The Naumachia Near Amorgos in 322 B.C.

Abstract

On 7 Metageitnion of the Athenian year 322/1 B.C. a military engagement near Krannon, some 15 kilometres south-west of Larissa in Thessaly, marked the end of the so-called Lamian War in which a majority of the Greek mainland poleis, temporarily united under Athenian leadership, had attempted to terminate the Macedonian domination and to reassert their rights to individual autonomy. Although significant in that it heralded the final miscarriage of the Hellenic revolt, none the less the battle at Krannon was, in itself, a comparatively minor struggle in which the Greek forces, after an initial success, capitulated with surprising rapidity to the Macedonian commander-in-chief Antipater. That this war, in which the Hellenic armies had held the upper hand during the initial stages, should have concluded with such an insignificant clash of arms, is understandable only in the light of events at sea. The key battles which signalled the end of hopes for an overall Greek victory in their struggle for autonomy were naval ones—the most crucial being the naval confrontation determined near the island of Amorgos in the Sporades, some time prior to the battle of Krannon.