Ancient Warfare
THE FOURTH SACRED WAR
In 339 Philip marched of the Amphictyonic forces in yet another sacred war (the fourth), into Greece, not as invader but as commander which had been declared the previous year against the people of Amphissa, a city of west Locris. His command gave him the means to lead an army legitimately into Greece. Once there he intended to end his…
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CAPE ECNOMUS
In the 3rd century BC, Rome was not a naval power, and had little or no experience in war at sea. Before the First Punic War, the Roman Republic had not campaigned outside the Italian Peninsula. The Republic’s military strength was on land, and her greatest assets were the discipline…
The Dacian Incursion of 10 BC
Whether it was his annoyance at not being able to close the doors to the temple of Janus or more likely in retribution for the Dacian crossing of the Danube in 10 BC, Augustus mounted a military campaign against the Dacians, apparently sending at least two generals into action. The…
TRIREME FIGHTING IN THE AEGEAN (411–405) I
The type of bow most people are familiar with is the “post Corinthian” bow. Previously, triremes had a ‘hollow’ bow. See Connolly’s reconstruction of this type, p.265 “Greece and Rome at War”, and the coin reverses on p.264 giving a good ‘before and after’ idea of the old and modified…
TRIREME FIGHTING IN THE AEGEAN (411–405) II
Battle of Cynossema, 411 BCE. Athenian fleet in blue, Spartan navy in red. Bloodbath Yet if the Aegean had been relatively quiet since 429, suddenly from 411 to 404 the Athenians met the Spartans and their allies in at least seven major engagements. Across time and space, rarely are rival…
King of the Nervii, Boduognatus
It had been a short but profitable campaign for the men of the 10thLegion. They had stripped thousands of dead Swiss and German troops. They had looted their camps and baggage trains. All with only minimal casualties in their own ranks. By the fall they had settled into a massive…
The Gallic testudo at Alesia
Vercassivellaunus, kinsman to Vercingetorix, has been given the task of ripping a hole through Caesar’s defences once and for all. The previous two assaults had come to nothing but a bloody mess, so this time a careful reconnaissance was conducted by scouts led by local farmers who probed the Roman…