From the Archives - The Duel of the Two Men, the Two Horses, and the Two Dogs

In heroic cultures, duels have sometimes been used in place of outright wars to settle disputes. The Greek historian Herodotus (c. 484-425 BC) tells of what was certainly one of the most curious duels in all history, involving two men, two horses, and two dogs, which took place about a century or so before his lifetime.

The Paionians, a loosely organized kingdom in the Strymon Valley in Macedonia, north of what is now Thessaloniki, had received an oracle telling them to march on the city-state of Perinthos, on the Sea of Marmora, near modern Istanbul, but not to undertake an attack. They were to make camp outside of Perinthos, and only attack if the Perinthians should “shout aloud and call to them by their name.” Naturally, when the Paionians camped outside Perinthos, the Perinthians mustered their army as well. Then, Herodotus tells us:

When the Perinthians were encamped opposite to the Paionians in the suburb of their city, they made a challenge to settle any differences by single combat in three different forms, matching a man against a man, and a horse against a horse, and a dog against a dog. Then, as the Perinthians were getting the better in two of the three fights, in their exultation they chanted a battle hymn. The Paionians concluded that this was the “shout aloud” which was spoken of in the oracle, and said to one another, "Now surely the oracle is being accomplished for us, now it is time for us to act."

So the Perinthians having chanted their battle hymn, the Paionians attacked, and they had much the better in the fight, and left but few Perinthians alive.

This tale is only known from Herodotus, who doesn’t supply much information, not even which “two of the three fights” were being won by the Perinthian “champions”. And although he says, the Paionians “left but few Perinthians alive,” Perinthos flourished for centuries more, even rivaling nearby Byzantium, and was powerful enough to resist a siege by Philip II of Macedon himself, though he had subdued the Paionians. Subject for a time by Philip’s son Alexander the Great, Perinthos continued to thrive until the later years of the Roman Empire, even after nearby Byzantium became the imperial capital, by which time the Paionians had totally disappeared.

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