Fighting Techniques of the Ancient World (3000 B.C. to 500 A.D.): Equipment, Combat Skills, and Tactics [Hardcover]

Rob S. Rice (Author), Simon Anglim (Author), Phyllis Jestice (Author), Scott Rusch (Author), John Serrati (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2003

A comprehensive and heavily illustrated guide to warfare in the ancient world.

This essential guide to ancient warfare describes the fighting methods of soldiers in Europe and the Middle East in an age before gunpowder. From a detailed examination of the individual components of an ancient army and their equipment, to a fascinating exploration of ancient battle strategies, siege warfare, and naval battles, it explores the unique tactics required to win battles with the technology available. Using specially commissioned color and black-and-white artwork and 24 full-color tactical maps, this book shows in great detail the methods by which armies, including Assyrians and Roman forces, prevailed over their foes, and why other armies were less successful. This is a must-read for any reader interested in ancient warfare.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Armchair conquerors will delight in this encyclopedic and lavishly illustrated compendium of military lore. The authors, academic historians, cover the development of warfare in the Mediterranean world, from its beginnings in Sumeria and Egypt, to the rise of the Greek hoplite phalanx, to Alexander's inauguration of the age of the military genius, to the Roman legion's revolutionary combination of discipline, organization and tactical flexibility. The book is divided thematically into five chapters on infantry, mounted warfare, command and control, siege warfare and naval warfare. There are some drawbacks to this approach; the narratives of some individual battles, for example, are inconveniently broken up between different chapters. But for the most part the book lucidly organizes a huge amount of information that illuminates ancient warfare from many perspectives, from the grand strategy of generals to the minutiae of spear lengths and sword-fighting drills; particularly good are the sections on ancient artillery and the complexities of the centuries-long process of integrating horses into warfare. The excellent, multi-faceted illustrations include reproductions of ancient bas-reliefs, photos of rusty old weapons, diagrams of military units and battlefields and slightly cheesy but instructive full color paintings of battlefield encounters.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Simon Anglim is a researcher at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, and has published widely on military history through the ages. Phyllis G. Jestice is Assistant Professor of Medieval History at the University of Southern Mississippi. Rob S. Rice is a professor at the American Military University. Scott M. Rusch has a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. John Serrati is a Lecturer at St. Leonard's College at the University of St. Andrews in the U.K.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; First Edition edition (January 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312309325
• ISBN-13: 978-0312309329
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #150,124 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rob S. Rice has long had a fascination with the histories of war, technology, and always the sea. His interests in human activity on the sea extend to all historical periods.? He has delivered papers before the American Philological Association in addition to a presentation at Annapolis and has taught successfully subjects from Mythology to Roman History in the course of his teaching career. He received his doctorate in Ancient History from Penn in 1994.
His articles on the U.S. Navy appear in The Oxford Guide to American Military History and the respected Reader's Guide to Military History. He wrote sections of Fighting Techniques of the Ancient World, Fighting Techniques of the Early Modern Era, Decisive Battles of the Ancient World, Battles of the Bible, Fighting Techniques of Naval Warfare, and Fighting Techniques of the Colonial Wars. Two books for juveniles on warfare in the ancient world will be in libraries soon.

Dr. Rice is an accomplished marksman and a published poet and editor. He is also the author of five novels, with more forthcoming, and has participated in live and street theater in large venues. He is the cherishing owner of Big Dodge, his faithful 1970 Dodge Dart, and Winston, a 1984 Volkswagen Westfalia Camper. He lives near Denver, Colorado.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

91 of 98 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Misleading title but basically good, June 10, 2004

By 

Stephen Hand (Hobart, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fighting Techniques of the Ancient World (3000 B.C. to 500 A.D.): Equipment, Combat Skills, and Tactics (Hardcover)

The first thing I have to say is that evidently the authors and I understand the term "fighting techniques" differently. Doing a quick search for books with "fighting techniques" in the title will show that the term is generally held to refer to specific techniques and skills used in hand-to-hand combat. I was hoping to find some exploration of this, but it rated hardly a mention.

Having said that, the book was a good solid overview of Ancient warfare, equipment, tactics, command and control, siegecraft. Nothing dramatically new (including many of the pictures) but if you want a sound book on ancient equipment and tactics, then I can recommend this one.

There were a few strange assertions, like the claim that a particular bow had an effective range of 600m, over twice the length of the longest recorded bowshot! While I'm on bows, when will people realise that 'firing' a bow is an act of arson, not one of war! Firearms are fired, bows are shot. And the multitude of authors resulted in some strange inconsistency in terminology, like mail being referred to by about three different names, none historically correct. The text also contained more than a reasonable number of typos and grammatical errors. The whole work felt rushed.

Despite my misgivings, if you're after a good general work on ancient warfare, this is a fine book. Just don't expect to see any specific fighting techniques described.

Stephen Hand
Author of Medieval Sword and Shield:
The Combat System of Royal Armouries MS I.33

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Survey Work, April 28, 2003

By 

10th Legion "10th Legion" (Central Texas, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fighting Techniques of the Ancient World (3000 B.C. to 500 A.D.): Equipment, Combat Skills, and Tactics (Hardcover)

Pro: Good survey of ancient warfare from Ancient Egypt and Sumeria through the Roman Empire. Physical quality is excellent. The authors are knowledgeable and competent. Extensive use of drawings, maps and art work is useful and effective.
Con: Nothing really new here - much of the excellent art work is borrowed from older works. The authors cover the topics well but do not offer more insight into ancient warfare then previously offerred by earlier out-of-print works by authors such as John Wharry, Sir John Hackett, and Peter Connolly.
Bottom Line: If you need just one general purpose book on the subject, this does the job well. If you need more than a survey of ancient warfare, take a pass on this book and go after the works listed in the bibliography.

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars History Through Warfare 101, November 3, 2004

By 

Jonathan A. Goss (Franklin, TN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Fighting Techniques of the Ancient World (3000 B.C. to 500 A.D.): Equipment, Combat Skills, and Tactics (Hardcover)

I must admit this book was a slight disappointment. After reading previous reviews and poring over the book's sample pages I had counted on this being an exhaustive work on Fighting Techniques of the Ancient World. Instead, it's more of a history lesson chronicling ancient cultures and their socio-economic along with politico-militaristic reasons for adopting certain types of equipment. Very little attention is actually given to "fighting techniques".
There is quite a bit of information on weapons and armor and a moderate amount of information about how these were used in battles, but for the most part you read about the "hows" and "whys" of nations adopting certain weapons, armor, auxillary elements and not a concentrated explanation of their various roles and advantages in battles. This information IS in there, it's just a bit less substantial than I had anticipated and hoped for. But the book does offer an overwhelming myriad of pictures, sculptures, drawings, paintings, etchings, carvings, and diagrams to help illustrate their various topical points. This is supplimented by the best feature of the book: The battle layouts.
There are roughly 18-20 full color, bird's eye view templates regarding major battles from Marathon to Mylae. These are wonderfully done and show each major step in the individual battle's progression. These are the real gems of the book.
As a whole this book is worth checking out, the extensive in-depth analysis of naval, siege, mounted, and infantry warfare equipment and tactics are astounding. Every page has at least one picture or diagram, and quite a few have scetches and layouts of various army formations, strategies, and planned progressive maneuvers. The only thing that is irksome is that you have to trudge through the history lessons and the campaign chronologies to get to the good stuff.
In the end it's worth the money, but for God's sake go Used! And expect to spend as much time reading about the history and events leading UP TO a military tactic or piece of equipment as you would on the tactic or equipment itself.