The Seleucid Army: Organization and Tactics in the Great Campaigns

by Bezalel Bar-Kochva

Overview

This is a 1976 study of the organization and tactics of the Seleucid armies from 312 to 129 BC. The first part of the book discusses the numerical strength of the armies, their sources of manpower, the contingents of the regular army, their equipment and historical development, the chain of command, training and discipline. The second part reconstructs the great campaigns in order to examine the Seleucid tactics. The book provides a lesson in Hellenistic and military history and discusses several questions: how did the Hellenistic armies develop after Alexander? What distinguished the Seleucid army as superior to its Hellenistic contemporaries? The answers illuminate the expansion of Hellenism as we learn how the Seleucid army was used as a military, social and cultural instrument to impose the rule of the dynasty over the vast regions of the Empire and how it helped to shape Hellenistic society in the East.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521200080
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/29/2012
Series:	Cambridge Classical Studies
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.71(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements; Abbreviations; Introduction; Part I. Organization: 1. The numerical strength of the Seleucid armies; 2. Sources of manpower; 3. The regular army; 4. The command - King stratēgoi and other officers; 5. Training and discipline; Part II. The Army in Action: 6. Seleucus I at Ipsus (301 BC); 7. Against Demetrius at Cyrrestica (285 BC); 8. The victory over Molon (220 BC); 9. The storming of the Porphyrion pass (218 BC); 10. The battle of Raphia (217 BC); 11. The crossing of the Elburz range (210 BC); 12. The battle of Panion (200 BC); 13. The defence of Thermopylae (191 BC); 14. The battle of Magnesia (190 BC); 15. The march to Beith-Zacharia (162 BC); 16. Bacchides against Judas Maccabaeus at Elasa (160 BC); Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Addenda; Index.