EPHORUS AND THE PROHIBITION OF MISSILES
The alleged treaty banning missile weapons in a war between archaic Chalcis and Eretria is one of the most frequently cited events in Greek history. The key to understanding this alleged prohibition of missiles lies with Ephorus, the panhellenist propaganda he preached, and a contemporary military development of the fourth century. The theme of peace and philosophers thus introduces the alleged treaty on the prohibition of missiles. Certainly Ephorus was interested in the ancient customs of the Greeks, particularly as they concerned amelioration of warfare between Greeks, but the rules of monomachia in no way excluded missile weapons. The connection of Ephorus with a ban on missiles lays with Ephorus the panhellenist, not the Ephorus the peripatetic. A treaty banning missiles transferred to an archaic context to offer an ancient exemplum for imitation fits admirably the political, military, and intellectual context of the fourth century, but not at all that of archaic Eretria.
