Ancient Special Operations

Special Operations is a concept people often consider a modern creation, but in fact, small, elite units conducting raids, infiltration, deception, or targeted strikes can be traced back thousands of years. Today we’ll explore how unconventional forces developed and may have been used in The Arthurian Age.

There is a fair amount of overlap between special operations and espionage, which I talk about in this article. This hasn’t changed much between the ancient and modern eras. Hit-and-run tactics are probably the oldest form of warfare, and could be thought of as special operations if they were used to enable larger, conventional forces to defeat the enemy. However, aside from the normal use of skirmishers, most examples involved using picked men for special missions, rather than specialized units trained for unconventional warfare. But there are exceptions.

The Dawn of Special Operations

The earliest concept of special operations come from Mesopotamia (modern Iraq). Around 2334 BC, Sargon the Great united the Sumerians and Semitic-speaking Akkadians into the first known multinational empire, eventually stretching from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea. Sargon developed the first professional army, and that included the extensive use of scouts and fast-moving units to conduct raids deep into enemy territory. His tactics were highly effective against the less mobile Sumerian militia phalanxes and Elamite guerillas of western Iran.

A century and a half after the collapse of the Akkadian Empire, the Assyrians of northern Iraq rose to prominence and improved on the use of special operations. They used spies (Nasrum or ‘Secret Men’) and informants (sa lisanim or ‘long-tongued men’) to infiltrate enemy cities. They would collect information on city walls, sabotage or open gates for night assaults, and engage in psychological warfare, spreading rumors and misinformation to break the enemy’s will to fight. Their long-range recon units, the Dayanu, ranged far ahead of the army, mapping out water sources and enemy troops.

A few centuries behind Mesopotamia, Egypt nevertheless developed their own forms of special operators. The famous Medjay, elite warriors from Nubia (modern Sudan), operated in small units and excelled in desert terrain. They conducted special operations, policing and fugitive apprehensions, as well as scouting and guarding pharaonic tombs. Over time, the Medjay units would lose their ethnic background as others joined the ranks.

The Torah / Bible describes Jewish special operations around 1,200 BC, such as when the Israelites, tormented by Midianite raiders, launched a night attack on the enemy camp. With only 300 picked men, they used careful timing and infiltration, horns, shouting and the sudden appearance of torches concealed in jars to panic the Midianites into fratricide and a rout.

Special Operations Evolve

Advances in civilization brought sophistication in warfare. Sparta is said to have had the most vicious, demanding warrior training of all the formidable Greek city-states. Maintaining their hold over their neighbors, the enslaved population known as helots, included terror. The Krypteia, made up of young, high-status Spartan warriors, was a shadowy organization sent to kill helots who might promote resistance against Sparta. Their secrecy and methods, operating at night, either alone or in very small groups and using only knives, taught stealth, fieldcraft and psychological toughness.

During the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) between Athens and Sparta, the Athenian, Alcibiades, is a fascinating character. A master of intrigue, espionage and unconventional warfare, he manipulated the Athenians, Spartans and Persians at various times. Aside from his spy networks, which often allowed him to capture cities through treachery rather than siege, he utilized the Kataskopoi (Overseers), developing them from border guards to highly effective unconventional warriors. Drawn from the cavalry and skirmisher classes, they worked primarily at night. Their members dressed as civilian merchants, laborers and wandering philosophers and had to speak regional dialects with proper accents. This let them infiltrate enemy camps and cities, collect intelligence and identify terrain and defensive features. If caught, they were usually executed as spies.

An example of the value of the Kataskopoi is the Battle of Cyzicus (410 BC), in which they created the conditions for Alcibiades to pull off one of the greatest naval ambushes in history. The Spartans and their Persian allies had captured Cyzicus, a Greek town on the Turkish side of the Hellespont. Their 60 ships outnumbered the Athenian navy of about 20 ships, so the Athenians withdrew and regrouped at Proconnesus, an island about 20 miles away. Alcibiades gathered another 60 plus ships there and needed to convince the Spartans that only the original fleet was in the area. To do this, he deployed his kataskopoi across the local coastlines and ports to intercept anyone, civilians or Spartan scouts, who might carry news to the Spartans or Persians. The kataskopoi, disguised as locals, were sent inland to find the Persian army, which told Alcibiades exactly where the Spartans would try to beach their ships if they retreated. With this sophisticated array of intelligence and pre-battle preparation, Alcibiades was able to split his navy into three groups, sending 20 ships to lure out the Spartan navy. Alcibiades feigned a withdrawal, and when the Spartan navy chased him, they were caught by the full Athenian fleet and crushed. Those that escaped fled to the exact beaches that the Kataskopoi had already identified, and Alcibiades’ army defeated them, killing the Spartan commander and destroying every Spartan ship. This battle so demoralized Sparta that it could have ended the Peloponnesian War, but their offer of peace to Athens was rejected.

A century later, Alexander the Great would add special operations to his repertoire of success. A vivid example was the Siege of the Sogdian Rock. In 327 BC, while campaigning in modern Uzbekistan, Alexander was faced with capturing a Bactrian fortress considered impregnable due to it’s position high on the face of sheer cliffs. When Alexander demanded they surrender, the defenders mockingly told him he’d need “winged men” to take the fortress. So Alexander asked for volunteers to secretly scale the cliffs at night to reach the cliff summit above the fortress. 300 men volunteered, using iron tent pegs and flax ropes. 30 of the men fell to their deaths, but at dawn, Alexander’s men signaled their success by waving cloths. Alexander sent a herald to tell the defenders that if they looked up, they’d see his winged men. This masterstroke of psychological warfare so demoralized the defenders that they surrendered.

The Jews were such a thorn in the Roman side that eventually the Romans deported them from Judea and renamed the region “Syria Palaestina”, which became “Palestine”. One of the more famous Jewish special operations units of the time was the Sicarii, named for a short, curved dagger. They conducted kidnappings for ransom or political leverage and targeted assassinations of Roman officials and Jewish collaborators. Their made their attacks in crowded public places using concealed knives, creating chaos and melting away into the crowd.

The Roman Approach to Unconventional Warfare

The Romans made a science out of everything, and unconventional warfare was no exception. The Speculatores were highly trained experts who worked alone or in pairs gathering intelligence or performing special operations such as disinformation campaigns, interrogations and assassinations. Julius Caesar used them to deliver secret messages and infiltrate enemy camps, and the usurper Procopius sent them into Constantinople to spread hostile rumors and chaos among the populace, paving the way for his brief takeover.

The more conventional partners to the Speculatores were the Exploratores. These light cavalry units specialized in long range reconnaissance, operating at least a day’s ride ahead of the Roman army to prevent ambushes, map out choke points, test fording depths, and find defensible campsites. They also conducted raids, night ambushes, and attacks on enemy supply lines, as well as capturing stragglers for interrogation.

A century after the end of the Western Roman Empire, the Eastern Roman Empire, known today as the Byzantine Empire, continued to evolve special warfare tactics. The Strategikon, attributed to Emperor Maurice, is one of the most important military manuals of the ancient world, codifying reconnaissance, ambushes, night operations and deception as aspects of unconventional warfare.

Special Operations in the Arthurian Age

In the Arthurian Age, the art of war was generally approached from either the systematic Roman form, or that of the Comitatus used by Germanic and Celtic warriors. For details on the Comitatus, you can read my short article here, but it’s essentially the difference between Roman discipline, combined-arms tactics and careful logistics, versus the “barbarian” approach of relatively small retinues of warriors oath-bound to a warlord, preferring mobility, surprise attacks, and local foraging. Over time, the two approaches would meld, and I illustrate this in my novels, The Retreat to Avalon, The Strife of Camlann, and the upcoming Three Wicked Revelations.

This topic came to mind, because at our current point in the story, in The Retreat to Avalon, Arthur has captured Nantes, but the next step in his plan was thwarted by a Roman traitor. On the next article, we’ll see Arthur’s next moves, and how he used what we would think of as Special Operations in the Arthurian Age.

Thanks for coming by, and as always, love to hear from you!