Inspired by an idea conceived at a meeting of the Association of Ancient Historians, this interesting volume examines ancient warfare from an innovative and thought-provoking perspective. The field of ancient warfare studies shows an extraordinary vitality in recent years, thanks to a number of excellent publications that present a comprehensive geographical and chronological overview (e.g. H. Drévillon and G. Traina [edd.], Les mondes en guerre. De la préhistoire au Moyen Âge [2019]; J.T. Chlup and C. Whately [edd.], Greek and Roman Military Manuals. Genre and History [2020]).
The fourteen chapters of the book are structured in two sections, on Greece and Rome respectively, and adopt an interdisciplinary approach in which, as the editor says in the preface, battle and warfare are studied in both their macro- and their micro-dimensions, though not being ends in themselves. The contributors are specialists in ancient history, even if not all may be characterised as military historians. In the introductory chapter, ‘Ancient Warfare and Moving Beyond “New Military History”’, Brice surveys the different approaches to military history (operational history, focus on military personalities, study of various parts of warfare and military institutions, the so-called ‘New Military History’, technocentric analysis, interdisciplinary methodologies), thus offering a brief but useful sketch of the changes within this field. In summarising the following chapters, Brice points out that the debate among contributors allows readers to increase their understanding of ancient warfare, by combining traditional and innovative methodologies and by re-examining old questions in the light of recent discoveries. In other words, according to Brice, the choice between innovation and tradition is not compulsory; rather, it is from the fusion of the two approaches that truly lasting results can be achieved. Accordingly, one of the main purposes of the volume is to combine traditional studies on tactics and strategy with new approaches on the logistical and daily nature of war and on the micro-dimension of individual soldiers.
An example of the possible results of such a fusion is Chapter 2, ‘Wealth and the Logistics of Greek Warfare: Food, Pay, and Plunder’ by M. Trundle. While analysing the logistics of warfare in arranging ephodia, trophê and epitêdeia, the wages paid to the soldiers and the practice of spoil distribution, Trundle re-examines old evidence in order to disclose new ways of understanding the role of wealth: he argues that the development of coinage facilitated a more efficient coordination of resources, deeply transforming warfare in the Classical period.
Chapter 3, ‘Early Greek Siege Warfare’ by M.G. Seaman, argues against the traditional view that siege warfare was quite uncommon in the archaic period. According to Seaman, archaeological evidence suggests that Mycenaean citadels were already subject to sieges; so, if the increase in the number of sieges in the fifth century should be seen in part as a result of the bloom of historical writing, it should also be due to the extensive resources available to the Athenians at the time of the Peloponnesian War.
In Chapter 4, ‘Daily Life in Classical Greek Armies, c. 500–330 bce’, J.W.I. Lee takes ‘the history of warfare beyond the battlefield … into the realm of social, cultural, and economic history’ (p. 39). In examining topics such as social structures, non-combatants, sexuality, daily routines and garrison life in Greek and Achaemenid armies, Lee fruitfully employs textual and archaeological analysis to consider what life in armies was like.
Chapter 5, ‘Soldiers’ Home: Life after Battle’ by L.A. Tritle, approaches the topic of soldiers’ homecoming and their psychological traumas after war, looking through the experiences of modern conflicts and assuming that ancient Greeks’ psychology was comparable to that of present-day soldiers. For example, in criticising arguments against the reality of notions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the ancient world, Tritle usefully analyses a passage of the Encomium of Helen of Gorgias of Leontini, in which the change of character described by Gorgias are compared to symptoms of PTSD (pp. 57–8).
In Chapter 6, ‘Greek Cavalry in the Hellenistic World: Review and Reappraisal’, G.R. Bugh offers a useful survey of the technical and tactical evolution of cavalry in the Hellenistic world. Bugh stresses the increasing diversification and specialisation of arms and armours, examining the new types of cavalry that emerged in the Hellenistic period (Tarentines, cataphracts, prodromoi) and the controversy regarding the nature and length of cavalry spears and the use of shields. On the history and development of ancient cavalry, the recent publication of M. Petitjean (La cavalleria nel mondo antico [2018], on Hellenistic cavalry, pp. 55–83) may also be useful.
Chapter 7, ‘Skeletal Evidence for the Impact of Battle on Soldiers and Non-Combatants’ by M.A. Liston, which concludes the section devoted to ancient Greece, is one of the most groundbreaking essays of the book, both in results and approach. Liston focuses on the comparative analysis of skeletons found in the excavation of Chaironeia and of the Athenian Agora (victims of the Herulian sack in ad 267). She demonstrates how the study of wounds on skeletal remains can provide new evidence on ancient battles: for example, the trauma wounds on the skulls from Chaironeia indicate that the assailants were above their victims, a fact that suggests the blows could have been inflicted by mounted cavalry (p. 91).
Chapter 8, ‘Financing Imperialism in the Middle Roman Republic’ by N. Rosenstein, sheds light on the economic aspects and on the financial implications of Roman wars, summarising arguments more fully presented in N. Rosenstein, ‘Bellum se ipsum alet? Financing Mid-Republican Imperialism’ (in H. Beck, et al. [edd.], Money and Power in the Roman Republic [2016]). Rosenstein points out that the gains resulting from Roman victories often did not cover all the costs of waging wars (stipendia, food, equipment, transport, support personnel, occasional fleets). Most of the expenses were covered by the economic wealth of tributum-paying assidui and so, according to Rosenstein, pure greed can hardly be seen as the main motivation of Rome's war-making during the middle Republic.
In Chapter 9, ‘Indiscipline in the Roman Army of the Late Republic and Principate’, Brice bases his analysis of indiscipline on the social nature of the armies and provides a remarkable phenomenology of military disobedience, offering a classification based on four criteria (aims, participants, collective, violence): as a result, military conspiracy, mutiny, expression of grievance and insubordination can be distinguished. The analysis is enhanced by a wide range of references to ancient sources and by the case study of the mutiny on the limes Pannonicus and Germanicus in ad 14.
Chapter 10, ‘The Neurophysiology of Panic on the Ancient Battlefield’ by S.M. Heidenreich and J.P. Roth, focuses on the psychological and physiological explanation of soldiers’ responses to panic, drawing on the recent findings of neuroscience and on the narratives of ancient sources. However, Heidenreich and Roth emphasise a caveat: although neuroscientific evidence can provide an explanation for behaviour in battle, it cannot predict if a legionary would have fled or would have been frozen in place, because of individual differences. Nevertheless, the authors rightly point out that, ‘when properly understood, scientific principles of neuroscience can be powerful tools in aiding military historians’ (p. 137).
Chapter 11, ‘Roman Siege Warfare: Moral and Morale’ by J. Levithan, does not survey the tactics of siege warfare in the Roman world; rather, it presents extended (albeit sometimes fairly clichéd) considerations about the importance of morale-related issues for determining how sieges may have unfolded.
In Chapter 12, ‘Roman Military Communities and the Families of Auxiliary Soldiers’, E.M. Greene focuses on the social side of Roman military life in the first and second centuries ad: more specifically, she provides a complete analysis of the role of families in camp life in Roman Britain and German provinces. In combining archaeological, epigraphic and literary sources, Greene stresses the importance of women and families, often neglected ‘actors’ in Roman military history, and offers a new way of understanding the material evidence found in military settings.
Chapter 13, ‘Approaching “Ethnic” Communities in the Roman Auxilia’ by A. Meyer, focuses on the ‘ethnic’ composition of Roman auxilia, arguing against the traditional view that auxiliary units lost their ‘ethnic’ character by the end of the first century ad. In fact, according to Meyer, epigraphic evidence seems to show that tribally based groups persisted among Roman auxilia and continued to express their own identity in order to self-identify as a group.
In the final Chapter, ‘Health, Wounds, and Medicine in the Late Roman Army (250–600 ce)’, P. Rance prudently approaches the written sources relating to medical provision and personnel in Roman armies from the late third to the early seventh centuries, a period in which archaeological and epigraphic evidence is sparse, in part as a result of the distinction between limitanei and comitatenses and of the subsequent demise of large-scale valetudinaria. Rance points out an apparent substantial continuity in institutional treatment of soldiers’ wounds and health in the late Roman army, even if much remains obscure and future inquiry is needed.
By assembling an interesting collection of contributions devoted to a wide range of topics often neglected by previous studies, the major merit of this volume is to bring to the attention of the (not only scholarly) public the possibilities involved in merging old and new approaches in the fascinating field of ancient warfare studies. Except in a few cases, in fact, novelty can be detected in the approaches and methodologies adopted by the various contributors, more than in the outcomes of their essays.
Although many of the contributions are based on predominantly English scholarship, the references provide an excellent starting point for further studies of specific topics, also thanks to the bibliographical updates made throughout the publication work. In addition, the brief suggestions for further reading are particularly useful, as it enables non-experts and students to get deeper into the topic.
