Ancient Warfare
THE SUCCESSORS (323-168 b.c.e.) Part I
Excellent illustration of a duel between Seleucid (R) and Ptolemaic (L) elephants. Note the two-man crew of the Ptolemaic elephant, as opposed to the three-man crew of the larger Seleucid Indian elephant. (This illustration seems to depict the Ptolemaic elephant as one of the larger African Bush Elephants instead of the small, now extinct North African Forrest Elephant; used by…
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The Late Mycenaean Period, the Dark Age and Homer, 1300–900 bc Part II
One of the most enlightening passages in the Iliad is in Book IV, 132, when Menelaos is wounded by an arrow. This arrow strikes the golden clasp of his zoster, which is made of bronze. It passes through this, and his cuirass, and then pierces the mitra, which he wore…
LEGIONS AND PHALANXES
The battle of Pydna, of course, was not the end of the contest. The Roman legion would go on to fight more variations of the phalanx in the centuries to come, taking on the other armies influenced by the Hellenistic phalanx and employing, to varying degrees, similar methods. There was…
Drusus the Commander I
The only portrait of Drusus known to have been carved in his lifetime appears on the Ara Pacis in Rome. On the south facing enclosure wall, one figure in the procession is conspicuous by his attire. He is the only male figure shown wearing the paludamentum, the military cloak, in…
Drusus the Commander II
Chatti Germanic Tribe | Northern Germanic Tribes: Cherusci, Jutes, Saxons. Early Germanic warriors either first century BC or AD. The Germans east of the Rhine had a fearsome reputation and constantly waged war on their Gallic neighbours. The Gauls who lived close to the German border were considered to be…
Drusus the Commander III
The Main Offensive He returned to Lugdunum in the spring of 10 BCE. The Tres Galliae continued to function as expected and there were no reports of unrest. His legates, meantime, had wasted no time in Germania. The Lippe River was now being lined with forts and logistics depots to…
The Roman Naval War with Antiochos Part I
https://www.naval-encyclopedia.com/antique-ships The Campaign of 191 BC (Map J (i)) Livy (34.1.1) represents Antiochos, back in Ephesos, as ‘unconcerned about the Roman war’, in the belief that the Romans would not cross to Asia, but advised by Hannibal to expect them. ‘The fact was that the Romans were not less powerful…