Le traitement des prisonniers de guerre dans la Grèce antique des origines à la conquête

romaine by Pierre Ducrey

Review by: J. K. Anderson
Classical Philology, Vol. 64, No. 4 (Oct., 1969), pp. 263-265
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/267711 .
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 BOOK REVIEWS 263

two data suggestthat perhapsnarrownessof blade plows or the vallus or, indeed, any of the major
may not actuallybe the distinguishingmarkof the tools W. considers, without scrutinizing
marra. thoroughly the evidence he marshals and his
On p. 110 conceivablythe acus (plantingdibble) carefully reasoned classifications of their
which Palladius suggests for planting vine shoots forms and functions both in the text and in the
in worked-oversoil is akin to the ferrata cuspis
supporting appendixes.
Columella has in mind for use in the garden
(RR 10. 253-54): ". . . humo pingui ferratae White has indeed undertaken a difficult
cuspidis ictu/deprimitur... candida beta." But study, complicated especially by the scattered
the identificationis tenuous at best. So is that of and fragmentary nature of most of the evi-
the ferrum bicorne with which the gardener dence, and he is rightly concerned (p. 7) about
"combs"the soil around tender seedlings(RR 10. "the lack of modern commentaries on
148-49)-perhaps a light-weightbidens,but more Columella and Palladius" as a handicap to
likely the capreolus, the light, two-pronged students of "the technical aspects of Roman
weedinghoe Columellawoulduse aroundasparagus agriculture." But, thanks to his efforts, the
(RR 11. 3. 46). lack has now been partially met, for his book,
Unspecified iron tools are generally trouble-
which is beautifully printed, provides a limited
some. The ferrea of Cato 10. 3 and 11. 4 is taken
tentatively as a pala (spade) on p. 25, but with but valuable commentary upon important
greaterconfidenceas a furca in the same passages passages in these and other agricultural
on p. 107. Anotherpassageshould have been con- writers.
sidered:on p. 43 W. notes (from Cato 155. 1) that GRUNDY STEINER
the whole household should turn out "cumferreis
sarculisque"to open up the drainageditches. W. Northwestern University
translates "with shovels," a likely enough mean-
ing, although admittedlya fork is highly effective Le traitement des prisonniers de guerre dans la
for removing weeds, grass, and other debris Grece antique des origines a la conquete
clogginga ditch full of water.He devotes a section
romaine. By PIERRE DUCREY. ("Ecole
of AppendixE (p. 211) to the variousmeaningsof
the termferramentum,a section which could have Fran9aise d'Athenes: Travaux et Memoires
been amplifiedby consideringthe various mean- des Anciens Membres Etrangers de l'Ecole
ings of the equally flexibletermferrum. et de Divers Savants," Fasc. XVII.) Paris:
Finally, Saturn, a figure relevantyet peripheral Editions E. de Boccard, 1968. Pp. xiv+
to W.'s subject, seems to reflect work done at 359+12 pls.
differenttimes and in differentmoods. On p. 39 This is, as its author claims, the first full-
he is "an agriculturallabourer"(on a gem); on scale study of its subject. International law,
p. 51 (on the same gem) he is "an agricultural private and public morality, political institu-
slave."The two roles mightor mightnot be identi- tions, and the character of individuals can all
cal. Further, on p. 98, the scythe is "first the
be illustrated by the treatment afforded to
attribute of Saturn, god of agriculture, and then,
by an erroneous identification, the emblem of prisoners of war at different places and periods.
Time, the Destroyer";on p. 99, it is the "attribute The ancient evidence is drawn from the whole
of Saturnus, bringer of agriculture to Italy; and body of Greek literature from Homer on-
later ... associated with Time, the Destroyer"; poets, orators, and philosophers as well as
lastly, on p. 102 we get "the long-handledscythe historians-and is supplemented by numerous
... in the hands of 'Father Time' on monuments inscriptions. Modern scholarship, if it has not
of the middleand later Roman Empire"and men- dealt exhaustively with "prisoners of war" as
tion of three cameos depicting "a stage in the such, has had plenty to say on the wider
adaptation of the symbol of Kronos/Saturn to questions. M. Ducrey has
mastered a formi-
those of Father Time and his scythe." W.'s last
dable body of material, considered it well, and
effort is clearlythe best.
given his readers plenty to think about. That
But not one of these matters compromises no satisfactory general conclusions emerge is
the worth of W.'s book. No one for genera- no fault of his.
tions to come will safely write about falces or His book opens with a valuable study of the

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264 BOOKREVIEWS
vocabulary of captivity, in which the verbs
used by ancient authors for taking prisoners
and the terms applied to the prisoners them-
selves are examined one by one. At the outset
(pp. 3, 11) D. makes clear the central difficulty
of the book; the concept "prisoner of war,"
all too familiar to the twentieth century and
precisely defined by international law, has no
exact ancient counterpart. That military opera-
tions should be limited to "legitimate military
objectives" was allowed, in theory at least, by
Polybius (p. 1) but the distinction between
"combatant" and "noncombatant," to which
we still pay lip service even in "total war," was
unknown (cf. also p. 111). On the other hand
slavery, in its ancient form, has disappeared.
In our wars we are at least spared the sight of
captives sold at auction to enrich military
adventurers or pay the expenses of armies in
the field.
The book is divided into two parts. The first
begins with the "etude de vocabulaire." Its
second chapter deals with prisoners captured
in various military operations, and is sub-
divided into sections on massacre, slavery, and
captivity. Searching the ancient literature, D.
has found 120 accounts of actions leading to
the capture of prisoners, of which 24 only lead
to massacre, 28 to enslavement (p. 54). The
figures include six massacres during civil wars
or internal commotion within cities, whose
victims should rather be regarded as political
prisoners, and five killings of captured mer-
cenaries. But the value of these statistics is
doubtful. The author himself notes that no
distinction is drawn between large battles and
skirmishes. Besides, if massacre of prisoners
was exceptional once they had been granted
quarter, the fact remains that in big hoplite
battles quarter seems often not to have been
given. The modern reader is frequently struck
by the disproportionate number of dead lost
by the defeated side and the absence of any
mention of prisoners at all. The difficulty of
disarming and securing prisoners without
halting the advance and breaking the phalanx,
the limited objectives of most hoplite battles,
and the short pursuit that followed them should
all be taken into consideration.
The third chapter deals with the fate of
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defenders and inhabitants of conquered cities;
the fourth with the campaigns of the Ten
Thousand and of Alexander the Great,
bracketed as "expeditions en pays ennemi."
No doubt many ancient brigands, like Villon's
Diomedes, regarded themselves as war lords
on a small scale,' but their appearance in a
book nominally concerned with prisoners of
war illustrates the failure of ancients to distin-
guish between prisoners of war and other
captives. More important were the distinctions
between free men and slaves, taken in the same
operation, and (p. 107) between citizens cap-
tured in the fall of their cities and those taken
in the field, whose rights in their own states
still remained, if they could ever return to
enjoy them. Here another important difference
between the ancient and modern worlds
appears. We assume that prisoners of war will
be released as a natural consequence of the end
of hostilities; the ancients did not. D. rightly
notes the bargaining over the Spartans taken
at Sphacteria (p. 93), and has collected interest-
ing information on the extent to which various
states accepted responsibility for the redemp-
tion of their captured citizens through inter-
national treaty. The weakness of Greek public
finance is shockingly illustrated by the fact
that the ransoming of captives was often left to
individuals-not always disinterested-or paid
for out of windfalls like the twenty-five talents
given to Aratus of Sicyon (pp. 238 ff.).
Part II begins with an account of the physical
details of massacre and imprisonment which I
found unhelpful. The actual chains that the
Athenians fastened on their Chalcidian cap-
tives would please a Monkbarns or a Dryas-
dust, but would tell us little that we do not
know from Herodotus. There was no need to
make up for their loss with Celtic chains from
Wales and Roman reliefs from Germany (Pls.
VII and IX). In general, the plates (e.g.,
Prometheus Bound, Pls. I and II) are interest-
ing in themselves but hardly relevant.
The remaining chapters deal in order with
the profits of war, including those raised from
forms of plunder other than human captives;
the distinctions drawn, too often only in
1. F. Villon, Testement, 18: "Se comme toy me peusse
armer, / Comme toy empereur je feusse."
 BOOK REVIEWS
theory, between Greek and barbarian; religi-
ous and international law, including rights of
asylum and the sanctity of ambassadors; and
finally the influence of public opinion. These
chapters, like the rest of the book, contain
much that is of interest, but read more like a
series of essays on connected themes than the
continuous development of a single topic. The
arrangement of the material makes it difficult
to form conclusions about cities, individuals,
and periods. Thus on page 237 we jump from
the Spartan siege of Corcyra in 372 B.C. to the
Book of Maccabees. Paches at Notium is
separated from Paches at Mitylene. Different
aspects of the massacre of the Argives after
Sepeia are discussed in different pages (fortun-
ately there is an adequate index), and the
opportunity to contrast the conduct of Cleo-
menes I with that of Agesilaus after Coronea
is not properly used. The Peloponnesian War
demands unified treatment, but the arrange-
ment of the material demands (p. 66) a jump
from Plataea to Aegospotami, with Sphacteria,
Mitylene, and the Athenian surrender in
Sicily reserved for a separate section.
"Conclusions" at the ends of both parts do
something to pull the book together. But
Achilles cannot be brought under the same
rules as Philip of Macedon. D.'s final para-
graph, contrasting the conduct of the Greeks,
cruel and brutal only "par hasard, par accident
ou par interet," with the Roman policy of
deliberate terrorism, is no more universally
true than are most such generalizations.
Parcere subiectis was the Roman boast; the
policy of classical Athens inspired the Melian
Debate.
J. K. ANDERSON
University of California, Berkeley
II sogno nell' epica latina: Tecnica e poesia.
By ANTONINOGRILLONE. Palermo: And6
Editori, 1967. Pp. 175.
In this valuable and sympathetic study
Professor Grillone not only provides a com-
prehensive view of the uses of dreams in Latin
epic verse but examines each dream to ascer-
tain what each poet owes to his predecessors
and what, for better or worse, is character-
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
265
istically his own. Particulars of these Latin
dreams (fifty-seven in all) are set forth in a
much more detailed manner than in the com-
petent if summarily philological Berlin disser-
tation of J. G. Wetzel, Quomodo poetae epici
et Graeci et Romani somnia descripserint
(1931), and the analyses are completed by
critical appreciations that give his study a
literary significance to which Wetzel's investi-
gation did not pretend. The author's survey
will be stimulating and on occasion challeng-
ing to everyone who reads Latin epic verse,
Augustan and post-Augustan, with attention
and good will.
Following the Introduction, where the pro-
cedures of Ennius, Virgil, Ovid, Lucan,
Valerius, Silius, Statius, and Claudian with
respect to dreams are succinctly characterized,
are eight chapters in which the dreams in the
epics of these poets are discussed one by one.
Each poet has his own chapter, and each
dream is described, analyzed, its literary
ancestry explored, and its function considered.
No reader will agree with all of the author's
observations, but few will lay down the book
without having modified some of their own
views and without having thought about
matters which had previously escaped their
notice. The reviewer found the chapters on
Ennius, Virgil, Valerius, and Claudian
especially rewarding, those on Ovid and on
Lucan interesting presentations of opinions
generally accepted and certainly defensible,
but perhaps not wholly in accord with the
phenomena, that on Statius not unjust, and
that on Silius conventionally blind to the qual-
ities of this much-damned but little-read
romancer. The book is an important one: its
virtues far outweigh whatever insufficiencies
readers may find or fancy they find, and its
excellent organization, literary sensitivity,
critical acumen, and attention to minute
particulars deserve high commendation.
The author distinguishes dreams that are
presented as self-induced from those resulting
from external inspiration. Employment by the
poet of forms of videor is considered an indica-
tion that the dream is of the first variety. The
dreams are also divided into those instrumental
in advancing the plot and so essential to the