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BATTLE OF AMORGOS

 
 

This is an extract from the Wikipedia entry

 
 

Anorgos was a island in the Cyclades.{short description of image}
The Athenian commander was Eueton (Evetion) with 170 ships.
The Macedonian commander was Cleitus the White with 240 ships.
It was a naval battle was in the Lamian War (323=322). {short description of image}
Date May or June 322
Result Macedonian victory
At the time, despite relatively few Athenian losses it was considered to be the decisive naval battle of the war. The result was the end of Athenian thalassocracy and political independence.

The Lamian War or Hellenic War was a large-scale revolt of the Greek city-states of the League of Corinth against Macedonian authority following the death of Alexander the Great in 323.
The southern Greek city-states had never fully acquiesced to Macedonian hegemony, imposed through force of arms, but it was one of Alexander's last acts, the Exiles Decree of 324 that provoked open resentment, especially in Athens, where preparations for war began even before Alexander's death. The Exiles Decree, which stipulated the return of all exiles and the restoration of their citizenship and property was perceived as a direct violation of the city-states' autonomy by Alexander. To the Athenians in particular, the decree was anathema as it meant that the island of Samos, an Athenian possession since 366 and settled with Athenian cleruchs, was to be restored to the exiled Samians. Instead of complying with it, they arrested the arriving Samian oligarchs and sent them as prisoners to Athens.Although fallen from the height of its power during the Golden Age of Pericles in the 5th century, Athens still had extensive financial resources at its disposal and a fleet numbering 240 or perhaps even 400 warships. Following the news of Alexander's death, the Athenians played a leading role in assembling a league to fight for the restoration of the city-states' autonomy. The allies first defeated the pro-Macedonian Boeotians and then—aided by the defection of the Thessalian cavalry—the Macedonian viceroy of Greece, Antipater, forcing him to retreat to the fortified city of Lamia, where the allies laid siege to him. Antipater called for military and naval reinforcements from the rest of the Macedonian empire. As a result, while Antipater remained besieged in Lamia, a naval campaign was fought in the Aegean Sea between the Macedonians under Cleitus the White and the Athenians under Euetion, who initially attempted to stop the Macedonian reinforcements led by Leonnatus from crossing from Asia Minor into Europe at the Hellespont. Although the bulk of the Athenian navy had escaped unscathed from Amorgos, a Cycladean Island, it suffered heavy losses at the subsequent battle of Lichades, which most scholars place between Amorgos and the defeat of the allies on land at the Battle of Crannon in August. These successive defeats led the Athenians to seek peace. The terms saw the disenfranchisement and expulsion of 12,000 of the city's poorest citizens (the thetes) and the restriction of voting rights to the richer citizens, putting an end to Athenian democracy. In addition, Antipater installed a Macedonian garrison on the Munychia hill in the harbour of Piraeus, marking an end to both Athenian naval power and political independence. .

 
 

Battle of Amorgos - 322 BC

 
 

Rickard, J (5 June 2007), Battle of Amorgos, July 322 B.C., http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_amorgos.html

 
 

The battle of Amorgos was the final defeat of Athenian naval power. After the death of Alexander the Great, the Athenians had seen a chance to win their independence, and had raised an army and a fleet (Lamian War). That fleet, under the command of a commander called Euetion, had been sent to the Hellespont in an attempt to prevent reinforcements reaching the Macedonians in Greece. In the first few years after the death of Alexander, his generals kept alive the illusion of a united empire. In 322 Alexander’s military machine was still intact, and part of it now sprang into action. One of his generals, Craterus, sent one of his commanders, Cleitus, to take command of the Macedonian fleet. Cleitus then won a victory over the Greek fleet at Abydos, driving them away from the Hellespont, but not destroying the fleet. This victory allowed Macedonian reinforcements to reach Greece, but the existence of the Athenian fleet prevented Craterus from shipping a larger army across the Aegean. By the summer of 322 B.C. the Athenian fleet had been reinforced, and now contained 200 ships. The two fleets came together again at Amorgos, sixty miles south west of Samos. Once again Cleitus was victorious, this time inflicting a crushing defeat. Athens’s last great war fleet had been destroyed. With control of the sea lost, the Greek cause was doomed. The Macedonians were able to ship reinforcements to Greece, led by Craterus. The Greek army was defeated at Crannon, and faced by the prospect of a siege Athens surrendered.

 

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