PERDICCAS II AND BRASIDAS: THE CAMPAIGN IN LYNCESTIS

Abstract

The subject of interest of this paper is the joint campaign of the Macedonian king Perdiccas II and the famous Spartan military leader Brasidas against the Lyncestian ruler Arrhabaeus I, seen in the wider context of the longstanding Peloponnesian War. Macedonia and Sparta were endangered in front of the same enemy - Athens, which led to the approximation of their interests. The Macedonian king strove for gradual unification of Macedonia with all  the Macedonian tribes and elimination of the Athens pressures on the northern Aegean coast, while the primary goal of Sparta was, however, to acquire the Athenian allies on its side. This text analyzes the course of the campaign and the joint Macedonian-Spartan military operations, which, in their ending, due to incongruity and misunderstanding, led to a temporary interruption of the Macedonian-Spartan alliance. It was actually a campaign of two armies, without a joint command, with different military organization or, mildly speaking - a weak coordination, which at the same time, besides the current common interests, clearly reflects the opposition of the two different policies of the Macedonian Kingdom and Sparta in their wider strategy of action in the Peloponnesian War. The paper turns to the records of Thucydides as the only historical source for the campaign, but at the same time, it turns to the topography of the ground where military operations took place based on the latest archaeological research.

Key words:

Perdiccas II, Brasidas, Arrhabaeus I, Peloponnesian War, Macedonian Kingdom