Focus on Elite Forces: “Guardsmen and Emperor-makers: Rome’s Praetorians”

Rome’s first emperor Caesar Augustus (r.31 BCE-14 CE) created a personal bodyguard called the cohors praetoria or Praetorian Guard in 27 BCE consisting of nine double-strength cohorts to protect himself and ensure domestic tranquility after a century of Roman civil wars. The guardsmen were organized, trained, and armed like the regular legionaries, but were hand-picked veterans initially of Italian origin who were paid much more than normal Roman soldiers and received benefits after only…

Read more…

Focus on Siegecraft: “The Roman Siege and Storm of Carthage during the Third Punic War, 149-146 BCE”

In 149 BCE the Roman Republic initiated a third and final Punic war against its long-time rival, Carthage, culminating in an event rare in history: the eradication of an entire civilization.  Unlike the First Punic War (264-241 BCE) and Second Punic War (218-201 BCE) between Rome and Carthage which lasted twenty-three years and seventeen years respectively and involved campaigns throughout the Western Mediterranean, the Third Punic War (149-146 BCE) lasted only four years and was fought…

Read more…

Focus on Fortifications: “The Walls of Carthage and Its Double Harbor”

Like its mortal enemy Rome, Carthage was both a city and an empire, famous throughout the Mediterranean for its material wealth, strong thalassocracy, and the strength of the walls protecting its capital and namesake located in the center of the coast of the Gulf of Tunis in what is today a seaside suburb of modern Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. The site chosen for Carthage (Kart-hadasht in Phoenician, Karchedon in Greek, and Carthago in Latin) was on a triangular peninsula covered with low…

Read more…

Focus on Wounds in War: “Alexander the Great and His Many Battle Injuries”

The primary sources emphasize Alexander III of Macedon’s (“the Great” r.336-323 BCE) bravery in combat, and we know from the descriptions of these engagements, mostly from his best biographers, the Greek historian Arrian (c.86-c.160) and the Roman historians Diodorus Siculus (first century BCE), Quintus Curtius Rufus (first century CE), that the Macedonian king preferred active command over remote (or removed) command. In active command, the commanding general participates in battle, leading…

Read more…

Focus on Naval Warfare: “Greek Triremes at War in the Hellenic Era”

The “Age of the Trireme” parallels Greece’s Hellenic era (c.500-c.338 BCE), and its use as the primary capital ship of both Greece and the major naval powers of the Mediterranean corresponds to this roughly 170 year time span.  Although most closely associated with Athens, nearly all Greek city states or poleis with access to the sea constructed triremes to defend local waters and to participate in allied naval engagements, first against the invading Persians during the Persian Wars (499-449…

Read more…

Focus on Naval Warfare: “Anatomy of a Seaborne Predator: The Greek Trireme”

The earliest type of Iron Age Greek warship, the simple single-masted pentekontor with twenty-five oarsmen on each side was supplanted first by the slightly larger bireme (with two banks for oars) and finally in the six century BCE by the more complex trireme, which remained the standard war galley throughout the Hellenic era (c.500-338 BCE).  Light in structure, undecked, and slim in comparison with contemporary merchant ships, the famous Greek trireme that formed the backbone of Aegean fleets…

Read more…

Focus on Command: “Leonidas and the Stand of the 300” 

King Leonidas of Sparta (r.489-480 BCE) and the “Stand of the 300” holds a special place in the annals of Western Civilization. At the end of the second decade of the Persian Wars (499-449 BCE) Leonidas stood with a select group of fellow Spartans hoplites and allied Greeks against the largest army ever assembled in Europe at this time in history, a multinational Persian host led by the Great King Xerxes (r.486-465) bent on adding the Greek peoples and their Aegean poleis or city states to the…

Read more…

Focus on Military Training: “The Spartan Agoge”

The classical period in Western civilization produced numerous military societies, but perhaps no other culture is more closely associated with martial excellence than the Spartans.  This excellence was by design; a product of a comprehensive and often brutal primary education beginning at the age of seven and continuing until young adulthood. Known as the Agoge (literally “to raise” in Greek), Spartan military education produce the finest hoplites in the Greek world for generations, capable of…

Read more…

Focus on Infantry: “Greek Infantry Battle: Different Interpretations of how Hoplites Engaged in Combat (Othismos)

By the middle of the seventh century BCE, a new style of warfare appeared in Greece requiring a warrior (hoplite, named after his large round shield or hoplon) to fight in close-order, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with his comrades in a battle square. This battle square, called a phalanx, distinguished itself from other heavy infantry formations in the ancient and classical world in that it would evolve into a comparatively articulated weapon system capable of some offensive tactical mobility.…

Read more…

Focus on Siegecraft: “The Evolution of Siege Weapons and Tactics in Ancient and Classical Warfare c.3100 BCE-c.500 CE.”

The siege weapons and tactics collectively referred to as siegecraft, used in the Ancient and Classical eras fall into numerous categories, from the very simple to the complex, depending on the resources of the besieging army and the defensive qualities of the fortification sieged.  For the first few thousand years of human civilization the construction of high walled cities in Bronze Age Mesopotamia, Egypt, Anatolia, and Greece was usually a sufficient deterrent against attack as long as the…

Read more…