which occurred on the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC. Was followed. It was supposed to decide a power struggle in the Asian part of the Alexander Empire between the powerful generals Antigonos Monophthalmos and Eumenes , but ended in a draw.

background

Since the death of Alexander in 323 BC Its generals, called "successors" (Diadochi), found themselves in a relentless struggle for supremacy in its world empire. The Macedonian royal dynasty was divided, the kings Philip III. Arrhidaios and Alexander IV. Aigos were mentally handicapped or underage and therefore incapable of governing . In the first diadoch war (321-320 BC) the first regent Perdiccas was defeated by his enemies and was murdered. At the conference of Triparadeisos the old general Antipater was appointed the new regent and the surviving followers of Perdiccas were banned, especially Eumenes from the miletic colony of Kardia . Antipater appointed one of his closest friends, Antigonos Monophthalmos, strategos (military commander-in-chief) of the Asian part of the empire, and charged him with fighting Eumenes. Antipater died as early as 319 BC And brought the imperial administration to another old friend, Polyperchon . However, Antipater's son Kassander did not want to accept this regulation , who in turn demanded reign and thus triggered the second Diadoch war. Cassander allied himself with Antigonus, whereupon Polyperchon allied himself with the previously outlawed Eumenes, to whom he proposed the strategy over Asia and the defense of the kingdom. So these are the constellations of the second Diadoch war: Cassander against Polyperchon in Europe and Antigonus against Eumenes in Asia.

Because Antigonus had ruled all of western Asia Minor and thus the transition to Europe ( Hellespont ) since the Battle of Byzantion (318 BC ), he cut off the path to unification with Polyperchon from Eumenes, who was seated in Cappadocia . Eumenes therefore first moved to Phenicia in order to reach Europe from the ports there by sea. On the way he managed to win over the warriors of the "silver shields" ( Argyraspiden ) in Cilicia , the oldest veterans of Philip II and Alexander. But after the ship's crew had betrayed him, he was forced to march to the east, to the "upper provinces" on the other side of the Euphrates , whose governors he wanted to win as an ally, always pursued by Antigonus. While the satraps of Mesopotamia and Mediens opted for the side of Antigonus, those of the Central Asian provinces of Eumenes joined. But because he was not a native Macedonian, he had problems maintaining his authority as Commander-in-Chief over his Macedonian allies. In a first meeting on the Kopratas River , he was nevertheless able to win a first victory over Antigonus, which was forced to withdraw to the media, which was costly. The opportunity this opened up to take advantage of the free path to the west and thus to Polyperchon was thwarted by the satraps in Eumenes' entourage, who did not want to expose their territories. Thus Eumenes was forced to encamp in the Persis and soon faced Antigonus again.

In the autumn of 316 BC BC Antigonus went on the offensive again from Ekbatana and penetrated into Persis. Eumenes marched him from Persepolis over the Pasitigris (today Karun) pulling towards him with his troops and faced his opponent in the Paraitakene region, located roughly on the border between the Media and the Persis, to fight.

Battle formation

The plains of Paraitakene ( Greek  Παραιτακηνή ) were divided by a river and a ravine, making this terrain hardly suitable for a battle. Both armies initially camped for four days at a distance of three stadiums from each other on each bank of the river opposite. On the fifth day Antigonus tried to persuade the Macedonian allies of Eumenes to change sides, but this was prevented by Eumenes. In the following night Antigonus intended to withdraw unnoticed by the enemy into the neighboring landscape of Gabiene in order to plunder their abundant food reserves. In addition, Gabiene was in the direction of Susa , where Seleucus, who was allied with him, was encamped, with whose forces he could therefore combine if necessary. However, his plan was betrayed by his own deserters to Eumenes, who then also planned to withdraw to Gabiene. To do this, he instructed some of his mercenaries to go over to Antigonus to let him know of an impending attack on his camp. This bluff led Antigonus to put his army in readiness for defense for the time being, which gave Eumenes a lead in the race to Gabiene. Antigonus quickly became aware of the ruse he had fallen for, whereupon he took up the pursuit of Eumenes with his cavalry, dragging the slower infantry behind him. On the morning of the following day, when he saw the enemy passing a hill, he had a stop that was clearly visible for him to signal his readiness to fight. Eumenes accepted the challenge and, in turn, turned his army about.

Both sides could simultaneously deploy their troops in battle formation undisturbed from each other. Antigonus was clearly superior in cavalry, but inferior in infantry. Eumenes also had the battle-tested “silver shields” division and more elephants in his ranks. His army was positioned directly on the wide plain, while that of Antigonos stood on a hill and therefore had to march downhill. Both opponents applied - following the school of Philip II and Alexander - the same tactical concept by concentrating their offensive forces on their respective right wing and facing the weaker left wing of the opponent with them. Antigonus gave his left wing under Peithon the mere role of flank protection for the phalanx and accordingly instructed Peithon to hold back in battle.

The battle formation according to Diodorus:

position				position
left wing (Eudemos)	150 mounted men of Eudemos 100 lancers ( sarissophoi ) of Eudemos 950 mounted men under Stasanor 600 mounted men under Amphimachos 600 mounted men under Kephalon 500 mounted men from Thrace 500 mounted men from Paropamisades in front of the wing: 45 elephants 2,600 archers		300 flanking mounted pages ( paides ) 100 flanking Tarentine mounted men 300 guards riders 1,000 mounted companions ( hetairoi ) under Demetrios 500 mounted allies (Greeks ?, summachoi ) 1,000 mounted soldiers from Thrace 500 mounted mercenaries in front of the wing: 30 elephants and light infantry	right wing (Antigonos)
phalanx	6,000 mercenaries 5,000 indigenous warriors ( pantodapoi ) 3,000 silver shields ( Argyraspiden ) under Antigen 3,000 shield bearers ( Hypaspisten ) under Teutamos in front of the phalanx: 40 elephants 2,200 archers 10,000 light infantrymen		8,000 Macedonians 8,000 indigenous warriors ( pantodapoi ) 3,000 Lycians and Pamphylians 9,000 mercenaries in front of the phalanx: 30 elephants and light infantry	phalanx
right wing (Eumenes)	800 mounted men under Tlepolemos 900 mounted companions ( hetairoi ) 300 guards riders under Peukestas 300 mounted men from Eumenes 300 selected mounted men from Eumenes 300 flanked mounted men in front of the wing: 40 elephants 2,200 archers 1,000 light infantrymen		800 colonial mounted men ( asthippoi and katoikoi ) 400 lancers ( xustophoroi ) 1,500 mounted men of the Peithon 1,000 Lydian and Phrygian mounted men 2,200 Tarentine mounted men 1,000 Median and Parthian mounted men in front of the wing: 5 elephants and light infantry	left wing (Peithon)

The battle

The battle of Paraitakene can be divided into three phases. It began with a frontal cavalry attack by the Peithon against the wing of Eumenes, with which he ignored the order of Antigonus to hold back defensively. Because Eumenes had mainly heavy and therefore immobile cavalry positioned on his wing, he could not take effective action against this attack at first. Peithon led the attack directly between his elephants, which he tried to eliminate. Eumenes was therefore forced to move a division of light cavalry from the right wing of the Eudemos to his left. With these he finally managed to attack the riders of the Peithon effectively. And after his elephants arrived at the same time, he was able to knock Peithon back against the foot of the hill and in fact rub off its wings.

At the same time the phalanxes met each other in which that of Eumenes was finally able to prevail after some time in bitter hand-to-hand combat and that of Antigonus was shattered. Especially the experience and iron discipline of the “silver shields” had made the decisive difference here, which brought Eumenes shortly before the victory. Only the Macedonians were able to stay on the side of Antigonus, while the mercenaries and indigenous warriors fled.

The loss of the left wing and almost all of the phalanx had brought Antigonus close to the brink of defeat. He was already urged by his advisers to retreat in order to catch up with the fleeing troops and to rearrange them. However, he decided to intervene in the fight with his right wing still intact and struck the seam of the left wing of the Eudemos and the ranks of mercenaries that followed him. The cavalry of the Eudemos, composed mainly of light cavalry, and the fickle mercenaries could not do much to counter the elite riding of Antigonus and soon broke their closed formation to flee. With the loss of his left wing, Eumenes was also in distress, as the flank of his phalanx was now open to Antigonus. He therefore had the pursuit of the opposing infantry broken off in order to bring his troops into a new battle line-up. This also gave Antigonus the necessary time to command his defeated troops back to the field and to relocate them.

When evening came on that day, the two armies faced each other again. Eumenes was determined to fight one more time to deal the fatal blow to his opponent, since he was aware of the far greater losses. But then his generals refused to obey him and asked him to march into the winter camp. In the end he had to bow to their unified resistance in order not to endanger his position as de facto commander. Reluctantly, he marched with his army from the field of Paraitakene, not without claiming the victory for which his own people had actually robbed him. Antigonus also claimed victory for himself on the other side, but although he had his officers firmly under control, he did not dare to meet again. His losses far exceeded those of Eumenes, which is why a successful outcome of a renewed fight seemed more than unlikely. After arranging for the burial of the fallen, he too withdrew from the field with his army.

consequences

Due to the stalemate in Paraitakene, the decision in the second Diadoch war in the Asian theater of war was postponed. Antigonos withdrew into the lower media while Eumenes let his troops recover in Gabiene. When he then distributed his troops to their nearby winter quarters, Antigonus used this to bring him to battle again, this time on the field of Gabiene .

literature

• Leonard C. Smith: The Chronology of Books XVIII-XX of Diodorus Siculus , in: The American Journal of Philology Vol. 82, No. 3 (1961), pp. 283-290
• RM Errington : Diodorus Siculus and the Chronology of the Early Diadochoi, 320-311 BC , in: Hermes 105 (1977), pp. 478-504
• AM Devine: Diodorus' account of the Battle of Paraitakene (317 BC) , in: Ancient World Vol. 12 (1985), pp. 75-86
• Josef Wiesenhöfer: The "dark centuries" of Persis , in: Zetemata 90 (1994) p. 52
• Richard A. Billows: Antigonos the One-Eyed and the Creation of the Hellenistic State (1997), pp. 94-98

Individual evidence

1. ↑ In older research, the battle of Paraitakene was dated 317 BC. BC, for example in Droysen's history of Hellenism . Most recently, however, it is set to the autumn of 316 BC. BC revised. The decisive factor here is probably the tradition of Diodor, who dates the battle to the year in office of Archon Demokleides of Athens (316/315 BC). See Billows p. 94, Smith p. 287–288, Errington p. 483 and Wiesenhöfer p. 52, note 19.
2. ↑ Droysen named the battle of Paraitakene as the "Battle of Gabiene" and the second meeting dealt with here as the "Battle of Gadamarga".
3. ↑ Diodorus 19, 25, 2.
4. ↑ Diodorus 19, 26, 1.
5. ↑ Diodorus 19, 26, 4-5.
6. ↑ Diodorus 19, 26, 6-10.
7. ↑ Diodor 19:29, 7. Peithon, son of Krateas, not to be confused with Peithon, son of Agenor .
8. ↑ On the army of Eumenes see Diodor 19, 27, 1–19, 28, 4.
9. ↑ On the army of Antigonus see Diodor 19, 29, 2-6.
10. ↑ Diodorus 19, 30, 1-4.
11. ↑ Diodorus 19, 30, 5.
12. ↑ Diodor 19, 30, 6-9.
13. ↑ Diodorus 19, 31, 1-4.
14. ↑ Diodorus 19, 31, 4-5.