Ancient Warfare
GREEK WARFARE IN THE FOURTH CENTURYÂ BC
Alexander the Great crossing the Granicus River. Greek warfare in the fourth century bc was based on the phalanx formation, made up primarily of heavy infantry known as hoplites (from hoplon, the weapons and accoutrements of war). The nature of warfare went back to early Hellenic times, when communities and later poleis (singular polis, city-state) were primarily agriculturally based and…
Most Recent
Descent of the Indus
In September 326, the Macedonian forces returned from their campaign in the eastern Punjab to Nicaea and Bucephala on the Hydaspes. The new settlements had been ravaged by the monsoon, but the fleet building program begun in the month after Alexander’s victory over Porus was in full swing. In addition…
CAESAR VERSUS ARIOVISTUS
A few weeks after his great victory over the Helvetii, Caesar learned of a new, pressing danger. This time it was German tribesmen, led by a king named Ariovistus. The Germanic tribesmen were distantly related to the Gauls, but there the comparison ended. The Germans were known for being much…
Han-Era Military Problems
With the creation of the Qin and Han empires came the rise of the Xiongnu nomads. These people were considered barbarians by the Chinese because they did not farm or dwell in cities. Instead they lived off of their livestock—mainly horses, cows, and sheep—which they herded from pasture to pasture…
Fire-spears, fire-tubes, and the true gun Part I
The military treatise of Jiao Yu and Liu Ji went into a great amount of detail on the gunpowder weapons of their time. The fire lance and fire tube (i.e. a combination of a firearm and flamethrower) came in many different versions and were styled with many different names by…
Fire-spears, fire-tubes, and the true gun Part II
In China, the first cannon–barrel design portrayed in artwork was a stone sculpture dated to 1128 AD, found in Sichuan province, although the oldest archaeological discovery of a cannon is a bronze cannon of China inscribed with the date “2nd year of the Dade era, Yuan Dynasty” (1298 AD). The…
Caesar’s Naval Campaign against the Veneti
Battle of Morbihan Since the destruction of the enemy fleet was the only permanent way to end this problem, Caesar directed his men to build ships. However, his galleys were at a serious disadvantage compared to the far thicker Veneti ships. The thickness of their ships meant they were resistant…