Warfare Books
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W. W. Norton & Company (01 April 1999)Price: $12.21 -
Penguin (Non-Classics) (28 January 2003)Price: $10.40 -
Anchor (01 February 1996)Price: $10.20 -
Little, Brown and Company (28 September 2009)Price: $17.81 -
W. W. Norton & Company (17 March 2007)Price: $19.77
Definition
The first recorded war in history is that between Sumer and Elam in Mesopotamia in 2700 BCE in which Sumer was victorious and the first peace treaty ever signed ending hostilities between nations was between Rameses II (the Great) of the Empire of Egypt and Hattusili III of the Hittite Empire in 1280 BCE.
Warfare in ancient times was conducted differently than what would be deemed 'acceptable' by today’s standards and the vanquished could be certain that slavery or summary execution awaited them. When Alexander the Great took the Phoenician city of Tyre in July of 332 he had most of the population killed and sold the rest into slavery. In September of 52 BCE, when Julius Caesar defeated Vercingetorix and his Gallic tribes at Alesia, the garrison was sold into slavery and each man in Caesar’s legions received, as a gift, one Gaul as a personal slave (over 40,000 Gauls were taken as slaves by the legionaires alone, not counting those others sold to tribes who made peace with Caesar and formed alliances after Alesia) and when Octavian defeated Mark Antony at the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE a similar fate awaited Antony’s forces not fortunate enough to die in battle.
Battle strategies and and methods of warfare differed by country, by ruler and by era. In ancient Egypt the army was equipped with a simple spear and a leather shield but, by 1600 BCE, when the Egyptians defeated the Hyksos of lower Egypt, they artfully employed the horse and chariot, body armor and the bow as well as the sword. The Persian Empire favored armored cavalry, heavy infantry (of whom the elite were known as the 10,000 Immortals) and archers who would rain down arrows on an opposing force to create 'awe and wonder’ in the ranks. The ancient Greeks relied on armored infantry (the Hoplites) and the phalanx formation, a dense grouping of soldiers with long spears and interlocking shields. In Greece the infantry did most of the fighting, no matter what city-states were involved, the notable exception being the naval battle of Salamis in 480 BCE. Philip II of Macedon introduced the sarissa (a long spear) to the phalanx which greatly enhanced the formation’s effectiveness on the field and Philip’s son, Alexander the Great, made use of the sarissa in his infantry phalanxes in his own campaigns but also employed light and heavy cavalry and chariots to effect. The three-line legion of the Roman Empire, equipped with body armor, spear, shield and short sword replaced the phalanx formation and, supported by cavalry, proved itself the greatest fighting force in antiquity after Alexander the Great.
Articles
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The Poem of Pentaur is the official Egyptian record (along with The Bulletin) of Rameses II The Great’s victory over the Hittite King Muwatalli II at the Battle of Kadesh in 1274 BCE (in modern-day Syria). So proud was Rameses of this `victory’ that he had the poem, which details his personal valor against overwhelming odds, inscribed on the walls of temples at Abydos, Luxor, Karnak, Abu Simbel and in his Ramesseum.
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Just as the Athenian Agora was home to the many legal and political headquarters of the polis, it also was home base to the all-important Athenian army. In the chronicles of ancient history, we can see how armies and navies played a vital role on the succession of power of important ancient civilizations, and Athens is no exception. The Athenian military power was a vital ingredient in the success of Athens. In ancient history, no respectable city would have gone unfortified by walls, or unprotected by an army.
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One of the most effective and enduring military formations in ancient warfare was that of the Greek Phalanx. The age of the Phalanx may be traced back to Sumeria in the 25th century BCE, through Egypt, and finally appearing in Greek literature through Homer in the 8th century BCE (and, since, has been generally associated with Greek warfare strategy, the name itself being from the Greek for `finger’). The phalanx formation was a close-rank, dense grouping of warriors armed with long spears and interlocking shields. The Greek Hoplite soldier provided his own weapon (a seven or eight foot spear known as a `doru’) and shield as well as breast plate, helmet and greaves. There was no official `training’ for a Greek Hoplite and it was the responsibility of the individual commander to make sure his troops could fight in a unified form. Philip II of Macedon changed how armies were trained and enhanced the phalanx formation by introducing the idea of the 'professional soldier' to Macedon, providing his warriors with training, a smaller shield, and a longer spear known as a `sarissa’ which, besides simply being able to inflict greater casualties at a further distance, had the added advantage of masking the formation’s movements when the sarissa’s were held in certain ways.
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After securing the eastern Mediterranean seaboard and Egypt, Alexander pushed east into Mesopotamia with the intention of bringing Darius to battle. After crossing the Euphrates river unopposed, he marched his army eastward along the foothills of the Armenian mountains before crossing the Tigris.
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After defeating Darius III at the battle of Issus in November 333 BC, Alexander marched his army (about 35,000-40,000 strong) into Phoenicia, where he received the capitulation of Byblus and Sidon. Tyrian envoys met with Alexander whilst he was on the march, declaring their intent to honour his wishes.
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Illustrations
