펠로폰네소스 전쟁을 통해 본 고전기 그리스 군사전략

A Study on Ancient Greek Military Strategy

This paper attempts to show that ancient Greeks had understood multidimensional military strategic concept which had been argued by Michael Howard in the 20th century. Unlike common understandings about strategic thoughts, this paper suggests that ancient Greeks had employed military strategy in conducting war. In the case of ground warfare, the Greeks preferred Phalanx formation based on its superior shock power and protection in consideration of technical dimension of strategy. At the same time, the Greeks had stuck to decisive battles in regard to heavy combat weight and the protection of warriors who were also important members of Greek city states. The idea of protecting its membership had strong connection with social dimension of the strategy. To conduct maritime warfare, Greeks at the ancient time constructed trireme fleets. Athens was eager to build fleets using abundant social and financial resources. This can be regarded that Athenians had good conditions to have maritime forces in terms of social dimension of the strategy. At the same time, the Greeks sought decisive battles focusing on operational dimension of the strategy. In addition, Pericles showed that he understood logistic and social dimension of the strategy in pursuing his unique defense strategy. In conclusion, ancient Greeks were well aware of multi-dimensions of military strategy and exploited those concepts adroitly. In this sense, studies on the origin of military strategy should go back to the time of the ancient Greeks rather than staying at modern times.