Tragedy Offstage: Suffering and Sympathy in Ancient Athens

Four. The Transport of Sick and Wounded Soldiers

four The Transport of Sick and Wounded Soldiers I know that there is horrible discomfort in having me on board. . . . Take me and put me where you will, in the hold, in the prow or poop, anywhere where I shall least offend those that I sail with. — sophocles Philoctetes 473–474, 481–483 (trans. Grene) In the tragedy by Sophocles, the warrior Philoctetes has been abandoned on an island by his fellow Greeks because of an incurable and painful snakebite; his anguished cries hamper the performance of religious rites (9–11). For ten years he languishes in terrible isolation until the Greeks revisit the island; he then begs to be taken aboard their ship. Despite the mythical and symbolic dimensions of his plight, Philoctetes may remind us of a real enough problem: how fighting men on the move should handle their sick and wounded comrades.1 The two narratives considered in this chapter come from the sphere of military history, the first from Thucydides’ account of the Athenian retreat from Syracuse, and the second from the central section of Xenophon’s Anabasis, where he tells of the hard march of the Ten Thousand through Armenia. Both historians describe situations in which soldiers retreating with their armies had to deal with sick or wounded soldiers too weak to continue marching. I begin by discussing the practical context for these two stories: the survivability of wounds in ancient warfare and the logistics of carrying live casualties . Table 4 lays out the direct evidence for transport of incapacitated th e tran s por t of s ick and wounded sold ier s 1 05 table 4. long-distance transport of sick and wounded soldiers in oratory and historiography Source Date Identity Occasion Description Thuc. 7.75.2–4 413 Athenians Retreat from Syracuse Incapacitated soldiers are abandoned as the able-bodied decamp; they beg to be carried Diod. 13.18.6 413 Athenians Retreat from Syracuse Incapacitated soldiers are placed between the vanguard and the rear for overland march Thuc. 8.27.4 411 Athenians Naval retreat from Phrynichus orders the wounded to be placed aboard ships Miletus to Samos Xen. An. 2.2.14 401 Ariaeus, a Retreat from Cunaxa The wounded Ariaeus travels by wagon Persian noble Xen. An. 3.4.32 401 Greeks Retreat along the Tigris Greeks cannot both march and fight because so many are hors de combat: the wounded, the soldiers carrying them, and the soldiers in charge of the carriers’ arms Xen. An. 4.5.22 401 Greeks Retreat through Armenia Able-bodied troops carry weakened soldiers to the nearest camp Xen. An. 5.8.6–11 401 Greek warrior Retreat through Armenia Half-dead soldier is carried by mule Xen. An. 5.3.1 400 Greeks Removal from The wounded are placed aboard ships; the able-bodied march overland Trapezus to Cerasus 10 6 t r a g e d y o ffs ta g e Xen. Hell. 3.3.1; c. 398 Agis II of Removal from Arcadia Agis II, sick and near death, is carried through Arcadia; exact mode of transport Plut. Lys. 22.4; Sparta toward Sparta via Heraea; is unclear Paus. 3.8.7 versions differ slightly Isoc. 19.39 c. 394 Removal from Siphnos Servants and a friend, carrying the wounded man on their shoulders, place him to Lycia aboard a ship Diod. 17.63.4 c. 331 Agis III Removal from Megalopolis The wounded Agis III is carried by soldiers; exact mode of transport is unclear of Sparta toward Sparta Curtius 7.6.8 328 Alexander Advance to Maracanda Alexander’s infantry soldiers carry him by litter, the way they customarily carry the Great their wounded comrades Curtius 9.10.15 325 Macedonian Advance across Men fall by the wayside because no transport animals are available; able-bodied army Gedrosian Desert can barely carry their arms Arr. Anab. 6.25.2–3 325 Men fall by the wayside because no transport animals are available, no wagons, nor anyone to help them forward or stay behind table 4. continued Source Date Identity Occasion Description the transport of sick and wounded soldiers 107 soldiers over extended distances in the fifth and fourth centuries. Each story discussed here is analyzed separately to uncover the emotions and moral obligations either stated or implied by the author. In the case of the Xenophon passage, which is told from the point of view...