Ancient Warfare - A Very Short Intorduction

This book deals with war between about 750 bc and ad 650. It concentrates on the classical cultures of Greece and Rome, although some of their enemies, peoples such as the Persians, Carthaginians, Germans, Huns, Arabs, and so on, get a look in. There are reasons beyond the author’s academic specialization for this focus. War was at the core of the classical cultures. Although, contrary to popular ideas, they were not always at war, and when they were they did not always seek open battle. The Greeks and Romans for long periods of time were generally successful in war, and war was never far from their minds. The ancient Mediterranean world produced sophisticated thinking specifically about war, much of which is still of relevance today. Concepts drawn from war were also used to structure thinking in many other areas. War was considered to be one of the main ways to distinguish one culture from another. Within the classical cultures, war was central to the construction of masculinity and thoughts about the differences between men and women. At the most intimate level, ideas from war were used by individuals to understand and construct their own personalities. In the Greek and Roman worlds almost everything you read, heard, or looked at could evoke warfare. Preface ix List of illustrations xv List of maps xvii 1 ‘At my signal unleash hell’: the Western Way of War? 1 2 Thinking with war 16 3 War and society 35 4 Thinking about war 53 5 Strategy 65 6 Fighting 82 7 ‘People should know when they are conquered’: the reinventions of the Western Way of War 112 Further reading 129 Chronology 151 Index 157 حق تکثیر: انتشار در حوزه عمومی اینترنت.