Warfare in the Ancient World

by Brian Todd Carey, Joshua B. Allfree, John Cairns

Overview

“An interesting study of the development of military organization and strategy across several millennia, from Bronze Age Mesopotamia to the last days of Rome.” —The Pegasus Archive

Warfare in the Ancient World explores how civilizations and cultures made war on the battlefields of the Near East and Europe between the rise of civilization in Mesopotamia in the late fourth millennium BC and the fall of Rome.

Through an exploration of twenty-six selected battles, military historian Brian Todd Carey surveys the changing tactical relationships between the four weapon systems—heavy and light infantry and heavy and light cavalry—focusing on how shock and missile combat evolved from tentative beginnings in the Bronze Age to the highly developed military organization created by the Romans.

The art of warfare reached a very sophisticated level of development during this three millennia span. Commanders fully realized the tactical capabilities of shock and missile combat in large battlefield situations. Modern principles of war, like the primacy of the offensive, mass, and economy of force, were understood by pre-modern generals and applied on battlefields throughout the period.

Through the use of dozens of multiphase tactical maps, this fascinating introduction to the art of war during western civilizations ancient and classical periods pulls together the primary and secondary sources and creates a powerful historical narrative. The result is a synthetic work that will be essential reading for students and armchair historians alike.

“An ambitious book that sets out to cover four and a half thousand years of military history, from the rise of the first civilizations in the Near East to the fall of the Western Roman Empire.” —History of War

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781848846302
Publisher:	Pen & Sword Books Limited
Publication date:	01/31/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	823,179
File size:	34 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Brian Todd Carey is an Assistant Professor of History and Military History at the American Public University System, where he teaches ancient, classical, medieval and early modern military history. He is the author of dozens of history articles in numerous magazines and journals, including Aviation History, Command Magazine, History Magazine, Marine Corps Gazette, Medieval History Magazine, Military Heritage, Military History, Strategy and Tactics, World History Bulletin, World at War, World War II, and WWII Quarterly: The Journal of the Second World War and seventeen articles on ancient, classical and medieval Eurasian warfare for the twenty-one volume ABC-CLIO-World History Encyclopedia. In 2007 he was the recipient of the American Public University System's Excellence in Teaching and Learning Award for the School of Arts and Humanities. He is the author of Warfare in the Ancient World, Warfare in the Medieval World, Hannibal's last Battle: Zama and the Fall of Carthage, and Road to Manzikert: Byzantine and Islamic Warfare, 527-1071.

Table of Contents

	Preface and Acknowledgments	vi
	Maps	vii
	Introduction	1
Chapter 1	Warfare in the Ancient Near East: The Bronze and Early Iron Ages	10
	Warfare in Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt: The World's First Armies
	The Chariot at War: The Battles of Megiddo and Qadesh
	Warfare in Late Bronze Age Greece: The Mycenaeans
	Iron and Empire: The Rise of Assyria
	The Assyrian Army at War: The Urartu Campaign
	Cyrus the Great and the Persian Art of War
	Assyrian and Persian Logistics
Chapter 2	Archaic and Hellenic Warfare: The Greek Phalanx at War	37
	The Invention of the Greek Phalanx and the 'Cult of Symmetry'
	The Persian Wars: A Collision of Two Tactical Systems
	The Peloponnesian War: The 'Cult of Symmetry' Challenged
	The Greek Military Revolution
Chapter 3	Warfare in the Hellenistic Era: The Rise of the Macedonian Art of War	64
	The Rise of Macedon and the Development of the Macedonian Art of War
	The Macedonian Logistical System
	The Macedonian Art of War in Practice: The Battles of Granicus, Issus and Gaugamela
	Alexander in India: The Battle of Hydaspes
	Trends in Hellenistic Warfare
Chapter 4	Republican Rome at War: The Rise and Evolution of the Legion	90
	The Etruscan Inheritance
	The Early Roman Republican Army
	The Camillan Reforms and the Invention of the Maniple Legion
	The Tarentine and Punic Wars
	Legion versus Phalanx: The Macedonian Wars
	The Marian Reforms
	The Cohortal Legion at War: The Gallic Campaigns
	Legion versus Cavalry: The Battle of Carrhae
	Legion versus Legion: The Civil Wars
Chapter 5	The Roman Empire at War: The Augustan Reforms, Pax Romana and Decline of the Legion	122
	The Augustan Reforms
	Legion versus Light Infantry: The Battle of Teutoburg Forest
	Legion versus Chariots: The Roman Campaigns in Britain
	The Roman Limes Threatened: The Return of Civil War and Invasion
	The Late Empire: The 'Barbarization' of the Roman Army
	Roman Infantry in Decline: The Battles of Adrianople and Chalons
	Conclusion: 'The Western Way of War' and Decisive Battle
	Glossary of Military Terms	150
	Notes	159
	Selected Bibliography	175
	Index	179

What People are Saying About This

Steven D. Fratt

This first work of a two-volume set serves as a solid introduction to ancient warfare. Carey analyzes the main tactical systems in light of Archer Jones's tactical matrix (heavy infantry, heavy cavalry, light infantry, light cavalry). Nice selection of key battles. Excellent diagrams and maps. Glossary and select bibliography. --Steven D. Fratt, Oxford Bibliographies.

Editorial Reviews

"This first work of a two-volume set serves as a solid introduction to ancient warfare. Carey analyzes the main tactical systems in light of Archer Jones’s tactical matrix (heavy infantry, heavy cavalry, light infantry, light cavalry). Nice selection of key battles. Excellent diagrams and maps. Glossary and select bibliography."

Oxford Bibliographies - Steven D. Fratt

This is an interesting work with a lot of clearly presented information and will be useful to history students in military schools and to amateur historians.

Journal of Military History

"This first work of a two-volume set serves as a solid introduction to ancient warfare. Carey analyzes the main tactical systems in light of Archer Jones’s tactical matrix (heavy infantry, heavy cavalry, light infantry, light cavalry). Nice selection of key battles. Excellent diagrams and maps. Glossary and select bibliography."

Steven D. Fratt, Oxford Bibliographies.

Oxford Bibliographies. Steven D. Fratt

This is an interesting work with a lot of clearly presented information and will be useful to history students in military schools and to amateur historians.

Journal of Military History. Lexington: Jul 2006. Vol. 70