11 |
Drink |
Had it not been for the rum ration I do not think that we should have won the war.
—A medical officer of a Black Watch battalion
And Dionysus also has a certain share of Ares’ domain.
—Euripides, Bacchae
The use, or rather perhaps the abuse, of alcohol before battle was another, though less significant, incentive for hoplites to face the demands of phalanx warfare and so meet the first charge of the enemy. There is little evidence in Greek literature to indicate that commanders always issued hoplites a ration of strong drink as a matter of policy before they marched forward, but it is nevertheless clear that there was routine drinking and drunkenness in almost every Greek army. Even the customary silence about the formal issuance of drink does not prove that most hoplites did not fight under the influence of alcohol. Writers may have considered such a detail insignificant in their overall description of the battle, and they may also have been reluctant to make a point of the drinking. The mention of alcohol raises the possibility of abuse and disorder, which could bring rebuke upon a general if his troops fared poorly on the battlefield, or even diminish the glory of a victorious army if the enemy in their defeat alleged drunken disorder. In any case, the idea of drunken soldiers seems inconsistent with our notions of the rigidity, discipline, and order required within a Greek phalanx.
What are the advantages that alcohol would have offered to most hoplite armies? The formal nature of Greek battle created mounting, relentless tension as troops were deployed in sight of each other and yet at the same time provided a lull before this storm, when soldiers might well have tried to steel their jittery nerves in any possible manner. Since Homer, the Greeks had recognized that alcohol had some analgesic value against wound trauma. (Il. 11.639; 14.5) Many soldiers may have been drinking simply to dull the sensations in expectation of a painful penetration wound to come. Keegan, in his study of Western battle practice, has noted the traditional use of some such drug among infantry:
Yet the prospect of battle, excepting perhaps the first battle of a war or a green unit’s first blooding, seems always to alarm men’s anxieties, however young and vigorous they be, rather than excite their anticipation. Hence the drinking which seems an inseparable part both of preparation for battle and combat itself. Alcohol, as we know, depresses the self-protective reflexes, and so induces the appearance and feeling of courage. Other drugs reproduce this effect, notably marijuana; the American army’s widespread addiction to it in Vietnam, deeply troubling though it was to the conscience of the nation, may therefore be seen if not as a natural, certainly a time-honoured response to the uncertainties with which battle racks the soldiers. (326)
Wine, as is generally known, was the daily drink of choice throughout the ancient Mediterranean world, not only essential in the average citizen’s diet, but also a standard ration of the hoplite’s meal, an inseparable fact of military life on any campaign. This close association between soldiers and wine is assumed throughout the history of Greek literature. In the midst of the fighting before Troy, for example, Homer’s Nestor remarks to Machaon before he goes forth into battle:
Now Nestor failed not to hear their outcry, though he was drinking
his wine, but spoke in winged words to the son of Asklepios:
“Take thought how these things shall be done, brilliant Machaon.
Beside the ships the cry of the strong young men grows greater.
Now, do you sit here and go on drinking the bright wine,
until Hekamede the lovely-haired makes ready a lovely bath
for you, warming it, and washes away the filth of the bloodstains,
while I go out and make my way till I find some watchpoint.”
(Il. 14.1–8)
By spear is kneaded the bread I eat, by spear my Ismaric
wine is won, which I drink, leaning upon my spear.
(2)
The ubiquity of wine in camp life is also reflected by various references to the standard rations of the hoplite soldier while on the march: figs, cheese, and wine. (E.g., Xen. An. 6.2.3–4; 6.1.15; Ar. Av. 544–54; Pax 1129; Thuc. 3.49.3; Plut. Lyc. 12) For example, in the negotiations concerning the trapped Spartans on Pylos, the Athenians allowed them two quarts of water and a pint of wine per day. (Thuc. 4.16.1) In Xenophon’s Cyropaedia, Cyrus prepared his troops for a march across the isolated desert by gradually weaning them from wine to water, suggesting that the immediate withdrawal from the normal wine ration would be too great a shock for most soldiers who considered it a daily necessity. (6.2.28–29) A variety of sources show that most hoplites traveled with either a wine cup or a flask as part of their pack and thus were always prepared at a moment’s notice for a quick draught. (Archil. 4; Ar. Ach. 549; Plut. Lyc. 9.4)
More importantly, some evidence suggests that troops frequently drank to excess. Hoplites could become disorderly and rebellious when inebriated, making themselves both a danger to their commander and, through their laxness, vulnerable to enemy attack. Xenophon remarks that during the invasion of Corcyra in 374 the Spartan-led mercenaries foraged liberally throughout the island, consuming only the best of the local wines. It seems that very soon after their arrival they had turned to drinking, ruining their morale and making them vulnerable to counterattack. When they were finally expelled by the natives, they left behind stockpiles of wine and grain. (Hell. 6.2.5ff) The same sequence of events is told in Menander’s Aspis (53ff) when Davos explains how his detachment was sliced to pieces by an enemy incursion: they had all retired to their tents in drunken stupor. (Cf., too, Polyb. 5.48.1–5) The Macedonian general Antigonos was said to have drummed out some of his men whom he caught drunk—apparently playing ball while still in their breastplates. (Plut. Mor. 182 A 2) And in his fourth-century speech against Konon, Demosthenes reminded his Athenian audience that while on garrison duty at the Attic border fort of Panakton, the sons of Konon were drunk and abusive toward his company; they were saved from physical violence, he adds, only by the timely arrival of their officers. (54.4) In Xenophon’s Constitution of the Lacedaemonians (5.7) there is mention of the Spartan practice of group messes where hoplites were required to walk home from nighttime get-togethers without aid of a torch—apparently an official effort to discourage drunkenness among the men.
The evidence, then, from Greek literature makes it clear that infantry drank daily as part of their allotted rations and frequently were liable to become intoxicated either before or right after battle with disastrous results for the safety of the entire army. But an important distinction must be made here. Does this activity also indicate that hoplites deliberately drank right before combat to calm their nerves before the clash, and that such use of alcohol was officially condoned, an acknowledgment of the lift it might give the men?
First of all, many of the accounts of Greek hoplite battles make references to the midmorning breakfast where both sides took their last meal before the afternoon’s battle. It was this traditional last meal that Leonidas referred to in his famous farewell to his three hundred Spartans before the final encounter at Thermopylai; after bidding his troops to lunch well, he added, “Tonight we will dine in Hades.” (Diod. 11.9.4; Plut. Mor. 225 D 13) Polybius points out that the Carthaginians at the Trebia River during the second Punic War were caught unaware without a chance to have their accustomed breakfast and so suffered from hunger during the ensuing battle. (3.72.5–7) We know that all hoplites expected alcohol to be part of their daily ration, and were prone to drink wine to excess in times of celebration after the battle or in general camp relaxation. It may be likely that many were, in fact, drinking wine as part of their traditional brunch right before the battle. Xenophon relates how in 378 each day Agesilaos’ army of invasion could wait confidently in expectation of meeting the Theban defenders at the same place near their fortifications, since “it was always after the midmorning meal that the enemy appeared.” (Hell. 5.4.40–44) At one point the usually superior Theban cavalry inexplicably was beaten back by the inferior Spartan horsemen and their accompanying younger, mobile hoplites. The reason, as Xenophon relates it, was that they had thrown their spears senselessly well before the enemy troops were even within range; accordingly, he remarks that these Thebans acted like men “who had drunk a little at noontime.” Is he implying here that they had consumed too much wine during their customary prebattle brunch, or merely recognizing that reckless soldiers resemble those who commonly overindulged at their meal of bread, cheese, and wine?
Elsewhere, we occasionally hear of a more deliberate attempt to raise the spirits of troops about to go on the offensive. Plutarch, in his life of Dion, declares quite clearly that Dionysius issued his men a strong liquor ration before they charged out: “In early morning he filled his mercenary troops with unmixed wine and sent them on at a run against the siege-wall of the Syracusans.” (30.3–4)
A better example in Greek literature is found in Xenophon’s description of the Spartan catastrophe at Leuktra. There he reminds us that part of the initial Spartan confusion in the battle, which began an entire succession of fatal blunders, was caused by the wine the troops had drunk right before the battle:
However, in this battle everything turned out disadvantageously for the Lacedaemonians, while for the other side all was favorable even by chance. For it was after the mid-morning meal that the final plan of battle was held by Kleombrotos. And they say that the wine stirred them up as they were drinking a little at noontime. (Hell. 6.4.8–9)
Perhaps that explains why Kleombrotos led out the charge against the Thebans before the men under him “even perceived that he was advancing.” (6.4.13) In both accounts of the Theban recklessness against Agesilaos and the Spartan disorder at Leuktra, Xenophon acknowledges that the prebattle ration of wine might have aroused the troops a little too much. Instead of steeling their nerves for the upcoming encounter, drink could just as well endanger their chances of success due to alcohol-induced recklessness. Perhaps in most cases hoplites wisely drank only enough to calm, rather than excite their nerves. It seems possible, too, that most authors assumed this customary practice to be quite commonplace, so that again we hear more of the exception rather than the rule—the incidents where troops became drunk rather than the less exciting but more commonplace customary last drink or two before the charge.
Did ancient Greek soldiers march into battle drunk? The most likely answer is “almost.” It may be naive to assume that the Greek hoplite, who drank daily both at home and while on the march, would not realize that an extra cup or two of wine at his customary last supper might stanch his fear, dull his sensitivity to physical injury and mental anguish, and make the awful task of facing an enemy phalanx that much easier.