Warfare in the Ancient World by Brian Todd Carey (PDF)

Description

Warfare in the Ancient World explores how civilizations and cultures made war on the battlefields of the Near East and Europe between the rise of civilization in Mesopotamia in the late fourth millenium BC and the fall of Rome.Through a exploration of twenty-six selected battles, military historian Brian Todd Carey surveys the changing tactical relationships between the four weapon systems – heavy and light infantry and hevay and light cavalry – focusing on how shock and missile combat evolved from tentative beginnings in the Bronze Age to the highly developed military organization created by the Romans.The art of warfare reached a very sophisticated level of development during this three millenia span. Commanders fully realized the tactical capabilities of shock and missile combat in large battlefield situations. Modern principles of war, like the primacy of the offensive, mass, and economy of force, were understood by pre-modern generals and applied on battlefields throughout the period.Through the use of dozens of multiphase tactical maps, this fascinating introduction to the art of war during western civilizations ancient and classical periods pulls together the primary and secondary sources and creates a powerful historical narrative. The result is a synthetic work that will be essential reading for students and armchair historians alike.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐This book is a competent survey of warfare in the ancient western world, their tactical and weapon systems and how they combined throughout civilizations ranging from the ancient Sumerians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Myceneans, Greeks, persians, Hellenistic kingdoms and Rome. Its systematization is interesting although very simplistic – useful for a general model (the division beteween Heavy and Light cavalry and Infantry as exclusively Shock and ranged) – being interesting how diferent civilizations used and combined their weapon and tactical systems.Congratulations are in order for the two map illustrators: joshua Allfree and John Cairns made unforgettable battle sequences and maps that explain even very confusing battles (although I personally don’t agree with their interpretations of Caesar’s 4th line at Pharsalus); please, continue to publish material!The plates are adequate, but should be less portrait intensive on a work of this nature.For a beginner this book is at least a four star…maybe even a 5 star book. A really good introduction.The problem is that this book is written by a military history Professor, to an universitarian audience! There are unforgivable mistakes, sometimes stated twice like the lorica segmentata being introduced by Caius Marius in the 2nd Cent BC! Anyone that knows a little about the roman army knows that the author made a more than a 100 years mistake! That armour was popular in the 1st and 2nd century AD. Also the author claims that Myceneans and Hittites used their chariots like the Egyptians, like ranged weapons platforms, but Ocidental prejudices against ranged weapons “transformed” them into transports; the author forgets that the Celts used them EXACTLY like transports and shock weapons and we have contemporary reports that ironically and paradoxally the author uses farther in the book (not realizing that it contradicted his own theory)! Also the author has no knowledge of the representations of mycenean chariots with armoured lancers (with very long lances…not throwing spears), like the ones at Vapheios (XV cent BC).There are other mistakes and reliance on relatively few sources, but as an 220 page introduction it is worth the investment in time and money.If you are acknowledged in ancient warfare you might want to buy this books for the maps.

⭐Probably not bad for a middle school kid getting interested in the subject. Great to keep on your phone to read while in waiting rooms or on line.

⭐Brilliant and well-written book that truly showcases the evolution of warfare in the ancient world – not just in terms of technology, strategy and tactics – but also in terms of the immense impact war had on culture and vice versa. Great balance between descriptions of particular battles, bigger campaigns and overall evolution. Highly recommended for anyone interested in history and military history.

⭐Excellent overview of classical warfare! Mr. Carey was one of my history professors and is extremely knowledgeable on this subject. His use of easy to understand maps is an added bonus.

⭐This is an interesting book that the author states is used for one of his classes as he could not find anything that precisely filled his needs.So, presumably the book is for a limited audience, of either those who are doing the relevant course, or who want an overview of how warfare developed over the millennia.For that, it does it’s job well.A number of caveats:The book appears to be based heavily on Archer Jones book ‘Art of war in the Western World’, if you have read this book (and it has been about 20 years since I have) there is probably little new here, although this author widens his basis to include the development of military doctrine in the Near East as well as the West.When I buy a history book, one of the first things I check is the bibliography. The bibliography for this book is interesting in that all the works cited are either secondary sources in English, or original works translated into English. As such, do not expect any astonishing new insights into history, that is not the authors intent. The author is largely content with history as it has been written, but is drawing your attention to certain underlying factors that may not be apparent to the casual reader of history.Another thing I look for when reading military history is the quality of the maps included (which is usually appalling). Thankfully this time the maps are quite reasonable in general terms, and while I would classify the ‘battle’ maps, more as multistage diagrams, they are far better than one usually has to help understand the progress of battles.I note one of the earlier reviewers says that he could learn more from ‘DBM’. For those who do not know what ‘DBM’ is, it is a very popular set of wargames rules. I find this rather amusing, as when I originally read Archer Jones (much longer) book, I thought it would make a great foundation for a set of wargames rules, so frankly I do not see this as an impediment. Good wargames rules should reward players for following historical precedent.You see, the goal of the author is to explain why certain armies did well or badly against other armies that had a different make up.To this end, he develops Archer Jones paradigm of four weapons systems (heavy and light infantry, heavy and light cavalry) and how armies have integrated these into a military system that is then placed in its strategic setting.22 battles are reviewed to show the interaction between these weapons systems, and the failings of weapons systems in terrain they are not suited to as well as the problems of bad generalship are clearly reviewed.So, if all this is going so well, why only 4 stars? Well, I do have a couple of issues with the book. Here is an author with a paradigmatic point to make, but sometimes he just doesn’t take it home. Perhaps he trusts his readers or some points he intends to make in a classroom. But for instance in the very useful Glossary provided (it is almost worth reading this before reading the book) he notes ‘Centurion(1st century BCE to 3rd century CE)’and then explains that during this time they were professional officers, below that he notes ‘Century (4th century BCE to 3rd century CE). Now, the point I think he is trying to make is that prior to 1centBCE, the centurions, like the rest of the army were not professionals. But by showing that the ‘century’ existed long before ‘centurions’ apparently did, there is only confusion in the part of the reader. For someone writing to support a paradigm, that is not good writing and it happens on a number of occasions through the book.If you haven’t read Archer Jones book, and have an interest in the development of military technique in the ancient world, this is a very useful book

⭐This is not a bad book in so far as it goes. I enjoyed the chapters on how the Romans and Greeks waged war although I didn’t really learn anything new. The glossary of weapons and military terms at the end was excellent with just about the right amount of detail. However I was less impressed by the description of warfare in the period between 1200 BC and 500 BC. There was very little information about the battles and campaigns involving the Babylonians, the Cimmerians, the Assyrians, the Scythians, the Medes, the Persians and the Egyptians during the important period between 800-600 BC. The battle of Carchemish is not mentioned. Ashurbanipal and Nebuchadnezzar II were great generals but we don’t learn how they achieved their victories. We discover little about the siege tactics of the Assyrians. All in all, the author(s) gloss over this important period of history. I would have found it helpful if they could have at least defined the limits of our knowledge on the subject and maybe given a few educated guesses about what happened.Overall this is book could have been a lot better. I bought the kindle version and much of the text was broken up in places, such as the glossary, so that it was hard to read. Perhaps it could be cautiously recommended as an introduction to Greek and Roman warfare. But if you want to find out about war in more ancient times, I’d advise looking elsewhere.

⭐Excellent study of Ancient Warfare, enjoyable to read and help understand the tactics of this period. If you’re wargamer add this to your library.Highly recommended.

⭐Excellent systematic overview.I have read many history books, and I am bored with this happened and then this happened and then this and then this happened.This book is different. It identifies major changes that occurred over historical periods, and sets about explaining why. This is very interesting and the way history should be written.

⭐Excellent book that is systematically organized around the four tactical systems of antique warfare: licht infantery, heavy infantery, light cavelry and heavy cavelery. It is explained how these four systems are developed over time in combined arms battle deployment

⭐I was disapointed with this title, and in the end gave up on it. A big problem is the rather pompous and jargon-filled writing style, generally with no definition of terms. He regularly uses the phrase “articulated infantry”, and states, with no explanation nor justification that the phallanx is less articulated than the legion. Well, OK, we can guess what he’s getting at and that this is something to do with tactical flexiblity, or perhaps it’s just manoeuverablity, or perhaps just poorer command structure – the term is never defined so you see the difficulty. There is also no real analysis of what is meant. Another example, is the use of “syncretistic” to describe how the Persians took on ideas from other cultures (I think?) – a word I’ve only ever seen once before in my life, and even after looking it up, found it is usually used in a specific context of religous debates – using this term is pure pretension and conveys no information to the poor reader. More charitably, perhaps he had a bet with his publisher as to which unlikely words he could work in. In another place he states that the Sarissa (spear used in the Phallanx) was “double-pointed” – what on earth is that supposed to mean? Perhaps it’s that there’s a point on the back end to stick in the ground to better deter cavalry in defence – but that’s not explained – or perhaps the front end has a forked point – unlikely but who knows? The explanation of battles and exactly what happened when are very detailed – where’s he getting this level of precision from. No references to source, no “perhaps”, “we could speculate that”, he just knows. These events happend thousands of years ago so this level of certainty is just not plausible.In mitigation, there is a general narrative summary of events in there somewhere, but still…Although not direclty part of my review I do find it a little odd that many / most of the glowing reviews are by the author’s own students, and by people who have only been moved to review this book and no other.The second half of the book may have been a finely researched and well-written piece of work, but I didn’t get that far so can’t tell you.Hywel

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