Neon 353 BC

[Duncan Head]

Battle of Neon, 355 BC

This is a battle of which the sources tell us so little that I'd hardly have thought it worth including in this list. But since I'd dug out what sources there are for a request on dbmmlist, it might as well appear here as well.

Phokians (Philomelos) vs Amphiktyonic League (Pammenes of Thebes)

Background
This battle ended the first stage of the Third Sacred War. Faced by an impossibly high fine levied against Phokis by the Theban-dominated Amphiktyonic Council, Phokis seized the treasuery of Apollo at Delphi and used the funds to hire a mercenary army.

Numbers
Phokians c. 12,000 – "more than" 10,000 mercenaries, 1,500 Achaians
Amphiktyons c. 13,000 - 6,000 Thessalians and allies, Lokrians, Boiotians.

Sources Pausanias; Diodoros; Justin.

Pausanias Description of Greece X.2.4:
The war lasted ten successive years, and during this long time victory often fell to the Phocians and their mercenaries, and often the Thebans proved the better. An engagement took place at the town of Neon, in which the Phocians were worsted, and in the rout Philomelus threw himself down a high precipice, and so lost his life. This was the very punishment fixed by the Amphictyons for spoilers of the sanctuary.

Diodoros XVI.31.3-4:
Philomelus, because of the magnitude of his resources, soon had prepared a considerable army. He immediately advanced into the territory of the Locrians with soldiers both foot and horse amounting to more than ten thousand. When the Locrians marshalled their forces to meet him and the Boeotians came to the support of the Locrians, a cavalry battle ensued in which the Phocians had the superiority. After this the Thessalians together with the allies from neighbouring districts, having assembled to the number of six thousand, arrived in Locris and joining battle with the Phocians met with a defeat by a hill called Argolas. When the Boeotians put in an appearance with thirteen thousand men and the Achaeans from the Peloponnesus came to the support of the Phocians with fifteen hundred, the armies encamped over against one another, both assembled in one place.
...
After this, as the armies were invading another district and were making a march through heavily wooded rough regions, both vanguards suddenly became intermingled. An engagement took place and then a sharp battle in which the Boeotians, who far outnumbered the Phocians, defeated them. As the flight took place through precipitous and almost impassable country many of the Phocians and their mercenaries were cut down. Philomelus, after he had fought courageously and had suffered many wounds, was driven into a precipitous area and there hemmed in, and since there was no exit from it and he feared the torture after capture, he hurled himself over the cliff and having thus made atonement to the gods ended his life. Onomarchus, his colleague in the generalship, having succeeded to the command and retreated with such of his force as survived, collected any who returned from the flight.

Pausanias again, on the site (X.32.8-9):
Tithorea is, I should guess, about one hundred and eighty stades distant from Delphi on the road across Parnassus. This road is not mountainous throughout, being fit even for vehicles, but was said to be several stades longer. I am aware that Herodotus in his account of the Persian invasion gives the town a different name from that given to it in the oracles of Bacis.

For Bacis called the inhabitants Tithoreans, but the account of them in Herodotus states that during the advance of the barbarian the people dwelling here fled up to the summit, and that the city's name was Neon, Tithorea being the name of the peak of Parnassus. It appears, then, that at first Tithorea was the name applied to the whole district; but in course of time, when the people migrated from the villages, the city too came to be called Tithorea, and not Neon any longer.

Justin, Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus, VIII.1:
The Thebans  ... [accused] ...  the Phocians, that they had laid waste Boeotia, as if the Thebans themselves, after their conduct in the field, had left themselves any ground for resorting to law. But as the cause was conducted according to the will of the more powerful, the Phocians were sentenced to pay such a fine as it was impossible for them to raise, and in consequence, despoiled of their lands, children, and wives, and reduced to desperation, they seized, under the leadership of one Philomelus, on the temple of Apollo at Delphi, as if they were enraged at the god. Being hence enriched with gold and treasure, and hiring mercenary troops, they made war upon the Thebans. This proceeding of the Phocians, though all expressed detestation at the sacrilege, brought more odium upon the Thebans, by whom they had been reduced to such necessity, than on the Phocians themselves; and aid was in consequence despatched to them both by the Athenians and Lacedaemonians. In the first engagement, Philomelus drove the Thebans from their camp; but in the next he was killed, fighting in front among the thickest of the enemy, and paid the penalty of his sacrilege by the effusion of his impious blood. Onomarchus was made general in his stead.

Commentary
The sources tell us very little about the tactics involved, or the exact course of the battle. However, it does provide a corrective to the idea that Greeks fought only hoplite battles on open plains.

Note that Justin's account, with no mention of cliffs, difficult terrain, or Thessalians, is so different that it hardly sounds like the same battle - the only constant is the death of Philomelos.

There is a useful discussion in John Buckler's Philip II and the Sacred War, which is at Google Books at http://tinyurl.com/d6pdq9z - pages 37-45. Buckler suggests that Diodoros' 13,000 is the total Amphiktyonic strength, including the 6,000 Thessalians and their allies (presumably the perioikic hill-peoples), and not just the strength of the Thebans as Diodoros says – 13,000 is much bigger than other Theban field-armies at this date. If Diodoros is correct, of course, Philomelos had to fight at least 19,000 Amphiktyons (more, if the 6,000 Thessalians and alllies does not incude the Lokrians).

[aligern]

Interesting scenario Duncan
It deserves to have its name up in lights... Sorry, couldn't resist it!
Roy