In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

APPENDIX B: ATHENIAN LOSSES IN THE EGYPTIAN CAMPAIGN 1 Holladay 1989, 179 n. 12. 2 Holladay 1989, 178. 3 See, e.g., Meiggs 1972, 101–108, 439– 441, 473– 477. The complex numerical calculations of Bigwood (1976, 10–15), which suffer from the same weakness, make heavy weather of the evidence and finally confuse rather than enlighten. The Athenian losses recorded in the Egyptian campaign (cf. 11.77.5) by all our major sources are staggering. Thucydides (1.110.1) says “the majority of them perished.” Ctesias (§34, 40b15) puts the figure of those who surrendered at “over 6,000.” Since they had to trek westward across desert, in the height of summer, to reach safety at Cyrene, we should not be surprised to learn that “fewoutofmany”madeithome(Thuc.1.110.1).Butwhatweretheexpedition’s overall losses? The fourth-century rhetorician Isokrates (8.86), in a passage citing Athens’ various heavy losses, puts the total at 200 triremes, with their crews, in Egypt, and another 150 off Cyprus. He is copied by Aelian (VH 5.10). These figures are incredible. The number of triremes is more than Athens’ total fleet; the manpower, at 70,000 (350 ⫻ 200), is over twice the city’s able-bodied free male population.1 We can dismiss the Cypriot figure as a false inference drawn from the relief squadron of fifty ships sent out in ignorance of the defeat (Thuc. 1.110.4), on the assumption that this last was detached from another fleet of 200 (on which see below) that was likewise lost. But that still leaves us with an impossible loss of 200 triremes and 40,000 men. Even if we write off one-third of the figure as allied rather than Athenian casualties,2 the total still defies belief. Similar casualties in Sicily (413 b.c.e.) severely crippled Athens and brought it to ultimate defeat at Aigospotamoi (404); yet a year or two after Egypt, Athens has no shortage of manpower, and a sizable fleet scoring successes in Phoenicia and elsewhere. How are we to explain this? The figure of 200 ultimately must derive from Thucydides (1.104.2), and the defense, against all reason, of enormous casualties stems from a determination to treat Thucydides as the vox Dei.3 But what does Thucydides in fact appendix b 243 4 Just. 3.6.6 –7: “post reditum suorum aucti et classe et militum robore.” 5 Holladay 1989, 179. 6 IG i2 929 ⫽ Meiggs-Lewis no. 33. say? That a fleet this size was (like others both earlier and later) on its way to Cyprus. That the Athenians left Cyprus (with how many ships is unstated), went to Egypt, sailed up the Nile, secured Memphis, and laid siege to the White Fort. Even if all 200 ships went to Egypt (and that is doubtful, though Diodorus at 11.74.3 confirms it), the idea of the whole fleet then navigating the Nile makes no kind of strategic sense. What does make sense is a fleet of about 150 patrolling Cyprus, the mouths of the Nile, Phoenicia, and the eastern Mediterranean in general, while a smaller detachment went upriver to support Inaros and occupy the head of the Delta. Over a long period, the occupying force would be regularly relieved. This is precisely the scenario that our other evidence confirms. When in 450 Kimon launched another expedition to Cyprus and Egypt, he had a fleet of 200 triremes, and he detached sixty of these for campaigning in Egypt (Plut. Cim. 18.2– 4). Ctesias (§32, 40a30) similarly specifies a flotilla of forty triremes sent upriver to Inaros at his request. The flotilla of fifty that was surprised and defeated in 457 (Thuc. 1.110.4) had come as a (probably annual ) relief squadron (diãdoxoi). This is confirmed by Justin, who reports that Athenian forces were depleted at the time through sending a fleet to Egypt, but that subsequently “the return of their men brought up their naval and military strength once more.”4 Even so, the minimum losses5 would have been bad enough: sixty-five Athenian triremes and thirty from Samos, Chios, and Lesbos (even with up to 40 percent alien rowers) meant 8,000–9,000 Athenian citizens, 4,000–5,000 mercenaries, 6,000 island crews. Ctesias’ figure of 6,000 for those who started the trek to Cyrene suggests how many had already died in combat. This was generally a period of heavy losses (probably...

Share