Author : Aeneas (Tacticus)
Publisher : Bristol Classical Press
Page : 248 pages
File Size : 31,94 MB
Release : 2002-04-25
Category : History
ISBN :
With the Greekless reader firmly in mind, this text provides a fresh modern translation of Aineias Tacitus' "How to Survive Under Siege", a comprehensive introduction to Aineias and his work, and a full historical commentary.
Author :
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 410 pages
File Size : 12,42 MB
Release : 2017-09-25
Category : History
ISBN : 9004352856
Brill’s Companion to Aineias Tacticus is a collection of articles on the significance of the earliest Greek handbook on military tactics. Aineias’ (Aeneas) wrote his Poliorketika in the mid-fourth century BC, offering a unique perspective on contemporary Greek city-states, warfare and intellectual trends. We offer an introduction to Aineias and his work, and then discuss the work’s historical and intellectual context, his qualities as a writer, and aspects of his work as a historical source for the Greek polis of the fourth century BC. Several chapters discuss Aineias’ approach to warfare, specifically light infantry, mercenaries, naval operations, fortifications and technology. Finally, we include a lengthy study of the reception of ancient military treatises, specifically Aineias’ Poliorketika, in the Byzantine period.
Author : Pamela O. Long
Publisher : JHU Press
Page : 381 pages
File Size : 15,37 MB
Release : 2003-04-30
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 0801872820
A history of the book and intellectual property that includes military technology and military secrets. Winner of The Morris D. Forkosch Prize from the Journal of the History of Ideas In today's world of intellectual property disputes, industrial espionage, and book signings by famous authors, one easily loses sight of the historical nature of the attribution and ownership of texts. In Openness, Secrecy, Authorship: Technical Arts and the Culture of Knowledge from Antiquity to the Renaissance, Pamela Long combines intellectual history with the history of science and technology to explore the culture of authorship. Using classical Greek as well as medieval and Renaissance European examples, Long traces the definitions, limitations, and traditions of intellectual and scientific creation and attribution. She examines these attitudes as they pertain to the technical and the practical. Although Long's study follows a chronological development, this is not merely a general work. Long is able to examine events and sources within their historical context and locale. By looking at Aristotelian ideas of Praxis, Techne, and Episteme. She explains the tension between craft and ideas, authors and producers. She discusses, with solid research and clear prose, the rise, wane, and resurgence of priority in the crediting and lionizing of authors. Long illuminates the creation and re-creation of ideas like "trade secrets," "plagiarism," "mechanical arts," and "scribal culture." Her historical study complicates prevailing assumptions while inviting a closer look at issues that define so much of our society and thought to this day. She argues that "a useful working definition of authorship permits a gradation of meaning between the poles of authority and originality," and guides us through the term's nuances with clarity rarely matched in a historical study.
Author : Victor Davis Hanson
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 277 pages
File Size : 39,39 MB
Release : 2012-09-16
Category : History
ISBN : 0691156360
Timeless lessons from the military strategies of the ancient Greeks and Romans In this prequel to the now-classic Makers of Modern Strategy, Victor Davis Hanson, a leading scholar of ancient military history, gathers prominent thinkers to explore key facets of warfare, strategy, and foreign policy in the Greco-Roman world. From the Persian Wars to the final defense of the Roman Empire, Makers of Ancient Strategy demonstrates that the military thinking and policies of the ancient Greeks and Romans remain surprisingly relevant for understanding conflict in the modern world. The book reveals that much of the organized violence witnessed today—such as counterterrorism, urban fighting, insurgencies, preemptive war, and ethnic cleansing—has ample precedent in the classical era. The book examines the preemption and unilateralism used to instill democracy during Epaminondas's great invasion of the Peloponnesus in 369 BC, as well as the counterinsurgency and terrorism that characterized Rome's battles with insurgents such as Spartacus, Mithridates, and the Cilician pirates. The collection looks at the urban warfare that became increasingly common as more battles were fought within city walls, and follows the careful tactical strategies of statesmen as diverse as Pericles, Demosthenes, Alexander, Pyrrhus, Caesar, and Augustus. Makers of Ancient Strategy shows how Greco-Roman history sheds light on wars of every age. In addition to the editor, the contributors are David L. Berkey, Adrian Goldsworthy, Peter J. Heather, Tom Holland, Donald Kagan, John W. I. Lee, Susan Mattern, Barry Strauss, and Ian Worthington.
Author :
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 463 pages
File Size : 14,27 MB
Release : 2024-05-30
Category : History
ISBN : 9004696431
What do the mysterious Roman author Vegetius, the Byzantine emperor Leo VI, and the Chinese general Li Jing all have in common? They are three of the dozens of authors across the medieval Mediterranean world and beyond who wrote works of military literature, sometimes called military handbooks, manuals, or treatises. This book brings together a multidisciplinary international team of scholars who present cutting edge essays on diverse aspects of medieval military literature. While some chapters offer novel approaches to familiar authors like Vegetius, some present research on under-valued topics like Byzantine military illustrations, and others provide holistic studies on subjects like early modern treatises, they all move the discussion of medieval military literature forward. Contributors are Michael B. Charles, Georgios Chatzelis, Pierre Cosme, Maxime Emion, Immacolata Eramo, Michael Fulton, David Graff, John Haldon, Catherine Hof, John Hosler, Savvas Kyriakidis, Łukasz Różycki, Katharina Schoneveld, Georgios Theotokis, Conor Whately, Michael Whitby, and Nadya Williams.
Author : L. Sprague De Camp
Publisher : Ballantine Books
Page : 481 pages
File Size : 12,52 MB
Release : 1995-01-03
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0345482875
“Mr. de Camp has the trick of being able to show technology engaging in feats as full of derring-do as those of Hannibal’s army. History as it should be told.”—Isaac Asimov, The New York Times Book Review The Pyramids of Giza, the Parthenon of Greece, the Great Wall of China, the Colosseum of Rome. Today, we stand in awe before these wonders of the ancient world. They hold our history and the deepest secrets of our past in their hidden recesses. In The Ancient Engineers, L. Sprague de Camp delves into the heart of the mystery. He introduces us to the master builders who had the vision, the power, and the passion to reach for the clouds and touch the heavens. We share in some of the greatest technological triumphs of all time—triumphs of the human mind, imagination, and spirit.
Author : Mogens Herman Hansen
Publisher : Kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab
Page : 560 pages
File Size : 33,45 MB
Release : 1997
Category : Cities and towns, Ancient
ISBN : 9788773042915
Author : Dennis D. Hughes
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 317 pages
File Size : 18,55 MB
Release : 2013-01-11
Category : History
ISBN : 1134966393
Numerous ancient texts describe human sacrifices and other forms of ritual killing: in 480 BC Themistocles sacrifices three Persian captives to Dionysus; human scapegoats called pharmakoi are expelled yearly from Greek cities, and according to some authors they are killed; Locrin girls are hunted down and slain by the Trojans; on Mt Lykaion children are sacrificed and consumed by the worshippers; and many other texts report human sacrifices performed regularly in the cult of the gods or during emergencies such as war and plague. Archaeologists have frequently proposed human sacrifice as an explanation for their discoveries: from Minoan Crete children's bones with knife-cut marks, the skeleton of a youth lying on a platform with a bronze blade resting on his chest, skeletons, sometimes bound, in the dromoi of Mycenaean and Cypriot chamber tombs; and dual man-woman burials, where it is suggested that the woman was slain or took her own life at the man's funeral. If the archaeologists' interpretations and the claims in the ancient sources are accepted, they present a bloody and violent picture of the religious life of the ancient Greeks, from the Bronze Age well into historical times. But the author expresses caution. In many cases alternative, if less sensational, explanations of the archaeological are possible; and it can often be shown that human sacrifices in the literary texts are mythical or that late authors confused mythical details with actual practices.Whether the evidence is accepted or not, this study offers a fascinating glimpse into the religious thought of the ancient Greeks and into changing modern conceptions of their religious behaviour.
Author : Lee L. Brice
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 280 pages
File Size : 41,4 MB
Release : 2019-12-03
Category : History
ISBN : 111834054X
Uses new methodologies, evidence, and topics to better understand ancient warfare and its place in culture and history New Approaches to Greek and Roman Warfare brings together essays from specialists in ancient history who employ contemporary tools and approaches to reveal new evidence and increase knowledge of ancient militaries and warfare. In-depth yet highly readable, this volume covers the most recent trends for understanding warfare, militaries, soldiers, non-combatants, and their roles in ancient cultures. Chronologically-organized chapters explore new methodologies, evidence, and topics while offering fresh and original perspectives on recent documentary and archaeological discoveries. Covering the time period from Archaic Greece to the Late Roman Empire, the text asks questions of both new and re-examined old evidence and discusses the everyday military life of soldiers and veterans. Chapters address unique topics such as neurophysiological explanations for why some soldiers panic and others do not in the same battle, Greek society’s handling of combat trauma in returning veterans, the moral aspects and human elements of ancient sieges, medical care in the late Roman Empire, and the personal experience of military servicemembers and their families. Each chapter is self-contained to allow readers to explore topics in any order they prefer. This book: Features case studies that examine psychological components of military service such as morale, panic, recovery, and trauma Offers discussions of the economics of paying for warfare in the Greek and Roman worlds and why Roman soldiers mutinied Covers examining human remains of ancient conflict, including interesting photos Discusses the role of women in families and as victims and addresses issues related to women and war Places discussions in the broader context of new wave military history and includes complete bibliographies and further reading suggestions Providing new material and topical focus, New Approaches to Greek and Roman Warfare is an ideal text for Greek History or Roman History courses, particularly those focusing on ancient warfare, as well as scholars and general readers with interest in the ancient militaries.
Author : Robert Hannah
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 221 pages
File Size : 24,17 MB
Release : 2008-11-26
Category : History
ISBN : 1134323166
Time in Antiquity explores the different perceptions of time from Classical antiquity, principally through the technology designed to measure, mark or tell time. The material discussed ranges from the sixth century BC in archaic Greece to the 3rd century AD in the Roman Empire, and offers fascinating insights into ordinary people’s perceptions of time and time-keeping instruments.
