Ten leading scholars of ancient warfare offer new insights on several aspects of military activity from the Later Bronze Age to the Roman Empire. They make significant contributions to understanding warfare on land and sea, to the social and economic aspects of war, and to battlefield experience. The studies illustrate the ways in which technology, innovation, cultural exchange and tactical developments transformed ancient warfare. Papers survey the armies of Assyria and Persia, the important role of navies and money in transforming Greek warfare, and how Romans learned to fight as soldiers and generals.
New Perspectives on Ancient Warfare will inspire debate for years to come about the military systems of the ancient world.
Contributors are Garrett Fagan, Matthew Trundle, Fernando Rey, Robin Archer, Chris Tuplin, Hans Van Wees, Louis Rawlings, Peter Krentz, Nathan Rosenstein and David Potter
Garrett G. Fagan, PhD (1993) in Roman Studies, McMaster University is Associate Professor of CAMS and History at Penn State University. He has published
Bathing in Public in the Roman World (1999). His next book,
The Lure of the Arena, will appear in 2010.
Matthew Trundle, PhD (1997), in Ancient History, McMaster University, is Senior Lecturer in Classics at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He has published extensively on Greek warfare's relationship to Greek society including
Greek Mercenaries (Routledge, 2004).
Acknowledgements ..vii
Abbreviations ..ix
List of Illustrations ..xi
Introduction ..1
1. Weapons, Technological Determinism, and Ancient Warfare ..21
Fernando Echeverría Rey
2. Chariotry to Cavalry: Developments in the Early First Millennium ..57
Robin Archer
3. “I Fell upon Him like a Furious Arrow”: Toward a Reconstruction of the Assyrian Tactical System ..81
Garrett G. Fagan
4. All the King’s Horse: In Search of Achaemenid Persian Cavalry..101
Christopher Tuplin
5. A Cup by Douris and the Battle of Marathon ..183
Peter Krentz
6. “Those Who Sail Are to Receive a Wage”: Naval Warfare and Finance in Archaic Eretria ..205
Hans van Wees
7. Coinage and the Transformation of Greek Warfare ..227
Matthew Trundle
8. The Carthaginian Navy: Questions and Assumptions ..253
Louis Rawlings
9. Phalanges In Rome? ..289
Nathan Rosenstein
10. Caesar and the Helvetians ..305
David Potter
Bibliography ..331
Index ..357
All those interested in ancient history and military history generally, land warfare, naval warfare and war and society, as well as change and continuity in antiquity and its technology.