Risk, chance and danger in Classical Greek writing on battle

Abstract

This article highlights two aspects of the language used in Classical Greek literary sources to discuss pitched battle. First, the sources regularly use unqualified forms of the verb kinduneuein, “to take a risk,” when they mean fighting a battle. They do so especially in contexts of deliberation about the need to fight. Second, they often describe the outcome of major engagements in terms of luck, fate, and random chance, at the explicit expense of human agency. Taken together, these aspects of writing on war suggest that pitched battle was seen as an inherently risky course of action with unacceptably unpredictable results, which was therefore best avoided. Several examples show that the decision to fight was indeed evaluated in such terms. This practice casts further doubt on the traditional view that Greek armies engaged in pitched battles as a matter of principle.

Foreseeing the Past: Probability and Ancient Greek Decision-Making

“…of the enemy.55 This has led me(Vădan 2018) to argue that Hellenistic decision-makers understood the concept of risk as a deliberative expertise, a τέχνη expressed through verbs like κινδυνεύω or κρίνω, based on one's experience, knowledge, and sagacity.56 In turn, RoelKonijnendijk (2020) has recently shown that "Classical Greeks would not have accepted the gamble of battle in the open without careful deliberation." 57 This attitude, in turn, explains why Xenophon and Aristotle 55 Xen.…”