Warriors
THE GRECO-PERSIAN WARSÂ I
In 480 BCE an army marched into Greece under the command of the Persian king Xerxes. His goal was to conquer Greece and make it part of the Persian Empire. In an unprecedented act of cooperation, many of the Greek poleis set aside their differences and formed a coalition to resist the Persian advance. An army of allies, under the…
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Ælfred’s Defence
A reasonable attempt at illustrating the larger sized English ships and therefore their crew’s advantage in battle. Alfred responded to the threat by constructing a fleet of large longboats, each of which could carry a hundred men, to meet and fight off the invaders before they landed. This navy’s first…
Ninja
The origins of ninjutsu, placed approximately between 500 and 300 B.C., are commonly linked (as are most Oriental arts of combat) to Chinese sources. Mention is often made of the interesting section on methods of espionage which is embodied in the ancient treatise The Art of War, written by the…
The Frankish Way of War
The kingdoms and peoples of Europe and North Africa just before the East Roman Emperor Justinian began his reconquest of the West. On Foot or Horse? It is generally accepted that (unlike the eastern Germanic tribes such as the Goths and Vandals), the Franks, Alamanni, Burgundians and other western Germans…
Waging Gentlemanly War
The Battle of Kawanakajima was an annual event fought between Uesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen. Both daimyo would ensure the battle ended in a draw. Depiction of the legendary personal conflict between Kenshin and Shingen at the fourth battle of Kawanakajima. Two of the early Sengoku Jidai’s most colourful daimyo…
The Age of Light-Armed Greek Warrior I
The Peloponnesian War ended in 404 and closed out the fifth century with a surprise attack. Lysander, the Spartan, tricked the Athenians at Aegospotami, by attacking their vessels at a regular hour and then calling off his fleet. Once this had become an established procedure, the Athenians dropped their guard…
The Age of Light-Armed Greek Warrior II
Route of Cyrus the Younger, Xenophon and the Ten Thousand. Xenophon and the Anabasis The Greeks also came to realise that hoplite warfare, although well adapted to the peculiar circumstances of fighting within their own country, was not capable by itself of facing circumstances of warfare outside Greece, or even…