Innholdsfortegnelse for AW XVIII.3 i Ancient Warfare Magazine

You have heard me say, likely more than once, that I find each topic we delve into fascinating. I won’t say it’s always been my experience since I started to study history. There are definitely some topics that just don’t catch my interest. There are even periods and topics in military history that get a solid ‘meh’ from me, but those are never ancient. Long story short: when I say a theme leaves me wanting more, it’s true. That’s definitely the case for the very earliest period of warfare in Mesopotamia. The reason, I think, lies in the visual sources. Don’t you find that depictions like Victory Stele of Naram-Sin, the ‘Stele of the Vultures’, or the ‘Standard of Ur’ (all seen in this issue) draw your eye? As we…

A bronze helmet discovered in central Turkey is revealing the secrets of the armourers of the Hittite Empire. The helmet is conical shaped with a rigid metal crest. It features extended flaps riveted to the metal shell to protect the wearer’s cheeks and nape. The helmet’s style closely resembles depictions found on reliefs of both gods and warriors at the King’s Gate, Hattusa, the Hittite Empire’s capital city. Known by the Hittite term huprushhi, these helmets symbolized not only rank and military prowess but also divine favour. The helmet was unearthed in 2002 in Şapinuva (modern Ortaköy), a religious and military centre of the Hittite state, with the second largest cuneiform archive of the Hittite era in Anatolia. It was found crushed beneath debris in Building D of the complex…

On the morning of March 17, 45 BC, two armies drew up for battle in the southern Spanish countryside – archaeologists do not agree on the exact location – to finally put an end to the civil war between Julius Caesar and the Pompeians (see also AW XI.3). In the vulgar Latin of the usually sober and main chronicler of the battle, an unknown military follower of Caesar – perhaps Hirtius or Oppius – wrote “with a plain like that and a calm and sunny day, here was … a wonderful and long-awaited opportunity from heaven to engage in battle”. Indeed, Caesar, with all the advantages, had already been trying for some time to catch the elusive Gnaeus Pompeius, elder son of Pompey the Great, and destroy the last pocket…

While the outcome of the Battle of Vesontio is clear, one mystery surrounds it. Our sources write that Vindex and Rufus had been secretly corresponding, suggesting that Rufus besieged Vesontio as a pretext to hold direct negotiations with Vindex without his officers learning of the conspiracy. Yet, if Rufus feared to confide in his staff (on the assumption that they would disapprove), how did he plan to tell them once a pact was made? Perhaps our sources are mistaken regarding the governors’ agreement, and the two forces simply fought a pitched battle for which the Gauls were unprepared. Or perhaps Rufus feigned collaboration and lured the insurgent army into an ambush. The truth will never be known as – according to Dio – there were no witnesses to the alleged…

The first finds were made in the mid-nineteenth century and, as with many other cultures, Villanovan culture is chronologically divided into a separate periods based on the archaeology. There is a Proto-Villanovan period, lasting from circa 1200-900 BC, and Villanova ‘proper’, consisting of four phases: Villanovan I ca. 960-800 BC, II from ca. 800-720, III 750-680 BC and IV 680-540 BC. and Villanovan Culture spans the gap between the Bronze Age and Iron Ages in the Italian Peninsula. It was Villanovan Culture which introduced ironworking into ancient Italy. Typical Villanovan armour was decorated with a series of ‘embossed dots’, or repouseé bosses to be more technically correct. Other decorations included stamped shapes and stippled dots to trace the shape of animals and figures. Here the helmet is a pointed cap…

The evidence suggests that wounds were concentrated on the torso and the head, suggesting there was a lack of protective armour and headgear, even though armour and shields may already have emerged in northern Europe in the centuries before this battle. No finds of fragments of metal helmets or breastplates have so far been found. That most of the wounds were made in the front of the bones also tells of face-to-face conflict — this was not one group chasing and cutting down another but two groups facing one another in combat. There are also wounds on wrists and forearms, suggesting attacks on enemy combatants when they were themselves in the act of attacking. Other wounds can be found on the lower legs, which may suggest the use of shields.…

Consisting of eleven beaten-bronze plates, the armour solved a number of puzzles. Other pieces of armour similar to parts of the Dendra Panoply had been found in earlier excavations — in Thebes, Mycenae, Nichoria, Pylos, Phaistos, and (perhaps) Knossos. Others have been found since this find. Linear B ideograms from Knossos, Tiryns, and Pylos also resemble these suits. The earlier finds were not complete, and some parts were misidentified. The earliest Dendra find was initially identified as a helmet, but after eighteen years, it was realized that it was, in fact, a pauldron. The plates of the Dendra Panoply consist of a front and back torso piece hinged together, with three or more overlapping plates attached to the bottom edge of both the front and back torso plates. Another plate…

It has already been demonstrated by scholars like M.C. Bishop that, all in all, the spatha was a first-century-AD Roman invention, inspired by Celtic models. That means any possible Germanic influence on the Roman army must be drastically reduced. The connection to cavalry, apart from initially being a cavalry weapon, can also be ruled out, I think. We know that the spatha already started to be introduced with the infantry by the end of the second century AD. What is more, there is no real correlation between the supposed increased importance of cavalry and the likely spread of cavalry weapons, as the vast majority and backbone of Roman armies remained infantry well into the fourth century AD. Suggested answers usually focus on the quite narrow issue of the passage from…

Following the assassination of Philip II of Macedon in 336 BC, many of Macedonia’s vassals rose in revolt. While campaigning along the Danube River, Alexander received word that the Illyrian chieftains Cleitus and Glaucias had joined the revolt. This was a new and serious threat, as they controlled the mountain passes linking Illyria to Macedonia. Even worse, they also controlled the fortified Illyrian city of Pelion, probably located in modern south-eastern Albania. This city controlled the most important pass linking Illyria and Macedon, threatening the ability of the Macedonians to march south into Greece. If Alexander and the Macedonians were forced to bypass Pelion, they would have to take the longer, more circuitous routes south into Greece, giving the powerful Greek city states of Thebes and Athens ample time to…

In the aftermath of the Battle of Pharsalus, Caesar’s pursuit of Pompey had taken him to Egypt, where he remained for the best part of a year. During his absence, frustrations had given way to mutinous sedition amongst the ninth and tenth legions. The legionaries had been biding their time in Campania since returning from Pharsalus, with some wishing for an overdue discharge and all awaiting the monetary bounties and land parcels which had been promised to them. Upon his return to Italy, Caesar dispatched Sallustius Crispus to placate these troops with a further promise of 1000 drachmas each. Yet, further violent demonstrations ensued. As the troops broke camp and marched towards Rome, Caesar adopted a typically belligerent approach, throwing himself into the thick of the predicament. When his troops…

The Goths, AD 200-700 By Raffaele D’Amato & Andrea Salimbeti ISBN: 978-1472863065 Osprey (2025) - £14.99 www.ospreypublishing.com In this latest Osprey Elite by Raffaele D’Amato & Andrea Salimbeti, the subject is the Goths — a byword for Rome’s enemies in the last centuries of the empire and the people who eventually toppled the Western Roman Empire. Of course, there were many different people included under the catch-all title of Goths, some of which were likely distinct cultures. Possibly originating in Scandinavia, the various Gothic peoples migrated south and east to modern Pomerania, northern Poland, and the Black Sea region. Then, probably under pressure from the Huns from further to the east, the Goths began to pressure Roman possessions, first in the third century in the Black Sea and then further…

The bronze age — whose dates vary depending on which culture we are dealing with — was vital for several developments in warfare in particular. In the Near East and eastern Mediterranean, we usually date the period ca. 3300-1200 BC. Although it was followed by the Bronze Age Collapse and then a Dark Age where we are particularly uninformed regarding several cultures before the survival of material from more familiar cultures, the Bronze Age itself remains vital for understanding what followed. Here we see the Dendra warrior from ca. 1500 BC — based on the finds from southern Greece in 1960 (for a longer analysis see Dahm, this issue (pp.34-37). This was the best and most complete suit of such armour but by no means the only one. There have…

Dramatic evidence of a Roman siege dating to the Second Punic War (218–201 BC), including major sections of the fortifications of Uxentum (modern Ugento) and spent ammunition used against the defenders, has been unearthed by archaeologists working in southern Italy. The Italian team documented nearly 100 m of fortification. One corner-projecting bastion still rises to 1.8 m and dates to the mid-fourth to early third centuries BC. Recent excavations have also uncovered an additional 70-m-long wall section further north, where the fortifications remain three to four high courses high. The circuit walls were ca. 4700 m long and Messapian in origin. Constructed from large calcarenite blocks with a rubble-filled core, the later phase saw the wall’s total thickness widened to around 7 m. Outside the wall, a layer dating to…

The trouble with ‘current research’ in your title is that it ages quite quickly. This book of edited papers is from 2015 (a second volume was published in 2024). Nonetheless, in a discipline as old as ancient warfare, new research trends from only ten years ago are still young – and some new approaches can take time to catch on. This collection of papers covers a wide variety of ancient warfare, new and innovative research and different perspectives. It also explores under-researched and obscure topics which need more light. There is something for everyone in these pages (including one from regular contributor Joanne Ball). All of the articles are of a high quality and force the reader to look at ancient warfare in new ways. Even ten years on, this…

According to Appian, Caesar crossed the Alps and the Pyrenees in just 27 days to reach Hispania. His army must, therefore, have been greatly reduced. Additionally, during the winter, armies melt away like snow in spring due to the difficulties of feeding them, as there are not enough crops in one place, and troops die of diseases when living in confined spaces for prolonged periods. Likewise, we know from Caesar himself that his legions which had already fought in the previous campaigns of the civil war were worn out, with only 1000 legionaries in Alexandria, or about 2500 men in Pharsalus per legion — and those battles were in summer campaigns. Caesar suffered about 1500 Roman casualties at the Battle of Munda, and assuming that this represented around ten per…

The Bronze Age can be roughly divided into Early, Middle, and Late periods. Within the Early period are the conquests of the Akkadians and Ur III rulers who stretched Mesopotamian power from the Persian Gulf to the mountains of Anatolia. During the Middle period, warfare continued to be used to create and maintain states. Middle Kingdom Egypt (ca. 2040–1782 BC) waged wars of conquest in Nubia and southern Canaan; Shamshi-Adad (ca. 1813–1776 BC) carved out a kingdom in the upper regions of Mesopotamia, while Hammurabi and the Kingdom of Babylon (ca. 1894–1595 BC) briefly dominated Mesopotamia. The Old Hittite Kingdom of Anatolia (ca. 1900–1650 BC) blazed a path in the Near East through conquest and raiding. To the Late Bronze Age belongs the period where the regional empires of Egypt,…

Since excavations began more than 13,000 bone fragments belonging to around 150 individuals have been excavated, mostly close to Weltzin. The number of casualties suggests that this was an enormous conflict, the largest known Bronze Age battle in Central Europe. A large number of bronze objects, including spear blades and 54 arrow tips, were also found, along with several remarkable wooden weapons (clubs and hammers made from the wood of the ash or sloe tree). Together with the other uncovered weapons — knives, sickles, swords, and ten flint arrowheads — these inflicted the serious injuries found on the skull and bone fragments. Most of these remains belonged to men aged between twenty and forty, although the remains of at least two women and those of infants and children were also…

Atumultuous period in the fifteenth and fourteenth centuries saw encroachments on Hittite territory from several foes. The Hayasa-Azzi, a confederation of small kingdoms centred on the Armenian Highlands, but possibly extending to Lake Van and the Black Sea coast; the Arzawan state, centred on their capital Apasa, now modern Ephesus, Turkey; Kaška, a confederation from the eastern Pontic region; and Išuwa, a Hurrian vassal kingdom located around the upper Euphrates. The Hittite capital, Hattuša (near modern Boğazköy Turkey), was sacked and Hittite territory was reduced to a small area around Šamuha (near the modern village of Kayalıpınar, Yıldızeli, Turkey). Under Tudhaliya III (r. ca. 1380–1350), even Šamuha was seized by the Hayasa-Azzi. The Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III (r. 1386–1349) even wrote to a king of Arzawa, Tarhundaradu, in anticipation of…

Using pottery found in the Dendra tomb, the armour has been dated to the Late Helladic II A (LHIIA) and Late Helladic II B (LHIIB) periods — ca. 1600/1550 to 1435/1405 BC — although similar Mycenean finds may date as late as 1300 BC. Far more Late Helladic pottery has been found, which allows for much greater scope for dating than using other finds. No metal armour has been found which dates to before the Late Helladic period and soon after it, around 1300 BC; metal armour seems to fall entirely out of use before making a reappearance in the Mycenaean period, ca. 1200 BC. Some statuettes in stone seem to show cuirasses, albeit not something like the Dendra panoply, and many pottery fragments seem to depict armour similar to…

As with any ancient manufacture, it is important to keep in mind that weaponry was hand made. The blacksmiths likely copied examples at hand, and adapted specifications based on the customer’s wishes and his own ideas. There was no blueprint anywhere in sight. Moreover, hand-made weapons were valuable and undoubtedly repaired and re-finished whenever possible. As a result, surviving examples of each type vary can vary substantially in length up to the point that where one type is generally longer than another, it is almost always possible to find examples where the advantage is reversed. Examples of the Mainz gladius blades vary between about 44 to 64cm, those of the Pompeii type from 43 to 52cm, and the early Principate spatha between 62 and 74cm.…

Although the three surviving examples of Tactica manuals recording the formations of the Macedonian and Hellenistic phalanx all date to the period of Roman domination after the phalanx was defeated, they traced their history back to the late fourth century BC. What is more, the three examples to survive are all very closely related. They also bare remarkable similarities to a section of Polybius’ Histories where he describes the phalanx (18.29.1–30.4). Polybius had, however, also written a Tactica earlier in his career (probably around 180 BC). Although these surviving works were all written during the Roman period, and they are often accused of being ‘academic’ or ‘mathematical’ treatises, they reveal a continuing fascination with all things Alexander. Their long pedigree also suggests that they do, in fact, record accurate information…

The tombstone of Gaius Valerius Victor was found in 1717 on the bank of the River Usk, a short distance east of the legionary fortress at Caerleon (Wales); it was apparently associated with a rectangular tomb on discovery, but little detail about the grave feature or any associated artefacts has survived. It is a simple rectangular memorial, and relatively modest in size, standing at just over 0.5 m tall and 1 m wide. The six-line epitaph is placed within the shape of a tabula ansata (literally “handled tablet”), a form typically used to frame votive inscriptions in wider Roman religion. There is little other decoration beyond two small ivy leaves — a plant associated with everlasting life — one located on each side of D(is) M(anibus) (“To the shades of…

WARFARE IN BRONZE AGE SOCIETY Edited by Christian Horn and Kristian Kristiansen Cambridge University Press, 2018 ISBN: 978-61107185562 Chapters and case studies takes a fresh look at warfare and its role in reshaping Bronze Age society. A militarized society emerged with a martial culture, materialized in a package of new weapons that remained in use for millennia to come. Warfare became institutionalized and professionalized during the Bronze Age, and a new class of warriors made their appearance. BRONZE AGE WARFARE By Richard Osgood, Sarah Monks, with Judith Toms Sutton Publishing Ltd., 2000 ISBN: 978-0750923637 The authors explore Bronze Age warfare using (then current) archaeological research. It explores the different regions of Europe systematically regarding evidence for Bronze Age warfare. Osgood, however, emphasises ritual and symbolic uses of weapons and makes…

A fragment of a bronze bracelet purse that may have belonged to a Roman officer has gone on display at the Mušov Visitor Center in Pasohlávky, South Moravia, in Czechia. The fragment represents around 30 percent of the original artefact. The purse, as originally made, was shaped as a circular bracelet with one side widened into a hollow, boat-like container with a lid. It was designed to be worn tightly on the forearm or upper arm to prevent coins from falling out. Experts estimate it could have held up to 50 silver denarii. As a legionary earned 300 denarii per year at the time, this was a considerable sum to carry (two months’ pay). “This suggests the item likely belonged to an officer or a quartermaster rather than an ordinary…

Gaius Julius Vindex was a Romanized Gaul descended from the former royal family of Aquitania. A Roman senator, Vindex was appointed governor of Gallia Lugdunensis, probably in 67. The sources depict him as a man of honour who was scandalized by Nero’s murderous behaviour and mental instability. Considering the emperor unworthy of the throne of Augustus, he decided to depose him. Publicly, Vindex presented himself as a champion of Rome and Roman virtues, condemning Nero’s philhellenism. That Nero had become a threat to the senatorial class, and since the Fire of Rome in AD 64, he had massively raised taxes on the provinces to pay for Rome’s reconstruction, were also likely motivations. Vindex made no attempt to usurp power for himself. Unlike in the later empire, a non-ethnic Roman as…

The Hakkari stelae are thirteen funerary stone figures discovered in 1998 in Hakkari, south-eastern Turkey. These stone figures are known as Kurgan stelae (because they are placed on top of tumuli known as kurgans) or as Balbals (from a word meaning “ancestor”). Such anthropomorphic stone monuments are found across a wide area from Siberia and Mongolia to easterm Europe and Turkey) and time, spanning three millennia. Ranging in height from 70cm to over 3m, the Hakkari stelae were the first of their kind found in Anatolia or the Near East. They date to ca. 1000 BC and exhibit no Assyrian influence in style or weaponry. They may be of Eurasian, nomadic, or even Proto Indo European origin and may represent the independent Kingdom of Habushka, known from Assyrian chronicles from…

Leif Inselmann of the Free University of Berlin and colleagues compared the 54 bronze arrowheads and 10 flint arrowheads from Tollense with more than 4700 others from different areas of Central Europe dated to Period III of the Nordic Bronze Age (1300–1100 BC). The flint specimens found in the Tollense Valley are probably of local or regional origin. Most of the bronze arrowheads from Tollense were socketed (only one had a tang). Some examples, however, with straight or rhombus-shaped bases, side spurs, and barbs, resemble those found in what are now Bavaria and Moravia, 500 km to the south. Such arrowhead types were not found in local burials and this suggests that at least some of the combatants came from a great distance away. In several cases, Tollense represents the…

Named after finds in a Bronze Age cemetery in the Austrian town of Hallstatt, the culture emerged in the twelfth century BC and is divided into four periods (A through D, spanning the Bronze and Iron Ages - Hallstatt A (ca. 1200-1050 BC), B (ca. 1050-800), C (ca. 800-620), and D (ca. 620-450 BC). From its origins Hallstatt Culture spread throughout western Europe eventually influencing places as far afield as Britian, the Iberian Peninsula, Northern Italy, Slovenia and the Mediterranean. Hallstatt culture was agrarian based but saw the emergence of skilled metalwork and of several class distinctions, including the development of an elite warrior class. Though we lack any written evidence, cultural centres were probably tribally based and these warriors represented their ruling elites. Among the many burials discovered, we…

The first camp (e.g. Keegan (1993), Fuchs (2011)) is certain that Assyrians preferred sieges over open battles, and that chariots were the mainstay of the army, even if in the seventh century cavalry came to prominence. The second camp (e.g. Gabriel (2003), Dezso (2012)) believe in the gradual evolution of Neo-Assyrian warfare, that chariots were only a later development and that they were succeeded by cavalry, that archers were not the key to victory, but warfare relied on melee combat led by spearmen, and that archers were only support troops for spearmen. Heavy infantry supported by light infantry, archers and cavalry was supreme on the Assyrian battlefield. According to the first camp, Assyrian battles were a simple affair: skirmishing, duels between archery forces, chariot (and later cavalry) charges. Infantry formations…

In the first book of his Epitoma Rei Militaris, Vegetius goes to great lengths to describe the recruitment and training of Roman legionaries of an earlier past, that should be emulated, implying at least some of these practices were no longer followed (1.8-28). This included providing recruits with wicker shields and wooden swords. “So equipped they were trained not only in the morning but even after noon against posts (ad palos)” (1.11). Each recruit would plant their own post in the ground “so that it could not more and protruded six feet” and against it he could train himself using sword and shield for all battle’s eventualities. Vegetius surmises that “Neither the arena nor the battlefield ever proved a man invincible in armed combat, unless he was judged to have…

Fragments of papyri found in Egypt, dated to the second half of the second century AD, contain administrative information about the military units stationed there. Strangely, the texts are generally written in Greek (though even in the Greek-speaking east, Latin was the default for military reports), with only those referring to the gladiatorial troupe written in Latin. The words familia gladiatoria, ludus, as well as retiarius and thraex indicate that these papyri fragments are dealing with the world of gladiators. Some fragments state that this ludus fought against a ludus from the town Nikopolis, one time away in Nikopolis, and the other time at their home base. The famous Colchester vase, dated to the end of the second century AD, on one side shows the gladiator combat of a lefthanded secutor…