Customer Reviews

Warfare in the Classical World: War and the Ancient Civilisations of Greece and Rome (Classic Conflicts (London, England).)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book has exactly the same text as the Illustrated Encyclopedia of ancient warfare by the same author, but there are no illustrations. If you can spare a few more bucks, by the illustrated version: it has a wealth of battle maps, color plates and other illustrated material which makes this text-only version pale in comparison, although it is still quite informative. I give it 4 stars while I would give the illustrated version 5.

A look at our past is a look at out past wars. All over the history, civilizations, kingdoms and states have emerged, survived or obliterated based in their skill to win battle after battle (not only at the battlefields but also at the political arena). I am afraid it's not different nowdays.

It's interesting to have a look at gifted generals whose best skill was to know the timely place and time for fighting and their pursuit of decesive wins. Overall, victory depends usually in just one man with his skills and shortcomings.

I love this book on account of its global outlook of wars as one of the weapons in the array of ancient leaders. Demografy, economy or beliefs are key factor that great generals were able to tip in their favor.

In this book, the author is bent on placing each leader or general into political, economical and social context. It is not only a catalogue of wars, outflaking movements and so on. There are plently of examples of great generals almost ever-winner that could not overcome other factors and eventually were defeated (as Anibal or Espartacus) by enemies, comrades or chiefs. On the contrary how geniuos as Julio Cesar or Escipion africanus could innovate and emerged victorious against all hurdles by fair means or fouls.

In the list of gifted people, there were really little known people who made great exploits (as Lucullus, the brother of Anibal and so on). Many factors drive life and glory and not always the best or better is the winner.

This book must be thought of as a global modern view that places each name and battle in a place in History and that directs you into reading ancient sorces of much narrow scope and less reliable but closer to real facts: Xenophon, Arrio, Julio Cesar, tuciddides and so many which are shed with a different light under a more encopassing view.

All in all, a pleasure to enjoy. By the way, how different in the real story of Spartacus from the famous film. Men, with our mistakes are the best sources or our grievances.

The number of misconceptions about ancient warfare is legion. There is a tendency to see ancient battles as little more than bloody scrums, with none of the tactical art, deception, or finesse of modern battle. Indeed, the tactics and weaponry are often perceived as being static, nowhere near as fluid as those of today.

John Warry punctures all of these myths with his seminal work "Warfare in the Classical World", which covers the Greek and Roman art of war in a single slim, accessible volume.

Warry does not fall into the trap which often befalls military historians in that he strives to place each conflict in its proper political context. Surprisingly, there is not a single battle map in the book, as he is for the most part concerned with how armies fight and not the results of single battles.

In each section, Warry begins with an incisive commentary on the sources from which we have inherited our historical knowledge, probing the biases of each. He then describes the political scene of the day before analyzing the art of war as practiced at the time, finally wrapping up with a brief summary.

This makes for highly entertaining and thought-provoking reading, and allows the reader to grasp the evolution of land and naval warfare from the Homeric Age to the fall of Rome.

And what an evolution this was, from the individual, hand-to-hand combat of the Heroic Greeks to the extremely disciplined and varied tactics of the Roman Legion. Ancient warfare was anything but a static affair as brilliant warriors constantly sought the battlefield edge through new tactics and weaponry.

Take, for example, the evolution of the spear, from the short, thrusting weapon used by early Greek phalangists to the throwing spear represented by the Roman pilum, craftily designed so as to make the shields of the barbarian hordes they faced useless. Or the rise and fall of elephants in battle, first used by Persians battling the Greeks, then employed by the Carthaginians against Rome before falling out of favor with Hannibal's defeat at Zama. Talk about heavy cavalry!

This book will delight even the most casual interest in military history or the ancient world. For the professional soldier, this work is an essential reference which belongs on your bookshelf, if only to convince the boss that you do study your profession. Rush out and pick up a copy today.

First, let me start off my saying that this is a bargain book. So don't except too much from it and you won't be disappointed. Very simple. This book provides a good overview and introduction to warfare in the Classical (read Greek and Roman) Age. Warry has done a great job incorporating literary element into description of Greek Phalanxes and Roman Legions. He combines these with historical documents to interpret -although briefly- what a Greek, Roman, or Trojan army may have donned into battle.

There are some faults to the work. The first and foremost is that there are no illustrations or maps. Even two or three general visual aids (a diagram of armor parts for example) would have been incredibly helpful. Alas, there are no pictures to be found. The lack of an expansive bibliography is forgivable in that searching amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, or even Google provide a wealth of information on the subject.

So take this book for what it is, a bargain introduction and overview of warfare in the Classical World. If you can understand the book's shortcomings you won't be disappointed.

This is a book that is interesting to read and appears to be well-researched (more on that later) but it is also disappointing because it could have been so much more.

The main reasons I bought this book are because I wanted to learn more about western martial arts and Classical-era history in general. It was definitely informative with regards to martial history, detailing the rise and fall of a number of different Greek & Roman empires and rulers and the significance of key battles and campaigns.

From a western martial arts view, it was more disappointing. It had details about battlefield tactics and unit divisions. It had some detail about arms and armor, although more would have been nice. However, the periods it describes ARE quite a long time ago, so it is entirely possible the information is just not available.

Where I absolutely find fault with the book is in a distinct lack of guidance for those who would like to do more research.
- There is no bibliography.
- There are sparse chapter end-notes, usually about technical details that didn't really have a place in the text. In a few cases, a sub-section will state which ancient author or authors in particular are the source for that particular subsection. But generally, there is no way to tell which particular statements are based on which particular sources.
- Sources for each major section are named at the beginning of that major section, along with information about whether the source had first-hand experience of what he wrote, what his background was, and whether he seemed to be relatively even-handed or definitely biased towards a certain viewpoint. Also included is information about which ancient authors have works that are still extant and which authors' works are lost to us and known only through intermediate authors and secondary sources. But many times the ancient authors are mentioned only by name and the titles of their relevant works are not included. There is also no information about which particular authors & works have been translated and published in English.

So, for example, if I want to know more about Athenian light-armed troops in the time of the Peloponnesian war (mentioned in the last paragraph of "The Athenian Army" in the section titled "The Peloponnesian War"), there is very little information to go on. The beginning of the section on the Peloponnesian war mentions Thucydides, Xenophon's "Hellenica", "other historians . . . of whose works only fragments survive", Plutarch, Theopompos, Ephorus, Cratippus, and a 900-line fragment from an Egyptian papyrus manuscript which may or may not be a continuation of Thucydides. Besides "Hellenica", do any of these other works have formal titles? Are any available in English translations? Which are available to the public, either through reprints that can be purchased or through public libraries, and which are only held in private or institutional collections? And which, if any, of these were used specifically for the paragraph on Athenian light-armed troops and therefore might have more information on those troops? You won't find any of those answers in the book.

Also, there are NO illustrations or maps and the book could have benefited GREATLY from these.

Finally, I was APPALLED at the number of spelling and grammar errors. Does the author not proof-read his work? Does the publisher not have a copy editor?

In all, a decent introduction and overview, but this book could have been SO much better with some more time put into it.