warfare

Visiting Scholars

Open House | Experimental Archaeology of Ancient Greek Warfare

We were excited to welcome Natasha Bershadsky, Paul M. Bardunias, Christian Cameron, and Giannis Kadoglou for an Open House entitled “Experimental Archaeology of Ancient Greek Warfare.” The event took place on Friday, July 17 at 11:00 a.m. EDT and was recorded. To get ready for the event you might like to read the following (links are to the texts on Perseus Digital Library): Xenophon, Hellenica 4.3 Xenophon Agesilaus 2 Xenophon… Read more

History

Xenophon’s Anabasis: Historical Context

Members of the Kosmos Society have been reading sections of Xenophon’s Anabasis, and this post provides a brief historical context to that work. The text is available on Perseus, both in Greek and in an English translation by Carleton L. Brownson (1922). Historical context The Anabasis by the Athenian soldier, historian and philosopher Xenophon, also known as The Anabasis of Cyrus, The March of the Ten Thousand and The March… Read more

History

Phalanx Warfare Transformed: Innovation in Ancient Greek Warfare 431–331 BCE | Part 2: Leuctra and Gaugamela

Previously, Part 1 of this post discussed hoplite warfare and how the battle of Mantinea demonstrated the advantage of professionalism. Part 2 considers how the battles of Leuctra and Gaugamela continued the development of Greek and Macedonian warfare. Concentration of Force—Leuctra 371 BCE Location of Leuctra (Google maps) The end of the Peloponnesian War did not bring the promised “…beginning of freedom for all of Greece.”[1] Instead, Sparta provoked a… Read more

History

Phalanx Warfare Transformed: Innovation in Ancient Greek Warfare 431–331 BCE | Part 1: Mantinea

Three great battles—Mantinea (418 BCE), Leuctra (371 BCE), and Gaugamela (331 BCE)—demonstrate the development of Greek and Macedonian warfare from the simple hoplite phalanx employed by Greek farmers defending their fields, into the powerful, tactically flexible army which allowed Alexander the Great to conquer the Persian Empire. Arising at some point toward the end of the Dark Ages (approximately 800 BCE to 600 BCE), the phalanx of farmers armed with… Read more