The Lance of Poseidon and the Mede’s Folly
January 14, 485 BC: A child is born in Athens to a family belonging to the Ten Noble Tribes. This boy is named Adones, and is healthy and of a good size. The boy will go on to live a normal life, learning in the academy and serving in the citizen-military.
January 14, 431 BC: In the midst of the Peloponnesian War, the Peloponnesian League and Athenian Empire clash violently with each other. The Spartan army continues to lead its allies in challenging the Athenians by pillaging the lands outside of the Long Walls, in hope of driving the Athenians to meet them on the field. Athens, however, manages to win a decisive battle against the Peloponnesian fleet at Naupactus and continues to ensure its ability to resist seige. During the battle, the Admiral Adones, at 54 years of age, witnesses the impeccable effectiveness of his Thracian mercenaries. He noticed that the Spartan hoplites had difficulty coping with heavily armed and armored peltastai-that is, javelinmen- and that the Thracians swayed the battle considerably because of this fact. He vows to bring up this fact the next time that he meets with the Strategos Pericles, a man with which he had been close friends for nearly thirty years.
March 3, 431: A meeting of the Ten Admirals of Athens, chaired by the Megas Strategos Pericles, occurs at the port of Piraeus. The Admirals discuss the possibility of engaging the Lacadaemonians in ground combat, but are deeply divided. Adones describes to the other Admirals the effectiveness with which his Thracians defeated the Peloponnesian Hoplites during the sea battle, and suggests equipping a similar force of veteran infantry to attack the Spartans on land. The argument continues on for hours, but Pericles finally consents to this request. The Strategos decrees that a force of the city’s finest hoplotai will be his to equip in whatever fashion he desires. In addition, nearly thirty-thousand Athenian demos are conscripted temporarily to assist the war effort, and are equipped as peltastai, toxotai, and psilioi (javelineers, archers, and slingers) according to proficiency. By the end of the day, the city estimates that it will be able to field a force of ten-thousand hoplites, two thousand marine hoplites (equipped in the style of Adones), three-thousand marine archers, and thirty-thousand light ranged troops.
March 10, 431: In one week the Athenian force is assembled, and sallies forth from the Long Walls to engage the Spartans in what would be called in future generations the Great Slaughter of Athens. The battle began with the Peloponnesian force, numbering ten-thousand Spartiates (Spartan-citizen hoplites), and eight-thousand allied Peloponnesian hoplotai marching against the Athenians in traditional hoplite fashion. Admiral Adones, however, arrays his troops in a fashion similar to the Thracian tribes. In the formation, the hoplites are positioned to the left and right of his new Epilektoi Peltastai, each of which are equipped with hoplite armor, several javelins, and a slashing sword. Behind them the archers were arrayed, and in front of the line stood the various skirmisher troops. As the Spartans approached, the archers launched a volley of arrows at the hoplites. The arrows, despite the archers’ best effort, were largely ineffective. The Spartans were drilled heavily in defending against arrows, and were not daunted by this. As they approached closer, they began to receive a withering hail of slingshot, javelins, and smaller arrows. Once again, however, the Spartans were trained against skirmishers, and received few casualties. Pericles watched timidly from the long walls, his heart beating nervously in his chest. He couldn’t help but be concerned, and hear himself mumble:
“The mob will hang me for this.”
Across from the field, the Spartan marshal grinned under his helmet, his cloak wrapped tightly around his armor. He turned towards the Ephors, officers representing the Spartan state on campaign, and remarked on the foolishness of the Athenians. He ordered his lieutenant to order the hoplites to charge the Athenian lines. He knew in his heart that there were no hoplites which could best his people in combat. The horns sounded, and the hoplites silently began to charge towards the enemy in formation. The Athenians remained still, opting to let loose another volley of arrows towards the Lacadaemonians. The Spartans shrugged off this barrage as well, and approached a full sprint, charging rapidly in perfect formation towards their rivals. It was at this moment that the Athenians began to jog towards their enemy, the Epilektoi at their center. Only a few steps before the clash of shields, however, the Epilektoi halted and threw their javelins into the Spartan phalanx. The Spartans, for their part, were completely surprised by the tactic, and the entire momentum of the charge was lost. Thus the Lacadaemonian formation was divided down the center, and turned apart from each other. The Spartan general felt a shiver erupt down his spine. He had succumbed to the same sin as Odysseos: hubris. The Spartans were rocked as their Peloponnesian allies began to break formation and retreat. They rapidly found themselves surrounded and out of options, with Athenian skirmishers launching volley upon volley into the midst of their enemies. It was at this point that the Spartans finally surrendered, unwilling to lose any more men. At the conclusion of the battle, eight-thousand Spartans, two-thousand Peloponnesians, and three-thousand Athenians lay dead upon the battlefield, and Sparta had been proven mortal. The embarrassment of this defeat would remain with the Lacadaemonians for generations, and shook the Greek world to its core.
April 30, 431-March 5, 430: After the debacle at Athens, the Spartans lost much of their credibility and ethos in the Hellenic world. Many of their allies no longer trusted in Sparta’s ability to protect them from Athens, and instead hoped that Athens would be more lenient with those who joined them voluntarily than with those they conquered. Soon, only Corinth and Elis remained allied with Sparta. Even Thebes, a significant regional power, threw their lot in with Athens. On April 30, however, the Hellenic world was rocked by a strange occurrence. On that day, the Persian Empire invades Thrace and Macedonia in accordance to the Empire’s secret alliance with Sparta. Thrace and Macedonia (and by association, Thessaly) soon came under occupation by the Persian forces, acting publicly on behalf of Sparta.
April 10, 430: A trade ship destined for Athens is seized by the Persian fleet in contested waters. The cargo is brought into the Persian camp and is spread amongst the troops.
May 7, 430: The Poleis of Greece, horrified at the rapid Persian expansion into the homeland, send emissaries en masse to a meeting at the Athenian acropolis in order to develop a response. The meeting again focuses on forming a Pan-Hellenic alliance, with Athens acting in the role of defender and commander of the united military, and with every Polis retaining sovereignty only over its own territory. The meeting, however, faces a large manpower and regional gap in the form of the Peloponnesian League which had notably remained absent. This awkwardness, however, dissipates with the arrival of a procession of Spartan and Peloponnesian leaders, chaired by half a dozen Ephors and King Pleistoanax of Sparta. The King sat and elaborated to the assembled leaders that the Spartans had hoped to utilize Persian naval power against Athens, and had never agreed to a Persian invasion of the mainland. The King further explains that he understands that the need for a more united Greece was more pressing at this point than ever before. He agrees, on behalf of the Ephors and Spartan Assembly, to contribute troops to a united Greek alliance as long as Spartan sovereignty is never compromised. Pericles presents the motion to the Boule and Assembly, which both agreed to the treaty in an emergency meeting. With the ratification of the Peloponnesian Treaty , the Poleis of Greece (as well as representatives of Macedonia, Epirus, and Thessaly) agreed to form the Final Alliance (Telikia Symmachia) known colloquially as the Athenian league.
May 8, 430-October 21, 430: On May ninth, the Persian camp is ravaged by a devastating bout of plague-thought to have emanated from fleas and rats aboard a seized trade ship- and is forced to replenish its manpower and resources before embarking on a campaign in Greece itself. This allows the Symmachia to prepare a military force to respond. The central command of the Alliance is composed of the Twelve Athenian Admirals, the Strategos of Athens, the Agiad King of Sparta, and the Archons of Thebes and Corinth, all of whom work devotedly to create some form of united military response force. The leaders work to find a way to utilize as much manpower as possible, and create the so-called ‘line infantry’ composed of levies and militia from all of the cities in Greece save for Sparta. These troops were given longer pike-like spears and lighter equipment to outreach their more skilled opponents and to give them increased odds of outmaneuvering skirmishers, respectively. These forces form the core of a new and reformed military corps, composed of the Line Infantry, elite Hoplites from the nobility and ruling class of each Polis, skirmishing troops and levies from the lower classes of volunteers and draftees, and specialists native to various poleis. This united force is highly decorated featuring such famous groups as the Spartiates, Sacred Band of Thebes, Athenian Acropolitan Guard, and the newly successful Epilektoi Peltastai, native to Athens but drawn from other cities as well.
October 25, 430: During an incognito inspection of Athenian forces during training, Megas Strategos Pericles is accidentally impaled by a javelin. The leader dies minutes later, and an emergency election for the post of Megas Strategos is held that night in addition to an elaborate funeral for the famous Athenian leader. By an impressive margin, the Assembly and Boule elect Adones to the post of Megas Strategos. The Assembly also votes to create a statue in honor of Pericles to be placed in the Acropolis.
) and I hope that this is a long and fruitful scenario.