Shameless self promotion or "men in skirts" XXXVI

Theme: Michael Park, 'The battle of Gaza, 312 BC - Doomed men of distinction'. Illustrated by Igor Dzis and José Antonio German.
Ancient Warfare, V.6, 2011

The horsemen reached Azotus (modern Ashdod, Israel) near midnight. Their horses, lathered in sweat in spite of the crisp December night, made directly for their stabling and water. Of the elite cavalrymen who had earlier left these winter quarters, few returned. The survivors, a defeated and desultory lot, made their way toward their general’s lodging. Here, in “council” (synhedrion) with what remained of his “Friends” (philoi), Demetrius canvassed his options. Many of the Friends, “the most distinguished of whom were Pithon [son of Agenor], who had shared the command on equal terms with himself, and Boeotus, who for a long time had lived with his father Antigonus and had shared in all his state secrets”, lay dead on the battlefield (Diodorus 19.85.2 – all references to this source and book unless noted). Still in his blood and grime covered armour and struggling to come to terms with events, Demetrius had an envoy sent to Ptolemy “about the burial of the dead since he was very anxious at any cost to honour those who had perished with the funeral that was their due” (85.1). More than a few of those who’d perished had sat in another council prior to the battle; a council of war.

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