Moses the Tactician

Command, Clement of Alexandria wrote, involved “caution, risk taking, and the union of the two,” and these expressed themselves in words, deeds, or word-deeds. Moses was the great model of command, not only to Israel but to the Greeks (Stromateis, 1.24).

Moses’ night march through the sea guided by a pillar was imitated by Miltiades at Marathon: “Hippias, the Athenian defector, had conducted the barbarian forces into Africa, and, knowing the country, seized and held the points of vantage. The task, then, was to elude him, which Miltiades, by shrewd use of the night march through the desert, did successfully, attacked the Persians under Datis and with his followers got the better of the contest.”

At the same time Thrasyboulos, leading “exiles from Phyla, wishing to escape observation, followed a pillar that guided him across the desert – a pillar of fire in a motionless, storm-swept sky, which appeared to lead them on until it brought them safely to Mounychia and left them where the altar of Phosphoros stands now.”

Greeks then shouldn’t have any trouble believing Hebrew stories about God sending “a fiery pillar before the Hebrews by night and guide them in their way.”