The Battle Exhortation in Ancient Historiography. Fact or Fiction?

Author(s): Mogens Herman Hansen

Source: Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, Bd. 42, H. 2 (1993), pp. 161-180
Published by: Franz Steiner Verlag
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 THE BAYTLEEXHORTATION
IN ANCIENT
HISTORIOGRAPHY.
FACTORFICTION?

A surveyof all speechesin GreekandRomanhistoriography revealsthatmost

of thembelongto one of thefollowingthreecategories:(a) the speechmadeby a
politicalleaderto his city's assemblyor council;(b) the speechdeliveredby an
envoy to anothercity's decision-making bodyof government;and(c) the speech
by a generalto his troops.Speecheswere,of course,alsomadeby otherson other
occasionsandto otheraudiences:cf. e.g. Thukydides' versionof Perikles'funeral
But
oration.1 the threetypes listed above predominate,and when, in the late
classicalandhellenisticperiods,thewritingof historyhadbecomea fixed genre,
thethreetypeswerejuxtaposedanda technicalterminventedforeachtype.Thus,
Polybiosdistinguishesbetweendeliberativespeechesoftenmadeto an assembly
(demegoriai), speeches by envoys (presbeutikoilogoi), and exhortations
(parakleseis)2,which are mostly haranguesby a general to his army, and
especiallythe speechhe deliveredimmediatelybeforea battle.
It is thelastforrnof speechthatis thethemeof thepresentstudy.Sincewaris
thedominantsubjectmatterin ancienthistoriography, thegeneral'sspeechto his
menbeforebattleis attestedin almostall historians.Harbingers of the genrecan
be found in Herodotoswho tells us that Themistoklesexhortedthe marines
(epibatai)beforethey embarkedto fight the battleof Salamis,3and in the first
stageof the battleof Plataiaia Phociangeneralmakesa shortspeechto his men.4
In Thukydidesfully-fledged pre-battlespeeches are made by the generals
Brasidas,Demosthenes,Gylippos,Hippokrates, andNikias.5Xenophonis known
for Thrasyboulos'speechto the rebelliousdemocratsdeliveredjust beforethe
battleof Mounichia.6 BothArrian7andQuintusCurtiusRufus8reporthow Alex-
andertheGreataddressedhis menbeforeIssosandGaugamela. Polybiosincludes
the speechesmade by Hannibaland his RomanopponentsbeforeCannaeand

1 Thuc.2.34-46.
2 Polyb. 12.25a3, 13; cf. Diod. 20.1.2 who distinguishesbetweendemegoriai,presbeutikoi
logoi andenkomia/psogoi.
3 Hdt.8.83.1-2.
4 Hdt.9.17.4.
5 See infra pages 167-168.
6 Xen. Hell. 2.4.13-7.
7 Arrian.Anab.2.10.2;3.9.5-8.
8 QuintusCurtiusRufusHist.Alex.3.10.3-10;4.14.1-7.

Historia,BandXLII/2(1993)
C)FranzSteinerVerlagWiesbadenGmbH,Sitz Stuttgart

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162 MooEsHERMANHANSEN

Zama.9Caesar'saccountof the battle of Pharsalosopens with the speeches

deliveredbeforethe battle.10Livius reproducesMarcusAcilius' speechto his
armybeforethebattleof Thermopylai againstAntiochosthe Great.11 Andin the
Annals of Tacituswe can readthe speechesmadeby Germanicus andArminius
beforethe battleof Idistaviso.12
All thisis well knownanduncontroversial. Difficultiesarise,however,when
- once again- we put the inevitablequestion:arethe speechesreportedby the
historianstrustworthy reproductions of thespeechesactuallymade,oraretheythe
historians'inventionof whatit would have been appropriate to say underthe
circumstances?That questionappliesto all speechesin the historiansbuitis
particularlyrelevantin connectionwiththebattleexhortations, whereit hasto be
subdividedinto two questions.We mustnot only ask, specifically,whetherthe
speecheswe readarein agreementwithwhatwas actuallysaid,butalso putthe
moregeneralquestionwhetherthe GreekandRomancommandersdid address
theirarmiesbeforebattlein the way pretendedby the historians.If the second
questionis answeredin the negative,the firstquestionno longerapplies,and
accordinglywe mustexaminethebattleexhortation as a typeof speechbeforewe
beginto studytheindividualspeeches.
Most scholarstake it for grantedthat battleexhortationswere commonly
madeandthat,accordingly, it is relevantto investigateto whatextentthespeeches
we read conformwith the speechesonce delivered.To illustratethe accepted
opinion,it will suffice,I believe,to cite fourexcellentmodemworks.Accepting
the battleof Agincourtas a valid parallelW. K. Pritchetttruststhe ancient
historiographic traditionthata hoplitebattlewas regularlyprecededby a battle
exhortation.13 Similarly,in Ch.W. Fornara'saccountof ancienthistoriographyI4
andin V. D. Hanson'smonograph on theGreekwayof war15thegeneral'sspeech
to his armybeforethebattleis mentionedwithoutanyindicationof doubtaboutits
existence,andin therecentcollectionof articlesabouthoplitebattles,editedby V.
D. Hanson,thespeechbeforebattleis alsoregardedto as a historicalfactby both
the scholarswho refer to it: "Manygeneralswould take this opportunityto
haranguetheirmen"saysJ. Lazenbyin his articleThe Killing Zone andsuggests

9 Polyb.3.108-11; 15.10-11.
10 Caes.BCiv.3.86-91.
11 Livy36.17.
12 Tac.Ann.2.14-15.
13 W. KendrickPritchett,TheGreekStateat WarIV (BerkeleyandLos Angeles 1985) 1-2.
14 Ch. W. Fornara,The Natureof History in AncientGreece and Rome (Berkeleyand Los
Angeles 1983) 162:"Thebattleexhortation,for example,was sufficientlycommonplacefor
any schoolboy to invent its typical substance.Could not the historianallow himself the
constructionof such a speech (which he knew full well had been delivered)with a clean
conscience?"
15 V. D. Hanson,TheGreekWayof War(New York1989) 135, 139.

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 inAncientHistoriography
TheBattleExhortation 163

that the army may have been addressedunit by unit.16And E. Wheeler writes in
The General as Hoplite: "'no doubt some generals deployed their forces,
haranguedthem, perforned the sphagia, took a place in the frontranks,and began
battle with a paean."17In both articles the verb used is "to harangue"which
implies a fully-fledged speech and not just a few words of encouragement.'8
Personally, however, I am inclined to question the existence of harangues
delivered by generals to their armies before battle, and I will substantiatemy
doubt by comparingthe two genres of historiographyand rhetoric.
If the types of speech found in historiographymatch the types of speech
actually used in ancient societies, it must be possible to find evidence of the same
types of speech in ancient rhetorical literature,partly in the form of preserved
speeches (or titles and fragments of lost speeches), and partly in the form of
theoretical and systematic treatmentof the types in question in the preserved
rhetoricaltreatises and handbooks.
Such an investigation leads to the corroboration of the existence of
demegoriai and presbeutikoi logoi. A number of speeches to the people are, in
fact, preserved, eighteen to be precise.19Most of the preserved speeches are by
Demosthenes, but fragmentsand titles of other symbouleutic speeches survive2'
and enable us to reconstructthe type of speech delivered by a political leaderto his
city's decision-making bodies. It must, of course, be kept in mind that the
published speech may have been a (much) revised version of the speech he
delivered,21but that is a different problem, not to be discussed here. No speech
made by an envoy has survived but the type is attested through titles and
fragmentsof lost speeches, most of them by Antiphon and Hypereides.2 For the
general's speech to his army the investigation leads to a different conclusion. No
such speech is preserved, and no fragments or titles of lost speeches have
survived. The genre has not left any trace of its existence in our corpus of
speeches. It would be rash, however, on this evidence alone to conclude that the
battle exhortationis a fiction. The entire corpus of Greek speeches is centered on
Athens and spans one century from ca. 420 to 322. However, the majorityof the

16 Hoplites.TheClassicalGreekBatle Experience,ed. V. D. Hanson(London1991)90.

17 Ibidem150.
18 Cf. also W. K. Pritchett,TheGreekStateat WarIV (BerkeleyandLos Angeles 1985)4.
19 Lys. 28, 34; Andoc. 3; Dem. 1-6, 8-10, 13-16; [Dem] 7 & 17. See M. H. Hansen,The
AthenianAssemblyin theAge of Demosthenes(Oxford1987) 135-6, note 23; TheAthenian
EcclesiaII (Copenhagen1989)286-94.
20 Andoc.fr. ii (Sauppe);Hyp. frr.182-4 & 195-6 (Sauppe);See also Demosthenes'fifty-five
prooimiato symbouleuticspeeches.
21 C. D. Adams, "Are the Political Speeches of Demosthenesto be regardedas Political
Pamphlets?" TAPA43 (1912) 5-22.
22 Ant.Fr.ix, x, xvi (Sauppe);Thrasymachos Fr.i, ii (Sauppe);Kallistratosfr. i (Sauppe);Hyp.
Frr. xii, xxiii, xxv, xxviii, xliii, xlviii and lxii (Sauppe). See F. Blass, Die attische
Beredsamkeitiii.2 (Leipzig1898) 19 andP. Oxy.3360.

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speecheswe have belongin the laterpartof the period.They are 4th century
compositionsand especially from the period 355-322. But at that time the
politicalleadershadsplitupintorhetores(whono longerservedas strategoi)and
strategoi (who no longer took the floor and addressedthe people as rhetores).3 A
glanceat the list of Atticoratorsincludedin BaiterandSauppe'seditionshows
thatIphikrates,KallistratosandAristophonare the only personslikely to have
composeda battleexhortation.24 Andin theage of Perikles(whentherhetoresin
theassemblyalsoservedas strategoiin thefield)no onethoughtof publishingthe
speecheshe hadcomposed.25 Accordinglywe neednot be too surprisedby the
completeabsencefromAtticrhetoricof a speechdeliveredby a commander to his
armybeforea battle.
It is much more importantto recognizethatthe genreis absentfrom the
rhetoricaltreatisesas well. For other types of eloquence the speeches we have can
be matchedwithdiscussionsof the samegenrein thetextbooks.BothAristotle's
Rhetoric and the Rhetoric to Alexander, for example, provide us with extensive
of howto composea deliberative
descriptions ora forensicspeech,27
speech26 and
which topics are appropriatein each case. The topoi of a presbeutikos logos are
dealtwithin a chapterof the secondtreatiseascribedto MenanderRhetor.28 The
rulesfor a funeralorationarelaiddownin anotherchapterof the sametreatise,29
andtheyarealso treatedby Dionysiosof Halikarnassos in his technerhetorike.30
But againthebattleexhortation is conspicuousby its absence.Fora logographer
or anauthorof a rhetoricaltextbookthegeneral'sspeechto his menoughtto have
been a titbit.The examplesknownfrom historiography bristlewith comnon-
in
placesto be applied,withvariations, any suchspeech.Accordingly,it is very
strange that hardly any mention of the genre can be found in rhetorical
textbooks.31 Lookingthroughthousandsof pagesI have been able to find only
fourcasualreferences.
1. In his irpoTpcwrucKb6dLOXTatLsDionysiosof Halikarnassos claimsthatan
encouragingspeechcanbe of helpin anysituationas, forexample,in warbefore
a battle:o&rnaSW
Kal t1Tl 1TOXLOU Kail 1Tt TuapaTdiEWS UovtaTpaTLU)Tat TOO
1Tapa T(iV UTpaTrfydv X6you Kdal nls TpOTpoTrTs', Kat a1Tot auT[iv

23 Hansen1989(supran. 19) 17-21.

24 I. G. Baiter& H. Sauppe,OratoresAtticiII (Z(irich1850)nos. 18-20 (p. 217-20).
25 Plut.Mor.832D;Per. 8.7; Pi. Phdr.257D.
26 Arist.Rhet.Book 1, Chapters4-8; Rhet.ad. Alex.Chapters2, 29-34.
27 Arist.Rhet.Book 1, Chapters10-15; Rhet.ad Alex.Chapters4, 36.
28 Men.Rhet.2.13. Cf. also C. Wooten,in QuarterlyJournalof Speech58 (1973) 209-1'2.
29 Men.Rhet.2.11.
30 Dion. Hal. Techne Rhetorike VI: Methodos Epitaphion(pp. 277-83, ed. Usener and
Radernacher).
31 In the second treatiseascribedto MenanderRhetorthereare chaptersaboutthe birthday
speech(2.8), theconsolatoryspeech(2.9), theenkomionof theemperor(2.1-2), etc. etc., but
no chapteraboutthegeneral'sspeechto his army.

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 The Battle Exhortation in Ancient Historiography 165

tpp(4tEV14TIEpOL IytvOVTo;32and in the same treatise we are told that just as the
best soldiers are most encouraged by the general's speech, it is also the best
athletes' morale thatis fortified by an exhortation:8raip y&pKdL tv cTpaTo1T84
o0 YvrLWLTaTOL ITapa TOV aTpcaThydSVX6yow &KoicavTES lUdiXWTca LXOTLpovTaL

TPEPITXV V(KIfV, OVTW KdI O IV TOtSL &LkTUL 1TpOTpETrTLKOUS X6-yow OEKE(w

dva8et6lievoL.33 But these two casual remarks are all we hear about battle
exhortationsin Dionysios of Halikarnassos'extensive literatureon rhetoric.
2. In Aelius Aristides' TlavryupLKbsbv KCmpy) there is one randomreference
to the battleexhortation,viz. the observationthatthe general's speech is addressed
not to the soldiers to whom it makes no difference whethermuch or anythingat all
is said, but to those who will find such encouragementto be useful: 8&flov & IK
TOO TcaXaLOO TOO TFEpl TOV 8poI?tV OpUXoUVtvoU A6yov.oj8d! y&p 'w twos!
dlTetv TrpOT-ptTEL TOig (CYTdTOw a6Trv O&TE TOS' 8XwdSTOXEL1TO[LVOW, d&X'
obs aV &yyil 6VTaS' T1js' VIK-!s; 6pX. olRat 8 Kac TOS' CrTpaTrlyOlSU TOlWS
TraPaKXT1TLKOil T(3V X6-ywv o Trp* TO(rTOw dvaLtaKELV TU)V CTrpaTLwT61V, o0s av
TaUT6V i ITOX TE KaQ Vn&v EliTEtv, aX olsd av EIs &ov V?AXX,I V6.aXrra
ylyvEcOa.34
3. Theon of Alexandria's Progymnasmata include a section about
iTpoctwoTroL(a, a term which in this context denotes the ability to say the
appropriatewords in the appropriatesituation, and here the general's address to
his men before battle is mentioned side-by-side with the husband's words to his
wife before a joumey: o61v Ttvags av (lTroL Xyos' dLvfp irpbs' Tr?vyuvatKa
f crTpaTrT1yy6S'TOC'L rTpaTtLTaLs'
VLXXwv dr1To8TnVEtv, t1Tt TOiS' KLV8UVOS.35
4. In the chapter about ekphrasis the first example adduced by Libanios
concerns a hoplite battle: the signal to open the battle is giveniwhen the general
has fortified the morale of his soldiers by an exhortation: &tavTEo & ot
rTpaT71-yO1 Tats' ITpaKXlaEaL T(3V VaXOgVW.V TdLS' yvigaS XKEUOv tpaL TdL
a-nVda.36
It takes us no furtherto turnfrom the textbooksto the applicationof the theory
in the numerouscollections of exercises. Many possible and impossible topics are
selected by the rhetores as a theme for an exercise. Libanios' collection includes,
for example, Kimon's petition to go to prison in his father's place (no. XI) or
Timon the misanthropist'sspeech abouthis affection for Alkibiades (no. XII). But
a speech by a general is not to be found among his Declamationes.
I conclude that the battlefield exhortation is a type of speech found in
historiography but not in rhetoric. It is known as a literary genre only, and

32 Dion. Hal.TechneRhetorike7.2 (p. 285).

33 Ibidem7.3 (p. 286).
34 AeliusAristides27.42, Keil.
35 TheonAlex. Progymnasmata. Prosopopoiia,in Spengel,RhetoresGraeciII, 115(235.154).
36 LibaniusProgymnasmata, Descriptiones,XIIEkphraseisI Pezomachia5.

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166 MOGENs
HERMANHANSEN

consequently there is good reason to question its existence as a genuine type of

speech to be delivered before a battle and notjust read in an accountof the battle.
To shed furtherlight on the question, we must turn to the ancient specialist
literatureabout military matters.We possess, for example, Xenophon's essay on
the cavalry commander, Aeneas Tacticus' book on siegecraft, Polyainos' and
Frontinus' works on stratagems, and Onasander's treatise on the general.
Onasander's treatise was composed in the 1st century AD, but is modelled on
earlier Greek treatises rather than on contemporaryexperience. In the chapter
about election of generals, we are told that a general must be temperate, self-
restrained,vigilant, frugal, hardenedto labour,alert,free from avarice, and, in the
middle of this long enumerationof virtuesof a good general,we learnthathe must
be eloquent: Onasanderclaims thatthe general's exhortationto his troopsbefore a
battleis more encouragingthanthe bugle call to open the battleand thathis words
of consolation aftera defeat can bringmorecomfort thanthe doctors' treatmentof
the wounded: Mv TE yap icrdT7 urrp6s- lidXqv aTpaT1y6s-, i TOO M6you
napaK&EUCLS9Td5V >&V &LV(IV lTO(TXaE KaTa4pOvEtv, Tc3v M KcALV TTLOUVEtV,
EsI dLLXxavlid'Xms,
Kda oiX otTm &iKoats rixXoOca reiXlTLyetyfEpEL qiVXd&s' dS
X-YOsELSTTpOTpOTT)V&dpeT vaywvtou oiidsl alxiidCouaav dvctT1ac7E iTp&s,Td
&LV '-v 8LdvoLav,dv Tt TL acpt irrataua iTEpI TO cTpaT67TE8Ov,f TOOM6you
lTraplyop(a TgS q;uX&9 dMvppWac, icL iTOXi 8i XPTI.LWTEp6S anTL crTpaTy7yoO
Myos oQiC &8vaTOs (STE lTpajiuBEtaOa TdS! tV arTpTO1T8OL;S a(4OpdSg, Td3V
blroitvwv TOtS'Tpav4aTtaLS taTkrpv.37 Whether it is the standard of Greek rhetoric
or the standard of Greek medicine that is thrown into relief by Onasander's
remarks I cannot say, but there can be little doubt that a general usually said
something to his men before a battle. Furthermore,his exhortationis explicitly
addressedto the army when deployed, but, on the otherhand, Onasandergives us
no clue as to the length of the general's address or the way it was delivered. To
find such information we must read the historians and analyse not the battle
exhortationsthemselves - thathas been done often enough - but the setting of the
speeches; and first we must distinguish between two different types of speech
delivered by a general.
The soldiers were often summonedto armymeetingsjust like the citizens of a
polis were summoned to popularassemblies; and the officers met to deliberateat
staff meetings just like the councillors serving on the city's boule met to prepare
the agenda for the Assembly. In our sources such meetings are often called
syllogoi.38 At army meetings the soldiers were addressed by the general or one of
the officers or one of themselves, and the deliberationcould lead to a vote takenby
the entire army.39Speeches held at army meetings are well known, e.g., from

37 Onasander, Strategikos 1.13.

38 J. Christensen and M. H. Hansen, "What is Syllogos at Thukydides 2.22.1 ?" ClMed 34 (1983)
17-31.
39 Xen. Anab. 3.2.9, 33; 5.6.33; 7.3.6.

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 inAncientHistoriography
TheBattleExhortation 167

Xenophon'sAnabasis,40 buttheyareirrelevantin thiscontext.A general'sspeech

to his soldiersat an armymeetingwas symbouleuticandis hardlydistinguishable
fromanordinarydemegoria,whereasthebattleexhortation is protreptic.Thereis
no debateas to whetherit is expedientto go outto battle;thereis one speechby the
commanderandnottwo ormorespeechesadvocatingopposedviews.Finally,the
soldiersdo notvote on whetheror notto fight.Thebattleexhortation is epideictic
ratherthansymbouleutic.Its purposeis to encourage,not to persuade,andthe
very few referencesto the genrein rhetoricaltreatisesshowsthatit is described
with the termsprotreptikos4dandparakeleusis,42 whichis in full agreementwith
the languageusedby the historians.43
Withthis distinctionin mindI will presenta shortsurveyof the speechesby
generalsin Thukydides.44 The firstis Archidamos'speechbeforethe invasionof
Atticain 431 (2.11.1-9). The occasionis a meetingof the generalsandpolitical
leadersof thePeloponnesian League.It is neithera speechto thewholearmynor
a speech made before a battle. It is a syllogos speech and not a battle exhortation.
Thukydides'accountof the naval battle off Naupaktosopens with the
speeches made by Knemon,Brasidasand the other Peloponnesiangenerals
(2.86.6).Thukydidesconveystheimpressionthatseveraldifferentspeecheswere
delivered,but he reportsone speechonly (2.87.1-9), whichrunsfor some 250
words.It is unclearwhetherThukydides'speechis a conglomeration of several
differentspeechesor one single speechdeliveredby every single generalto his
own unitonly.
ThePeloponnesian generals'speechis followedby Phormion'sspeechto the
Athenians(89.1-11). Bothhis speechandtat of thePeloponnesiangeneralsare
held eitheron the eve of the battleor early,in the morningjust beforethe crews
embark(90.1). Thus both speeches are battle exhortationsbut neitheris a
battlefieldexhortationmadeto thearmywhendeployed.
Facing a Peloponnesianattackon Sphakteria,Demosthenesaddressesthe
menhe hasbroughtdownto thecoast(4.10.1-5).His speechis short(200 words)
and madeto a unitof one hundredmen at most (9.2), beforethe soldiershave
takenup theirfinalposition(11.1).

40 Xen.Anab.3.2.2-29.
41 Dion. Hal. (supran. 32);Theon(supran. 35).
42 Onasander (supra n. 37); Libanius (supra n. 36). In rhetorical treatises the term parakletikos is
also used about the paian song by the soldiers before the battle (Aelius Aristides 34.61, Keil;
Dio of Prusa 2.59) and about the bugle call sounded as the signal for battle (Dion. Hal. Antiq.
Rom. 6.10.2).
43 Logoiparakletikoi: Polyb. 12.25a3. Paraklesis: Polyb. 3.111.1; Dion. Hal. Antiq. Rom. 7.66.3.
Cf. Xen. Anab. 3.1.44; ArrianAnab. 2.10.2.
44 Cf. 0. Luschnat,Die Feldherrnredenim Geschichtswerkdes Thukydides,
PhilologusSuppl.
34.2 (Leipzig 1942);R. Leimbach,MilitdrischeMusterrhetorikEine Untersuchungzu den
Feldherrnredendes Thukydides (Wiesbaden1985).

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168 MoGENs HERMANHANSEN

Before the battleof Oropos,Pagondasthe Boiotarchdelivers a speech of more

than 300 words (4.92.1-7) to an arny already drawn up in battle order.
Thukydides presents an interesting piece of information, i.e. that Pagondas
addresses his men unit by unit (91.1).
Similarly, Hippokrates,the Athenian general, harangueshis men (4.95.1-3)
while waLkingalong the frontof the phalanx(brlTrapLdv). His speech is very short
(less than one hundredwords), and Thukydides tells us that he has to stop half-
way because the Boiotians attackafter yet anothershortexhortationby Pagondas
(96.1).
When attackedon his marchthroughLynkestis (4.125.4), Brasidashastens to
address his men with a speech of more than 300 words (126.1-6). The speech is
delivered while the army has formed a squareand awaits the attackof the enemy
(125.2-3).
At Amphipolis Brasidasharanguessome 150 soldiers (5.8.4) with a speech of
some three hundredwords (9.1-10). But the speech is made before the soldiers
marchout and is not a battlefieldexhortationin the strict sense of the term.
The battle of Mantinea is opened with each contingent of the allied army
being addressedby its general and Thukydidessummarizesthe exhortationof the
Mantineans,the Argives and the Athenians,three shortperiods in indirectspeech
that add up to no more thaneleven lines altogether(5.69.1).
Before the battle of Syracuse Nikias delivers a speech of some 150 words to
his army (6.68.1-4). He walks along the phalanxwhile speaking (tTrrL1apLuv) and
exhorts the troops unit by unit (67.3). Nevertheless, Thukydides' speech purports
to be what he says to them all (etOIrrauL).
During one of the skirmishesoutside SyracuseGylippos takes the opportunity
to exhort his men who have been beaten in the first phase of the engagement.
Gylippos' addressis extremely short and reportedin indirectspeech (7.5.3-4).
Nikias makes a long speech (some 550 words) to his men before the great
battle in the harbourof Syracuse (7.61-4). The speech is addressedto all, both
Athenians and allies (60.5), and we learn that the crews do not embarkuntil after
the speech (65.1).
Simnilarly,Gylippos and his colleagues addressthe Syracusannavy, and again
the speech is made before the crews embark. As in the case of the battle off
Naupaktos all the generals haranguetheir men, and, again, we are left in doubt
whetherdifferentspeeches were made or one speech delivered by each generalto
his own unit. Thukydidesreportsone speech of some 500 words.
The last battleexhortationin Thukydidesis Nikias' addressto his men during
the retreat from Syracuse while he walks along the columns. After Nikias has
delivered the speech, we are told that Demosthenes made a similar speech to his
men. Nikias' speech is not a battlefield speech but an exhortationof an army on
the march.
What can be deduced from the battle exhortations in Thukydides' work?
When a hoplite army was drawn up in battle order the phalanx stretchedacross

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 The BattleExhortationin AncientHistoriography 169

several hundredmetres,45and even if the soldiers kept quiet and grounded their
shields46 they were wearing armour that could easily rattle.47 Under such
circumstancesit must have been impossible for a general, even if he had had the
voice of a Stentor, to deliver a speech that could be heard by all the soldiers
simultaneously. If the army was commandedby several generals each may have
addresseda small section of the phalanx,as we are told three times.48But if it fell
to one general to exhort the entire phalanx,he had to adopt a different technique:
he traversed the line and addressed the soldiers unit by unit. Such a form of
exhortationis well attested and must be assumed whenever we hear that an army
was addressed by its commanderimmediately before a battle. &1TLTrcapvaL49 and
ITILiVaL50 are the verbs used by the historiansto describe what happened.51
Admittedly, if the generalharanguedhis armyon the eve of the battle,52or his
crews before they embarked,53it may have been possible for the soldiers to form a
gatheringthat could be addressedas a whole like an army meeting. But when an
army was lined up in a phalanx the general must have exhorted the units
successively. It is implausiblethat,walking along the ranks,he made one coherent
speech so that the left wing heardtheprooimion, the centre the core of the speech,
and the right wing the epilogos. It is equally implausible that the general stopped
five or six times anddelivered his entire speech whereverhe stopped.What he did
was probably to invent a few encouraging apophthegms that, with variations,
could be shouted to the soldiers as he walked along the front line of the phalanx.
This reconstruction, based on the battle exhortations in Thukydides, is
confirmed by the speeches found in later historians, as can be illustrated by a
selection of examples:
Xenophon's Hellenika includes one long speech made before a battle, viz.
Thrasyboulos' harangue to his men at Mounichia. While the oligarchic army
advances, Thrasyboulos orders his men to ground their shields. He takes up a
position straight in front of the phalanx and delivers a speech of about 250
words.54But even after his speech some time lapses before the battle begins.
Thrasyboulosmust have addressedan armyof at least one thousandmen arranged
in ten ranks. Accordingly the phalanxmust have stretchedacross ca. one hundred
metres55and possibly more than that.
45 Cf., e.g., J. K. Anderson, Military Theory and Practice in the Age ofXenophon (Berkeley and
Los Angeles 1970) 145.
46 Xen. Hell. 2.4.12; Thuc. 8.93.1.
47 Quintus Curtius Rufus, Hist. Alex. 4.13.37.
48 Thuc. 2.86,6; 5.69.1; 7.65.3.
49 Thuc. 6.67.3; 7.76.1.
50 Thuc. 7.78.1.
51 See infraat n. 56ff.
52 Thuc. 2.86.6 and 90.1.
53 Hdt. 8.83.2; Thuc. 2.86-90; 7.65.1.
54 Xen. Hell. 2.4.13-7.
55 See supran. 45.

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170 MoGENsHERMAN HANSEN

The only other genuine battlefield exhortation in the Hellenika is

Archidamos' speech to the Lakedaimonians before the Tearless Battle.
Archidamoswalks along the phalanxand makes a speech of 37 words altogether56
- perhapshe is laconic on purpose,but the brevityof his addressmay also reflect
what could actually be conveyed to the soldiers underthe circumstances.
In the Anabasis thereis no battlefieldexhortationwherewe would expect one,
viz. before the battle of Kunaxa.Kyros rides along the front but, perhapsbecause
he is Persian and does not have a good command of Greek, he does not make a
speech to the Greek mercenaries.His short exhortationis communicatedto the
soldiers by Xenophon who approachesKyros and asks whetherhe has anythingto
say. Kyros' message is restrictedto one sentence: that both the victims and the
omens have been favourable.The Greeks answerthe message by a war cry: "Zeus
Soter and Victory".57
There is, on the otherhand,a battleexhortationin Book Four where the Greek
mercenaries confront the Makrones. The army is about to attack uphill and is
accordinglydrawnup in columns, not in a phalanx.Xenophon walks from the left
to the right and encourages his men by a speech of 24 words which he may have
repeatedin front of each unit.58
In the Cyropaedia thereis one set of speeches by generals before battle. Both
Kyros and the Assyrian king exhort their men before the engagement. After the
sacrifices Kyros makes a long speech, but only to his officers,59while the speech
by the Assyrian king is, allegedly, delivered to the entire arny from a chariot
driven along the front.60
Alexander the Great's way of exhorting his troops before Issos is described
both by Arrian and by Quintus Curtius Rufus; but there is a significant
discrepancy between the two accounts. According to Arrian, Alexander rode
along the front, told the soldiers to be brave and called many of the officers by
name; but no properspeech is mentioned.61In CurtiusRufus we are told that, as
the king rode along the front, he made a fully-fledged speech to each unit. Curtius
reportsa long speech to the Macedonians,a shorterone to the Greeksand two very
short addresses to the Illyriansand the Paionians.62
Before Gaugamela Alexander adopts a different method. On the eve of the
battle he convokes his senior officers and instructsthem to address and exhort
their units separately (Arrian 3.9.5-8). Thus, either later the same evening, or
ratherearly the next morningbefore the battleeach commandermust, in his own

56 Xen. Hell. 7.1.30.

57 Xen. Anab. 1.8.14-16.
58 Xen. Anab. 4.8.14.
59 Xen. Cyrop. 3.3.34-43.
60 Ibidem44-6.
61 Arrian,Anab. 2.10.2.
62 Quintus Curtius Rufus, Hist. Alex. 3.10.

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 TheBattleExhortationin AncientHistoriography 171

fashion,havemadea speechto his menandpassedon the messageconveyedto

the officersby Alexanderduringthe staff-meeting.
Polybios' accountof the battleof Zamaopens with two speechesby the
generals:PubliusCorneliusScipio'sto the Romanarmy63andHannibal'sto the
Carthaginians.64 Bothspeechesaredeliveredby thecommanders aftertheyhave
deployedtheirarmyandas theywalkalongthefront.65
Onlyone singlebattlefieldspeechcanbe foundin Caesar'sbodyof work,66
viz. his speech to the legions beforePharsalos.His exhortationis reportedin
indirectspeechandrunsfor 50 words.67 It is a messageof the typea commander
couldget throughto his men,andit is worthnoticingCaesar'scasualremarkthat
it is commonto encourageone's soldiersin thatway. Caesar'sspeech is the
counterpart of the somewhatlongerspeechesmadeby PompeiusandLabienus,
buttheyaremadein consilioandduringthedaysbeforethebattle.68 Accordingto
Suetonius,however,Caesarleft some speeches,includingat least two battle
exhortations,bothallegedlydeliveredto his armyin Spain,but bothsuspected,
alreadyin antiquity,to be eitherspuriousor,atleast,notdeliveredbeforebattle.69
I find it superfluousto give moreexamplesand will insteadreferto Josef
Albertus'excellentlist of speechesby generalsin ancienthistorians.70Whatcould
be inferredfrom Thukydidesis only confirmedby later historians,and the
conclusionis thatthebattlefieldexhortations foundin ancienthistoriography from
Thukydidesto Tacitusandevenlaterarefiction.A briefexhortation of thetroops,
unit by unit, while the commanderwalkedalong the frontis probablyall the
historicalrealitywe mayexpectto findbehindthefully-fledgedspeechesreported
by the historians;andthatmustlead to a noteon the lengthof the speecheswe
have.
In discussionsof the historicalrealityof the speechesin ancienthistorio-
graphy,it is commonlysaid thatthe speecheswe readmust,at best, be much
abbreviated versionsof the speechesactuallymade.71In the case of demegoriai

63 Polyb. 15.10.2-7.
64 Polyb. 15.11.6-12.
65 Polyb. 15.10.1; 15.11.6.
66 Caesar's speech before the battle against Ariovistus is delivered to the officers only (BGall.
1.40), and Vercingetorix' speech in BGall, 729 is made consilio convocato. Curio's speech to
the army in Africa is made at a contio militum (BCiv. 2.32).
67 Caes. BCiv. 3.90.
68 Caes.BCiv.3.86-7.
69 Suet.Jul. 55.4: "Apudmilites"quoque"inHispania"idemAugustusvix ipsiusputat,quae
tamenduplexfertur:unaquasipriorehabitaproelio,alteraposteriore,quoAsiniusPollio ne
tempusquidem contionandihabuisse eum dicit subita hostiumincursione.The speech
reported in Suet. Jul. 66 is not a battle exhortation but a speech made at an army meeting.
70 J. Albertus,Die Paraldetoiin der griechischenundromischenLitteratur(Strassburg1908)
28-36.
71 A. W. Gomme, A Historical Commentary on Thucydides I (Oxford 1945) 141; S.
Homblower, Thucydides (London 1987) 55.

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172 MocENsHERMAN HANSEN

andpresbeutikoi logoi this is undoubtedlytrue:a long debate has been telescoped

by the historianby the omission of some speeches and by the condensing of those
he reports. One example is the debate at Sparta before the Peloponnesian War
which must have lasted for hoursbut takes up only 12 pages of Thukydides,Book
One.72But for the battleexhortationit must be the other way around.Admittedly,
the exhortationswe readin Thukydides,Xenophonand laterhistoriansareusually
shorterthanthe symbouleuticspeeches composed by the same historians,but even
so we must assume thatthe actualexhortationwas of the size of an armyorder,i.e.
a few sentences or apophthegmswhich the historianhas enlargedand transformed
into an elaborate speech.
Furtherdoubt aboutthe historicalrealityof battlefieldspeeches is raisedby an
observationmade by several studentsof ancienthistoriography:73 it often happens
that a historianreportsboth the speeches which the generals of opposing armies
allegedly delivered to their soldiers. In some such cases there is a remarkable
correspondence between the two speeches, and the second commander almost
responds to some of the points made by the first commander.74But the two
generals are enemies, and it is unbelievablethat the two armies were drawnup so
close to each other that one commander could hear the other's speech. The
interdependenceof two battleexhortationsmust be an imitationof the naturaland
inevitable interdependenceof two successive symbouleuticor forensic speeches.
In the case of battle exhortations,however, the correspondencemust be artificial,
and that, again, indicates thatthe genre includes a considerableelement of fiction.
To sum up. The battle exhortation in ancient historiographyis a literary
composition and not the historian's report of a speech which had actually been
made. And that was well known in the ancientworld. It is, for example, explicitly
stated by Plutarch.In a treatise about political oratoryhe praises Demosthenes'
Philippics and Thukydides'demegoriai whereafterhe adds: Lrl 86 T3V 'E46pou
Kac OcoTr6nToU Kda 'AvatLVtvous ArnTOPELtV Kal 1TEpL68wv, a& TrEpacVO1XLV
1oTXLravTiEg TrAcTTpaTV4LaTa Kat TapaTdlavrES-, cTtlv EtrrEtV 'o686s UL81poU
TaOTa pwpa(vEL UkXasn.75
But Plutarch's acute observation presupposes that at least some of his
contemporariesbelieved that the battle exhortationshad actually been delivered,
and that there was some reality behind the speeches they would read in the
historical works of Theopompos, Ephoros and Anaximenes. Furthermore,

72 Thuc.1.68-86.
73 Hornblower(supran. 71) 59; F. W. Walbank,Speechesin GreekHistorians.TheThirdJ. L.
MyresMemorialLecur (Oxfordn.d.) 12.
74 Cf.. e.g. the speeches in Thuc. 2.87-89 with Hornblower'snote in A Commentaryon
ThucydidesI (Oxford1991) 368; Thuc.4.92-5 cf. Luschnat(supran. 44) 54 & 56f; Thuc.
7.61-8 cf. Leimbach(supra n. 44) 112. See also the speeches in Polyb. 3.62-4 with
Walbank'snote in A HistoricalCommentary on PolybiosI (Oxford1957)397.
75 Plut.Mor.803B. Thequotationis fromEuripides'Autolykosfr. 282.22, Nauck.

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 in AncientHistoriography
TheBattleExhortation 173

Theopompos,EphorosandAnaximeneswerefamous- or rathernotorious- for

havingbeen carriedaway by theirown rhetoric.Thus,Plutarch'scriticismis
obviouslyjustifiedin thecase of the lateclassicalandHellenistichistorians.But
howcanit be thatwe findbattleexhortations in ThukydidesandXenophon?Inhis
digressionon method,76Thukydidesconveys the impressionthat he reports
speechesthatwere actuallymade,and- in the Hellenikaat least - Xenophon
seems to have followedthe samemethod.But bothThukydidesandXenophon
knew what they were writingabout.They were both generalsand must have
knownpreciselywhatkind of messagea generalcould convey to his soldiers
immediatelybefore battle. Similarly,their contemporaryreadersmust have
klown whathappenedin thelasthoursbeforetheclashof twophalanxes.Manyof
themwerehoplitesthemselvesandhadactuallyservedin a phalanx.Thusboththe
historiansandtheirreadersmustimplicitlyhaveacceptedthe stylizedfictionof
transforming the general'sexhortationinto a full speechand,undoubtedly, they
the
did not anticipatethatlatergenerationswouldread speeches as if they had
been delivered.If Brasidas,Demosthenes,Nikias and the other generalsin
Thukydides'work encouragedtheir men with a few apophthegms,and if
Thukydidesthen has transformedtheir brief exhortationsinto fully-fledged
speeches, he has still conformed to his principle to reportTiv t6
rreoaaav yvwL?rv
TiV 4XTiO@ XEXOvTh3V. And the same observation appliesto Xenophon'sversion
of Thrasyboulos'speechbeforethebattleof Mounichia.
InHerodotus'Historiesthereis notyet anygenuinebattlefieldexhortationto
be found.77It must be Thukydideswho inventedthe genre,78which was then
adoptedby laterhistoriansandbecamemoreandmorerhetoricalin character.It
is, however, worth noticing that elaborate battle exhortations are least
conspicuousin thehistorianswhowerethemselvesgenerals.Caesar'sexhortation
beforePharsalosis too shortto be calleda speech,andin Arriantoo - whobased
his accounton PtolemaiosandAristoboulos- the wholegenreis conspicuousby
its absence.
Butbeforewe canrejectthebattlefieldexhortation asfictionwe mustconduct
is a literary
yet anotherinvestigation.If it is truethattheancientbattleexhortation
flction to be foundin historiography only, it follows thatmedievaland early
modernexamplesof the genre shouldbe equallyfictitious.The armourof a
mountedknightmusthaverattledeven morethana hoplite'sequipment,andthe
laterarmieswere muchlargerthanthe smallforcesof citizenswho foughtthe
famousbattlesimmortalized by ancienthistorians.

76 Thuc. 1.22.1.
77 Pace A. Deffner,Die Redebei Herodotundihre Wiederbildung
bei Thukydides(Mtlnchen
1933).
78 It should be remembered, however, that short battle exhortations, allegedly delivered by the
commander to the entire army, can be found both in Homer (e.g. II. 11.286-90) and in
tragedies that antedate both Herodotus and Thukydides (e.g. Eur. Her. 824-7 [ca. 4301).

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174 MooFNs
HFwAN HANsEN

In medieval78andearlymodemhistoriography thereareinnumerable battle

exhortationsand a few examples will suffice. According to Geoffrey of
Monmouth,King Arthuraddressedhis men beforethe battleof Saussy.79The
speechdeliveredby OttoI beforethebattleof Lechfeldis reportedbyWidukind.80
Williamthe Conqueror'sspeechbeforeHastingscan be foundin Williamof
Poitiers'Gesta.81In Saxo'sGestaDanorumKingRingexhortstheSwedishanny
and HaraldHildetandthe Danes beforethe battleof Brlvalla.2 EduardHalls'
accountof the battleof Bosworthincludesthe King'sexhortation;83 andduring
theThirtyYears'WarKingGustavII Adolph'sbattleexhortations werereported
in contemporary accounts.84But againit is difficultto find out whatis fact and
whatis fiction.Fortheearlymedievalbattlesnothingcanbe done,butsomeof the
battlesfought in the HundredYears' War are well attestedin contemporary
chronicles,andfor earlymodemEuropeanhistorythe sourcesareeven better.A
searchfor incontestableexamplesof the battlefieldexhortationin latemedieval
and early modem historyhas only confirmned my view that the genre is a
historiographicalfictionandnota historicalfact.To substantiate my views I will
adducefive examples.
a. Thebestcontemporary accountof thebattlesof Cr6cyandPoitiersis thatof
Froissartin his ChroniclesBook One;85and his descriptionof both battles
includesinformation abouttheexhortation of thesoldiersbeforetheengagement.
At Crtcy King Edwardthe Thirdrides at a walking pace along the front,
cheerfullyencouraginghis men. He inspectsthe entirearmy,but thereis no
mentionof any speech.Whathe is doingis obviouslyto makea few scattered
remarksto the men as he passes.Beforethe battleof Poitiersit is the King of
FrancewhomFroissartdescribesas encouraginghis soldiers.But his message,
reportedin directspeech,is extremelyshort,sevenlinesaltogether,andFroissart
says that far from everyoneheardwhat the king said. Thus the testimonyof
Froissartcan only strengthenour suspicionthatno generalever haranguedhis
entirearmybeforea majorbattle.

78a J.R.E.Bliese, 'Rhetoricand Morale:a Studyof BattleOrationsfrom the CentralMiddle

Ages",Journalof MedievalHistory15 (1989)201-26.
79 Geoffreyof Monmouth,HistoriaRegumBritannie10.7.Thespeechis allegedlyheardby the
enire army,whereasthespeechby theopposinggeneral,LuciusHiberius,is addressedto the
generalsonly (10.8).
80 Widukind,Res gestaeSaxonicae3.46.
81 Guillaumede Poitiers,Histoirede Guillaumele Conquirant,ed. R. Foreville(Paris1952).
82 Saxo, GestaDanorum8.4.2-3.
83 EduardHall, The Union of the TwoNoble and IllustreFameliesof Lancastreand Yorke
(1542)415-6.
84 K. Johannesson, "TheMakingof a Hero:TheCultof GustavusAdolphusas Legitimization of
SwedishForeignPolicy,"to be publishedin ArtandPowerin SeventeenthCenturySweden,
ed. M. ConfortiandM. F. Metcalf(Washington1993?).
85 Froissart,ChroniquesBook 1 Chapters221 (Cr6cy)and304 (Poitiers).

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 TheBattleExhortationin AncientHistoriography 175

b. The most famous battle exhortationof all time is that of Henry V before
Agincourt, partly because it was immortalizedby Shakespearein Henry the Fifth
and partly because Agincourt is the best documented of all medieval battles.
Furthermore,ancient historians are always on the outlook for later analogies
which can help us to understandand interpretthe scanty informationwe possess
aboutancient societies. For many aspects of the hoplite battle the obvious parallel
has been the battle of Agincourt. An outstanding example is W. K. Pritchett's
chapterabout the pitched battle which includes a long descriptionof the medieval
battle intruced with the following statement:"To the student of ancient Greek
battles, Agincourt is of interest because it affords striking parallels to many
particularswhich some modem rationalistic historians have queried in ancient
accounts, viz. the recognition of omens, the challenge to battle, the lack of
reconnaissance, the observance of religious rites, the general's speech,
epiphanies, and the choice of battleground."86True enough, the 6th section of
Pritchett's descriptionof the battle is the king's speech. "Henrycame before his
troopsdressed for battle, wearinga helmet encircledby a gold crown, and with his
sword in handaddressedthe English armyin a loud, clear voice, saying thathe had
come into France to recover his lawful inheritance;that they should remember
they were born in the kingdom of England, where their parents and wives now
dwelt, and thereforethey ought to strive to returnwith great glory and fame; and
thatEnglandhad gained many noble victories over the French.He remindedthem
that the French had boasted that they would cut off three fingers from the right
handof every archerthey might capture.He told them, too, thathe would be killed
ratherthan takenprisoner,as he would never charge England with the paymentof
his ransom. I would underscorethe fact that Henry is said to have addressedthe
entire massed formation of about six thousand strong. The speech is not a
summaryof the random words of a commandertraversingthe line."87Pritchett's
description of the battle is based on C. Hibbert's Agincourt,88but instead of
trustinga modem account, let us inspect the sources.
Of the English accountsthe best is Henrici QuintiAngliae Regis Gesta written
less than two years after the events.89 In this source we are told that Henry
encouraged his men and ordered them to deploy when, on Thursday the 24th
October, he saw the French army blocking his retreatto Calais. It was, however,
too late in the day for an engagement; the French withdrew and the English
encamped. There is no informationabout what Henry said to his men and how he
did it, but the Gesta go on to reporta dialogue between the king and Sir Walter
Hungerfordaboutwhetherit would be desirableto have had 10,000 more archers,
one oflthe main themes of Shakespeare'sspeech. In the description of the actual

86 Pritchett(supran. 13) 1-2.

87 Ibidem4.
88 C. Hibbert,Agincourt(London1964) 110, referredto by Pritchettin his note 12.
89 Ed. F. TaylorandJ. S. Roskell(Oxford1975)76-85.

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176 MoGENsHERMAN HANSEN

battle that took place the following day, there is no mention of any speech
delivered by Henry.90
Similarly, the Chronique de Religieux des Saint-Denys, which is the best
French account,91reports a speech of the king delivered on the 24th in the
afternoon while he is leading his men towards the French and orders them to
deploy. Here the contents of the speech - allegedly addressedto the entire army-
is reportedand includes a reference to the battlesof Cr6cy and Poitiers - a detail
found in other sources too, but then in connection with the speech held on Friday
the 25th October.
The other major French account, the Chronique de Enguerrand de
Monstrelet,92has a battle exhortationon Friday the 25th immediately before the
battle, but here the speech is made on the king's behalf by Thomas Erpingham
who is also entrustedwith the inspectionof the deployed armybefore the attackis
launched.
The two sources that do reporta speech delivered by Henry on 25th October
before the battle are the Chronique de JeanLe Fevre de St.R&my,93 who writes in
French but served on the English side, and Thomas de Elthamvita et gesta,94a
later account in Latin verse. Jean le Rvre does in fact report two battle
exhortations,the first by king Henry before the English advance and take up their
second position, and the second by Thomas Erpinghamimmediately before the
battle begins.95 C. Hibbert's account of the battle, which is reproduced by
Pritchett,is little more thana paraphraseof Jeanle FRvrewith the additionof a few
details taken from Thomas de Eltham.
To sum up, it is extremely doubtful whetherking Henry did deliver a speech
to his men before the attackon Friday the 25th October,96and even if we follow
Hibbert (and Pritchett) in rejecting the other sources and trusting the two last,
there is one importantdetail which Pritchetthas overlooked. He underscoresthe
fact thatthe speech was delivered to the entire armyand cannot be "a summaryof

90 AnoLhercontemporary account of the battle that has no reference to any speech by Henry is
The Chronicle of John Hardyng ed. Ellis (London 1812).
91 Ed. Belleaguet (Paris 1839-52) V.554-7.
92 Ed. Douet-d'Arcq (Paris 1857-62) 104-7.
93 Ed. Morland (Paris 1876-81) 245-5 1.
94 Ed. C. A. Cole in Memoirs of Henry the Fifth, R. S. vol. XI (London 1858).
95 In his report of Thomas Erpingham's speech Jean le FRvre is simply paraphrasing
D'Enguerrand de Monstrelet who was not an eyewitness but nevertheless published his work
before Jean le Fevre. It is perhaps telling that the eyewitness Jean le FRvrein one part of his
account simply copies the description of a man who had not been present when the battle was
fought.
96 I note that, in his very long and detailed discussion of the battle, John Keegan does not have a
word to say about the battle exhortation, though he is very sensitive to "the rhetoric of battle
history", tries to understandwhat makes a soldier go into battle and is curious to know how the
English spent the three or four hours of inactivity between the development of the armies and
the opening of the battle; see The Face of Battle (Harmondsworth 1978) 35 & 88-9, 114-6.

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 The BattleExhortationin AncientHistoriography 177

the randomwords of a commandertraversingthe line." But that is precisely what

Jean le Fevre says both before and after the speech paraphrasedby Hibbert and
reproduced by Pritchett: "Quant le roy d'Angleterre ot ordonn6 sa bataille et
l'ordonnancede son bagaige, sur le petit cheval gris devant dis, alla au long de sa
bataille et leur fist de tr6s belles remonstrances, ... Alors, apres ce que le roy
d'Angleterre eult ainsi amonnest6ses gens, ainsi comme il estoit mont6 sur ung
petit cheval, se mist avantdevant sa baniere,...". The conclusion is that,if the king
did encourage his men before the attack,he must have done it by riding along the
front, and such a form of addressis incompatiblewith a formal speech delivered to
the entire arny. As I suggested above in my analysis of the ancient battles, the
king must have restricted himself to shouting a few encouraging words as he
traversedthe line. He may even have threatenedthe soldiers. The detail about the
three fingers to be cut off each archertaken prisoner rings true and is very like
what Gustav II Adolph shouted to his men during the Thirty Years' War (cf.
infra).
c. Before the battleof Bosworth both King Richardand the Earl of Richmond
addressedtheir army and delivered a long speech. Both speeches are known from
EduardHall's Chronicleand both are models of rhetoric. But it is worth noting
thatRichard's speech was made to his captains,not to the entire army, and thatwe
do not know for sure that any speech was actually delivered. In his "Life of
Richard the Third", James Gairdner repeats the king's speech and adds: "An
oration so well composed as this is of course a mere exercise of ingenuity on the
part of the historian who reports it. But it is conceivable that something to the
same effect was actually spoken."97
d. During the Thirty Years' War the most famous general was the Swedish
King Gustav II Adolph, who was also renowned for his eloquence and for being a
shrewd politician with an eye for propaganda.All three aspects of the king's
personality come out in his way of encouraging the soldiers before a battle. The
king would express his firm trustin the courage of his men and promise them his
grace and rewards:"You have good fortune at the points of your swords!"But he
would also threatenthe soldiers, saying that not one single bone would returnto
Sweden if they tried to run away in the face of battle.98One example is the king's
speech before the battle of Breitenfeld. The strength of the Swedish army was
15,000 who were drawn up in two lines between the villages Podelwitz and
Gobschelwitz. Thus it had a front of some 2,500 metres and the two lines must
have been at least 100 metres apart.99The best source we have for the king's
exhortation is an anonymous work entitled Le soldat suJdois, published
immediately afterGustav Adolph's deathin 1632 and republishedseveral times in

97 J. Gairdner,Historyof theLifeandReignof Richardthe Third(Cambridge1898) 238.

98 Johannesson(supran. 84) 17.
99 Schlachten-Atlas,ed. F. R. von Rothenburg(5thed. Leipzig 1853).

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178 MooENsHERmN HANSEN

the following years.100In the descriptionof the engagement it is explicitly stated

that the king drew up his army in battle formationbefore he delivered his speech,
but nevertheless the author conveys the impression that the king addressed the
soldiers and not just the officers. The exhortationamountsto some 100 words but
is reportedin indirect speech, and, if the king actually said what is reported,the
original version must have been somewhat longer.101
But how can such a speech have been delivered to the entire army?The king
cannot have addressedeveryone simultaneously.He must have been riding along
the frontwhile he encouragedhis men. Now let us suppose thatthe king stoppedat
various points and repeatedhis exhortation.Since his voice cannot have carried
more thanca. 50 metresin eitherdirectionhe must have stoppedanddelivered his
speech twenty five times; and even so, the second line can have heard nothing.
Alternatively, the king may have haranguedthe soldiers when they were still in
their quartersand before they were orderedto deploy. That is, apparently,what
Gustav Adolph did before Lutzen.102Under such circumstancesit is possible for a
man to addressan assembly of 10,000 or even more. But accordingto our source
that is not what happened before Breitenfeld, where, we are told, the king first
drew up his army in battle formation and then delivered his speech. It is much
more likely thathe did what so many generalsfrom Nikias to HenryV arereported
to have done: to ride along the frontencouraginghis men with a few words. After
the battle (some of) the king's utteranceswere gatheredtogetherand transformed
into a "speech"of which we have a version in Le soldat su&dois.In the "official"
account of the Swedish effort in the Thirty Years' War we find a longer and
completely different speech allegedly delivered the evening before and to the
officers only, whereasthereis no mentionof any battleexhortationmade to all the
soldiers on the following day immediatelybefore the battle.103

100 The editioncited herewaspublishedin 1633(sine loco).

101 Le soldat sut6dois,pp. 72-3. L'armdeestantainsi rangde,et quelquesregimenslogez en un
posteavantageuxpourunetrouppede reserve,le Roydonnele motDieu avec nous(comme
celuy des ennemisestoitJesus Maria),met le genouilen terre,fait sa pri4reavec devotion,
accourageces gens et parses paroleset parsa contenancegayeet asseur6e,leurditen peutde
mots."qu'ilavoitpass6deuxcens lieueusde payspourvoircestejoumee.Qu'ils'asseuroitet
surleursexploitspassee,et surleurcontenancepresente,que l'aspectluy seroitfavorable,et
desastreuxA ses ennemis,que les bataillesestoientdes Arrestsde Dieu. Que peu d'heures
seroientvoir celuy de sa cause, et deux bonnetsElectorauxcontrela carcassed'un vieil
corporal,et disputeravec lui non seulementla gloire d'une bataille,mais aussi toutesles
conquesteset usurpationsde ses Maistres:Que ceux qui le se conderoientavec courage,
trouveroientl'honneuret la recompensede leurvaleura la pointede leursespdes,et a I'abry
de leursdrappeaux." Ces parolesprononceesavocun visagegay, et un espritpresentparun
princecapablede se faireaimeraux plus barbares,mirentle caur au ventresi avantaux
Suedois,qu'ils ne respirerentque le momentde chargesl'ennemy.
102 Le soldatsut'dois456-7.
103 BogislavPhilipvon Chemnitz,Belli Sveco-GermaniciVolumenPrimum(1648) 170-1.

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 TheBattleExhortation
inAncientHistoriography 179

e. In the seventeenthcenturythe Danish armies were almost invariably

defeatedby the Swedes,butin 1659atNyborgan alliedforceof Danes,Germans
andPoles underthe generalsSchackandEbersteininflicteda severedefeaton
theirSwedishopponentsundergeneralStenbock.The battlewas describedin a
contemporary reportthatincludesa speechmadeby generalSchackimmediately
before the attack.104 But, in his memoirs,one of the Danish officers, Ditlev
Ahlefeldt,has a somewhatdifferentaccountof what happened.The forces
commandedby generalSchackformedthe secondline andwereinactiveduring
thefirstphaseof thebattle;butwhenAhlefeldt,whoservedunderEbersteinin the
first line, came ridingback and reportedthatthey were hardpressed,general
Schacksoundedthe chargeandled the attackwith his swordin his hand.Thus,
accordingto Ahlefeldtno speechwas everdelivered.105
To sum up. The battle exhortationtakes the form of a full speech in
historiographyand newsletters,but whenevermore reliable informationis
available,it takesthe formeitherof a few apophthegms thatcouldbe shoutedby
the generalas he traversedthe line or of a speechmadeto the officersonly who
passedit on to the soldiers.InEuropeanhistoriography thebattleexhortationis a
continuationof the ancient historiographictradition.Due to the universal
admirationfor Greekand Romanhistorians,the general'sspeech to his arrny
beforea battlewas imitatedby laterauthorsof chroniclesandnewsletters.Thus,
historyhas beendistortedby rhetoric,butit is not alwaysthe authorswho have
misled theirreaders,butratherthe readerswho have misreadthe historiansby
assumingthatsuchspeecheswereactuallydelivered.
Whendidreadersof historicalworksbeginto believethattherhetoricalbattle
exhortationsweregenuineor at leastthatthe typeof speechwas genuine?Not in
theancientworldwhenthegenrewaswell knownandthestylizedtransformation
of historyinto rhetoricwas expectedby the readersand generallyaccepted
althoughsometimescriticised,e. g. by Plutarch.106Norin the medievalandearly
modernperiodswhen rhetoricwas still a basic elementin highereducation.
Plutarch'sscepticalattitudeto thebattleexhortationsin historiographyis repeated
by Ludvig Holberg,the professorfirst of eloquenceand then of history at
Copenhagen Universityin themid 18thcentury.In a veryrhetoricalessayentitled
On the Use of Rhetoricin Timeof Warhe hasthefollowingcommenton thegenre:
"I know well thatarmiesdo theirduty and fight bravelywithoutany previous
exhortationby theircommanders, whereasin ancienttimesno battlewas fought
until afterthe commanderby a long speechhad remindedthe soldiersof their
duty. It is, however,difficultto understandhow such a speechcan have been
delivered,especiallyto a largearmy,unlessthe commanderissued the officers

104 "Efterretningom slaget ved Nyborg 1659 (meddelt efter et hAndskrifti Geheime-archivet),"
Danske Magasin 3.2 (1845) 112-17.
105 D. Ahlefeldt, Memoiren aus den Jahren 1617-60, ed. Louis Bobd (Copenhagen 1896) 150.
106 See supra at note 75.

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180 MoGENs
HERMAN
HANsEN

with copies of his speech. But nothingof the kind is found in the books of history.
Accordingly, it is quite likely that the orations found in old books are simply
invented by the author."'07
The failure to grasp the natureof the battle exhortationin histonographycan
be tracedback to the early 19thcenturywhen the Enlightenmentwas replacedby
Romanticism and history emerged as a scholarlydiscipline with its own method.
Rhetoric was scorned, and the professors of eloquence disappearedfrom most
European universities. Speeches were banned from history and the speeches in
earlier historiographymisinterpreted.It was often taken for grantedthat a speech
of some kind must have been delivered. Of course, the speech reportedby the
ancient or medieval historianmight have been different from the speech actually
delivered,108but few modernhistorianshave been willing to go the whole length
and admit that no speech had ever been made and that the whole genre was a
literary and rhetorical fiction, not a historical fact. As pointed out above, this
misunderstandingof the battlefieldexhortationas a genre seems to have persisted
to the presentday.109

University of Copenhagen Mogens HermanHansen

107 L. Holberg, Epistola 498 (p. 188). I found this essay only after I had completed my own
investigation, but it has given me much pleasure to find myself in agreement with a famous
compatriot who is renowned for his common sense.
108 Leimbach (supra n. 44), for example, argues, often convincingly, that the battle exhortations
in Thukydides are invented (Musterrhetorik)and not a reportof what was actually said (128-
33), but he is still prepared to believe that a commander often made some kind of (short ex
tempore) speech to his men before battle (131).
109 1 should like to thankProf. V. D. Hanson and Prof. G. Kennedy for their helpful comments on
a draft of this article. In my search for Medieval and early modem examples of the battle
exhortation I have had valuable assistance from Captain Flemming Bork, Dr. Karsten Friis
Jensen, Prof. Kurt Johannesson, Mr. Gunnar Lind and Mrs. Lene Rubinstein.

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