Siege of Athens

Overview

The siege of Athens and Piraeus was a siege of the First Mithridatic War that took place from autumn of 87 BC to the spring of 86 BC. The battle was fought between the forces of the Roman Republic, commanded by Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix on the one hand, and the forces of the Kingdom of Pontus and the Athenian City-State on the other. The Greek and Pontic forces were commanded by Aristion and Archelaus.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The Siege of Athens and Piraeus, conducted from autumn 87 BC to spring 86 BC, was a central engagement of the First Mithridatic War. Roman forces under Lucius Cornelius Sulla besieged both the city of Athens, held by the Athenian tyrant Aristion in alliance with Pontus, and the port of Piraeus, defended by the Pontic commander Archelaus. The dual siege targeted the principal urban and maritime strongholds of Pontic power in Greece, making its reduction essential to Roman control of the peninsula. Casualties attributed to the Pontic and allied side reached 400,000, a figure indicating the scale and intensity of the operation. The engagement directly pitted Roman Republican forces, numbering between 37,000 and 44,000, against a combined Greek and Pontic defense, reflecting the extent to which King Mithridates VI had succeeded in drawing Greek city-states into alliance against Rome. The fall of Athens and Piraeus effectively broke organized Pontic resistance in mainland Greece and set conditions for the subsequent campaign that would decide the war.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (6)