Innholdsfortegnelse for AW XVII.2 i Ancient Warfare Magazine

EDITORIAL - Plan B To be honest, I probably would have titled this editorial in a slightly more expressive manner, but my better nature told me not to. Our schedule is fairly lenient, with an issue every two months, but it is still relentless. And sometimes the feces will hit the propeller. We're used to switching out articles at the last minute, revising texts to fit on more or fewer pages. These things happen. There is one thing, however, that is more difficult to compensate for, and that's the centerfold. We can't commission two and just use one, or cover up its loss without everyone noticing. Because of that, and because of the work that's involved, we commission this art with as much leeway as possible. That gives time for…

Metal detectorists exploring the State Forests near Hrubieszów, Poland have found a cache of weapons, including iron spearheads and axes, suggesting a connection to warriors from ‘barbarian’ tribes during the Roman period. The cache includes a dozen or so items, ranging from iron spearheads and battle axes to a shaft-hole axe. Archaeologists from the Stanisław Staszic Museum in Hrubieszów conducted an initial analysis. The identification of these artefacts proved challenging due to the extensive corrosion of the metal, compounded by the presence of sand and mud, according to the conservator, with three items requiring conservation for proper study. Close to the discovery site, a damaged grave of a Przeworsk culture warrior was uncovered several years ago. The Iron Age Przeworsk culture flourished in what is now Poland from the third…

PRACTICAL HISTORY Some reconstructions and performance tests have been published since 2020. Tests have continued in recent years as well, with particular success in the field of artillery. By the end of February 2024, tests with our torsion engines were particularly well-advanced. We reported on the tests of the FAS I and II torsion bolt engines in Ancient Warfare XVI.6. As part of a master’s thesis, Wolfgang Wilsch has taken on the task of building an onager, a stone catapult. Work began in April 2023, but the problem is that no ancient material fragments have survived at all. Instead, we must rely on literary descriptions. The German artillery officer Erwin Schramm of the German imperial era (at the start of the twentieth century) built an onager, which sadly does not…

ROMAN ARMY IN DETAIL A recent book on the conquest of Roman Britain includes an imaginative painting of the emperor Claudius arriving in a British village at the head of a line of marching legionaries. The emperor and his legate, Aulus Plautius, is shown proudly standing in a large timber turret balanced on the back of an Indian elephant. The animal’s handler, carrying the characteristic hooked and pointed goad, walks carefully beside it. We might note that, according to the Roman historian Livy, it was the handler’s job, if the elephant became uncontrollable, to kill it instantly by driving a spike “between the ears, where the neck joins the head” (Livy, Ad Urbe Conditia 27.49.1). Of course, this act would be impossible for someone walking alongside, and could only be…

THEME: The Celtic invasion of Greece After the defeat of the forces of Brennus at Delphi, the Aetolians, who thought themselves to be the main actors to repulse the Celts, built some monuments to celebrate their bitter victory. Among these there was a large bronze female statue depicting Aetolia herself personified in triumph on a throne over a pile of Celtic weapons (Pausanias, 10.18.7). Nothing remains of the sculpture today, but the stone pedestal that supported it has been preserved, bearing depictions of Greek arms together with several oval shields, two carnyces, and at least one helmet with triangular cheek-pieces and a central knob. In addition, some coins minted by the Aetolians around 239–229 BC show what this monument had looked like. Those are the earliest known Greek depictions of…

The Celts ravaged Aetolia with a graphic ferocity that is so brutal we must again consider the sources with a healthy degree of scepticism, as we must also question the heroic tales of the Aetolian resistance, which includes revenge stories nearly as dramatic as the traumas that instigated them. At the Aetolian city of Callium, for example, the Celtic sack, according to Pausanias, was “without a parallel in the crimes of men”. Pausanias even claims the Celts feasted on the dead Callians. However, the price for the Celts was intensely high. The Celtic host was dogged by hitand-run missile warfare from the Aetolians. They were cut off, their supply lines strained, and casualties mounted as the defenders attacked, then melted away into the terrain they knew so much better than…

THEME: The Celtic invasion of Greece Our best source for the Celtic invasion of Greece in 279 BC is in the second century AD geographer Pausanias’ Description of Greece. In the final book, he describes Phocis, the region in which the oracle at Delphi was located. Much of the book is, therefore, dedicated to a description of Delphi. As so often in his work, however, here too Pausanias takes the time to digress in great depth on the history related to a particular monument. His lengthy description of the Celtic invasion (10.19.5–23.14) does not disappoint. Pausanias begins his account of the Celtic invasion by stating he has mentioned it before when he described the Athenian boule Council Chamber. He did so back in book one, setting out how among the…

SPECIAL Evidence for Samnite daily life and political structures is severely lacking. Evidence on Samnite warfare, however, particularly the characteristics of Samnite warriors, is much more plentiful. Consequently, we can conduct a detailed analysis of who the Samnite warrior was and what purpose he served on the battlefield. Details within some pieces of evidence often seem to clash with those of other examples, but this issue can be mitigated by cross-examining all the available evidence. While the body of archaeological evidence from Samnium is vast, there are few examples of iconographic material. Moreover, much of what has been collected over the years has not been published, and is often not on display, such as many Campanian frescoes from the sixth and fifth centuries BC, which are now held in the…

REVIEWS By M.C. Bishop ISBN: 978-1472851703 Osprey Elite 252 (2023) - £14.99 www.ospreypublishing.com Following on from his excellent titles on Roman Shields (Elite 234) and Roman Plate Armour (Elite 247), Bishop here covers Roman mail (hamata) and scale (squamata) armours. As with the previous two titles in the series, Giuseppe Rava again provides the colour plates. To these are added several line drawings which aid in the better understanding of several pieces. Bishop rightly opens with the idea that, although Roman plate armour is immediately recognizable (the ubiquitous lorica segmentata – a modern term), it was less significant than mail and scale armour (p. 4). Both had longer histories and existed before and after plate armour was common. Indeed, Bishop’s parting point is that mail is still well and truly…

When the various La Tène tribes began their south-eastwards trek in the early third century BC, no one in Greece would have ever suspected that such a movement would reach them more than 1500 kilometres away. True, the Celts had begun spreading south earlier, probably in the fourth century BC, reaching the Carpathian and Danube Basins, and attacks were waged on the Illyrians (Macedon’s neighbours) in around 310 BC, and the Macedonian ruler Cassander had campaigned successfully against them. Nonetheless, the rapid invasion of 280 BC was completely unexpected. Perhaps the collapse of Lysimachus’ kingdom and his death in 281 created a vulnerability which the Celts could not resist. Despite the campaigns against Macedon and Thrace, the Greeks seem to have been unaware of their approach until it was too…

Despite a long history of intensive scientific research, the structured use of space within Iron Age hillforts across Europe remains poorly understood. The proto-urban hillfort of Pungrt, located some 10 km south of the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana, rises above the small town of Ig on the southern margins of Ljubljana Marsh is a prime example. A fortified settlement occupied the top of the hill from the Early Iron Age (ninth–eighth century BC) to the early Roman Period (second century AD). Interpreting the chronology of the site’s long occupation and understanding the development of structures erected there is particularly challenging. Archaeologists are applying a novel multi-method and multi-scalar approach to the vast corpus of geoarchaeological data gathered from the site to reconstruct distinct socioeconomic biographies of buildings, open spaces, and…

Ancient Warfare: Archaeological Perspectives First released in 1999, editors John Carman and Anthony Harding’s Ancient Warfare: Archaeological Perspectives sought to establish a new understanding of human aggression and conflict in the distant past integrating archaeological and documentary research. With the traditional chapters contributed by different authors, the book originated from a conference in 1996 in Durham, UK. The book claimed to throw fresh light on the motives and methods of the combatants and to mark a significant new step as well as set the agenda for many years to come. The authors claimed to suggest a new interpretation of the evolution of warfare from the Stone Age through the Bronze Age, Ancient Greece and Rome, even to the medieval period. Many books claim to be innovative and to do new…

THEME: The Celtic invasion of Greece The death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC unleashed all the forces that only his powerful personality had kept in check. After twenty years of bitter conflict the vast empire of the great conqueror had been divided into warring kingdoms. At the same time, the Celtic tribes had spread over most of central and western Europe. The actions of Philip and Alexander had limited the Celts to the area north of the Danube, but after Alexander’s death the Celts subdued the Thracians who lived to the south of the great river. However, Lysimachus and the Paeonians continued to limit their expansionist appetite. In the second decade of the third century, the situation seemed to have stabilized in the kingdoms of the successors of…

THEME: The Celtic invasion of Greece "The” Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC is one of the most famous battles in history. The destruction of Leonidas has become a political lightning rod, an icon of stalwart resistance in the face of hopeless odds, and the primary basis for the cult of Spartan warrior supremacy. But the fight in 480 BC is just one of twenty-seven actions fought at Thermopylae. One of these many battles of Thermopylae was a dramatic defence of the pass against a confederation of Celtic invaders in 279 BC. It’s surprising that this battle isn’t better known, as it’s one of the more comprehensively documented, with accounts from Pausanias, Justin, Polybius, Strabo, and others. Perhaps it is lost to obscurity because it lacks the drama of the…

THEME: The Celtic invasion of Greece This was a connected world, not closed in on itself, as we can infer from the rapid spread from the Atlantic to the Black Sea of elements such as La Tène art. In the ongoing debate about who the Celts were, or if we can even speak of Celts, I consider them as the groups who wove that network of contacts linking large parts of continental Europe. Their identity is embodied in a series of elements shared to a greater or lesser degree, such as certain features of material culture, their ideological, religious, and institutional universe, and related languages. Of course, this ‘cultural package’ was not homogeneous, immutable, or shared in its entirety. These common elements were also perceived by Greco-Roman observers with little…

During his description of the battle of Delphi, Pausanias records that “there were seen by them ghosts of the heroes Hyperochus, Laodocus and Pyrrhus; according to some a fourth appeared, Phylacus, a local hero of Delphi” (10.23.2). This echoes the literary tradition of heroes and ghosts appearing in other battles, such as at Marathon. Pausanias’ description of the painting in the Stoa Poikile depicting the battle mentions the eponymous hero Marathon, another hero called Echetlus, and the gods Theseus, Athena, and Heracles (1.15.3). Throughout Greek and Roman history there are also many examples of the Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux, appearing to aid the victors in battle, including the battle of the Sagra River ca. 600 BC (Diodorus, 8.32.1), the battle of Plataea in 479 BC (Simonides, Fragment 11), the Roman…

Our ‘typical’ Samnite warrior wears the ubiquitous feathered helmet and wields two javelins. For defence he carries a round aspis shield and wears a typical trilobate pectoral as well as a wide bronze belt. The unusual combination of seemingly both light and heavy equipment in the Samnite warrior is completed with the wearing of greaves – usually reserved for heavy infantry. The use of javelins, however, implies a lighter role as does the lack of full armoured protection of the torso. Although no contemporary depiction shows warriors with swords, they must have had some kind of blade for self defence, if not for attack, after they had loosed their javelins. The success of the Samnites and their dogged resistance to Roman domination – across at least three wars fought over…

By Adrienne Mayor ISBN: 978-0691211084 Princeton University Press (2022) - £16.99 www.press.princeton.edu It is rare to come across a work as intriguing and meticulously researched as this. Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs takes readers on an enthralling journey through the world of ancient weapons and warfare, shedding light on the deadly devices that shaped the course of history. Mayor’s extensive research and passion for the subject matter shine through every page of this book, which is a testament to her dedication as an historian. Her meticulous examination of historical texts, archaeological findings, and ancient illustrations uncovers a treasure trove of information on the unconventional, often ingenious, and sometimes downright bizarre weapons of the ancient world. The book begins with the advent of biological weapons and follows with chapters…

Two caches of slingstones have been found in Israel. Dating to the first part of the Chalcolithic period, ca. 5800–4500 BC, these caches provide the earliest evidence yet discovered for warfare in the southern Levant. In total, over 400 slingstones were discovered from the sites of ‘En Esur and ‘En Zippori. In a paper published in ‘Atiqot 111, the size, weight, and shape of the slingstones were studied, with the authors concluding that the slingstones were created as part of a standardized creation process, suggesting preparation for war. Such finds are not wholly unusual but they have never been found in such numbers before. At both ‘En Esur and ‘En Zippori, there is evidence of increased settlement size, the remains of monumental buildings, and burial sites hinting at a stratified…

The 1800-year-old Roman legionary fortress of Legio has survived the ages only now to be threatened by highway construction. The remains of the fortress established by Legio VI Ferrata (‘Ironsides’) were uncovered in a recent excavation carried out by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) at the foot of Tel Megiddo, close to the village of Kfar Othnay. The camp measured 550 m long and 350 m wide. Now the Israeli Transport Ministry wants to lay a four-lane road across the site, where Route 66 meets Route 65 about a kilometre away. A spokesman for Netivei Israel, a government construction company, confirmed that the plan has been approved by the Transport Ministry and is final. Ironically, expanding the existing Route 66 was the reason for the exploratory excavation conducted by the…

GRAVE MATTERS Durises was a rider in the Ala Sulpicia, a cavalry unit known to be active from the AD 70s through to the late second century. The fact that Marcus Aemilius Durises had a tria nomina suggests that he may have been a Roman citizen, despite serving in the auxilia; the higher pay and status of a cavalryman made it an attractive proposition for skilled horsemen even if they had the legal status to join the legions. The Ala Sulpicia was almost certainly stationed at Cologne (Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensis) at an early point in its history but appears to have departed the base by ca. AD 89. As Durises died while the unit was apparently still stationed in Cologne, he likely died at some point in the AD…

The armies of the Hellenistic period were quite different from the earlier armies of the eastern Mediterranean. Initially, the various autonomous Greek cities continued to rely on hoplite phalanx militias, but the gradual dependence and, finally, the integration of many of them into the Hellenistic kingdoms brought about changes in their military organizations. Hoplite phalanxes were replaced by sarissa formations according to the Macedonian style. Mercenary formations of peltasts and archers were also formed to complement the small detachments of javelinmen and slingers they already had. The cavalry was reorganized into light (hippakon- tistai) and heavy on the model of the Macedonian Hetairoi. The Pontic cities and the Seleucids used mercenary horse archers from the steppe tribes. The Ptolemies and the Seleucids also used war elephants. The Celtic shield was adopted,…

The territorial competition between different Celtic groups from the late third century BC onwards led to processes of social cohesion and political integration, with the union of different groups, that Caesar called pagi (sing. pagus), which in turn grouped together different kin groups. The Latin word pagus seems to correspond to the Celtic corios, the etymology of which derives from the IndoEuropean root *ko-wiriyos, “gathering of men” or “gathering of warriors”, indicating a military character. The pagus/corios functioned as a political community of ethnic nature, and the integration of several of these generated a larger structure, that Caesar calls civitas, which seems to have corresponded to the Celtic word touta, “the people”. It was in this context of increasing political integration when institutions such as the councils and the popular…

SPECIAL Unlike the columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius, the column to Antoninus was not covered in reliefs, nor was it as tall. The almost two-metre-in-diameter red granite - sourced from Aswan in Egypt - column was undecorated and topped by a statue of Antoninus; the column can be seen on several coins minted to commemorate it and the deified father of the brother-emperors. It has often been asked by the column of Antoninus differs so markedly from its predecessor (Trajan’s Column) and its successor (the Column of Marcus Aurelius) with their detailed spiralling reliefs of military scenes. The answer lies in its entirely different purpose. The surviving fragments of the column are in the Cortile della Pigna in the Vatican. They include the base of the shaft, the pedestal…

SPECIAL Whilst Sparta did not field the vast cavalry of Periclean Athens, nor had the renowned horsemen of the northern tribes in Thessaly or the mounted bowmen of Scythia, the cavalryman did have a place there. Its place and the transformations of Spartan cavalry over time add to the tale of the Spartan hoplite. A nation of horse breeders Perhaps unexpectedly, Sparta was a nation of horsemanship. As early as the 540s BC, we find monuments to Spartan equestrian victories, such as that of Euagoras erected at Olympia (Pausanias, 6.10.8). Within the sanctuary of Athena on the Spartan acropolis, a well-known stele from the late fifth century BC is crowned with a sculpted relief depicting a four-horse chariot in motion, erected by a certain Damonon. This stele lists a number…

CELT AND GREEK: CELTS IN THE HELLENIC WORLD By Peter Beresford Ellis Constable, 1997 ISBN: 978-0094755802 In this volume, Ellis explores the relationship of the Celts of Eastern Europe with the Hellenic states, starting in the 6th Century BC. It explores the eastward push of the Celtic peoples from their homelands and the foundation of tribal states in Eastern Europe as far as the Ukraine and shows how some Celtic tribes turned south into Greece itself before moving on into Asia Minor. THE LEAGUE OF THE AITOLIANS By J. D. Grainger Brill, 1999 ISBN: 978-9004109117 Instrumental in defeating the invasion of 279, Grainger here explores the Aetolian League, not (as their bad press has told us) as brigands but as a normal Hellenistic state. They constructed a successful polity which…