Author : William Michael Murray
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 385 pages
File Size : 40,4 MB
Release : 2014
Category : History
ISBN : 0199382255
The Age of Titans examines how heavy warships crewed by thousands of men developed from the agile triremes so popular during the Greek Classical Age. Following Alexander the Great, a new focus on naval siege warfare explains the rise in popularity of big ship navies and defines the model of naval power they made possible.
Author : William M. Murray
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 384 pages
File Size : 25,41 MB
Release : 2011-12-09
Category : History
ISBN : 0199912785
While we know a great deal about naval strategies in the classical Greek and later Roman periods, our understanding of the period in between--the Hellenistic Age--has never been as complete. However, thanks to new physical evidence discovered in the past half-century and the construction of Olympias, a full-scale working model of an Athenian trieres (trireme) by the Hellenic Navy during the 1980s, we now have new insights into the evolution of naval warfare following the death of Alexander the Great. In what has been described as an ancient naval arms race, the successors of Alexander produced the largest warships of antiquity, some as long as 400 feet carrying as many as 4000 rowers and 3000 marines. Vast, impressive, and elaborate, these warships "of larger form"--as described by Livy--were built not just to simply convey power but to secure specific strategic objectives. When these particular factors disappeared, this "Macedonian" model of naval power also faded away--that is, until Cleopatra and Mark Antony made one brief, extravagant attempt to reestablish it, an endeavor Octavian put an end to once and for all at the battle of Actium. Representing the fruits of more than thirty years of research, The Age of Titans provides the most vibrant account to date of Hellenistic naval warfare.
Author : William Murray
Publisher : OUP USA
Page : 386 pages
File Size : 38,86 MB
Release : 2012
Category : History
ISBN : 019538864X
The Age of Titans examines how heavy warships crewed by thousands of men developed from the agile triremes so popular during the Greek Classical Age. Following Alexander the Great, a new focus on naval siege warfare explains the rise in popularity of big ship navies and defines the model of naval power they made possible.
Author : John D. Grainger
Publisher : Pen and Sword History
Page : 322 pages
File Size : 23,35 MB
Release : 2022-09-15
Category : History
ISBN : 1399090259
“Thoroughly ‘reader friendly’ in organization and presentation . . . an ideal introduction to the creation and rise of the Ptolemaic era of Egypt.” —Midwest Book Review In this first volume of his trilogy on the Ptolemies, John Grainger explains how Ptolemy I established the dynasty’s power in Egypt in the wake of Alexander the Great’s death. Egypt had been independent for most of the fourth century BC, but was reconquered by the Persian Empire in the 340s. This is essential background for Ptolemaic history, since it meant that Alexander was welcomed as a liberator and, after the tyranny of Kleomenes, so was Ptolemy. This was the essential basis of Ptolemy’s power. He conciliated the Egyptians, but reinforced his military strength with Greek settlers, mainly retired or available soldiers. He built the city of Alexandria, but to his own requirements, not those planned by Alexander. The empire outside Egypt was acquired, perhaps for defense, perhaps by sheer greed. Ptolemy took over Cyrenaica (with difficulty), Cyprus, and Syria/Palestine. These had to be defended against his rivals, hence the development of his navy, and the Syrian Wars. The succession was carefully managed, but not directly hereditary (Ptolemy II wasn’t the eldest son), and the new king was very different. He fought repeated wars in Syria, built up his navy in the Aegean to the greatest seen in the ancient world, and extended his empire into the lands of the Red Sea, Sudan, and Ethiopia. He taxed the Egyptians mercilessly to fund all these activities. Yet few of his wars were successful, and he stored up trouble for his successors. This volume by a historian of the period delves into these events in a clear, compelling style.
Author : Christelle Fischer-Bovet
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 475 pages
File Size : 14,79 MB
Release : 2014-04-10
Category : History
ISBN : 113999185X
This is the only substantial and up-to-date reference work on the Ptolemaic army. Employing Greek and Egyptian papyri and inscriptions, and building on approaches developed in state-formation theory, it offers a coherent account of how the changing structures of the army in Egypt after Alexander's conquest led to the development of an ethnically more integrated society. A new tripartite division of Ptolemaic history challenges the idea of gradual decline, and emphasizes the reshaping of military structures that took place between c.220 and c.160 BC in response to changes in the nature of warfare, mobilization and demobilization, and financial constraints. An investigation of the socio-economic role played by soldiers permits a reassessment of the cleruchic system and shows how soldiers' associations generated interethnic group solidarity. By integrating Egyptian evidence, Christelle Fischer-Bovet also demonstrates that the connection between the army and local temples offered new ways for Greeks and Egyptians to interact.
Author : Pat Wheatley
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 517 pages
File Size : 47,32 MB
Release : 2020-04-29
Category : History
ISBN : 0192573047
Demetrius the Besieger offers the first historical and historiographical biography of Demetrius Poliorcetes (336-282 BC) to be published in English. Also known as 'The Besieger of Cities', Demetrius is an outstanding, yet enigmatic figure who presided over the disintegration of Alexander the Great's Empire after 323 BC, and the most fascinating and high profile of the Diadochoi, or Successors to Alexander the Great. His campaigns, initiatives, and personal life bestride the opening forty years of the so-called 'Hellenistic' age and are pivotal in its formation as he became the first of the Hellenistic Kings. As his name suggests, Demetrius was prodigious in his military adventures, and profligate in his private life, rendering him an icon for artists, writers, politicians, and soldiers for many centuries. He was especially famous for his spectacular siege operations against enemy cities, and gained his unique nickname from his innovation in building gigantic siege engines, which became legendary in the ancient world. However, much of Demetrius' life was enigmatic, oscillating wildly between successful and catastrophic ventures, and his intrinsic qualities remain debatable to this day. What is indisputable is that he presided over a formative period in history marked by great flux and enormous change. His endeavours resulted in the fusion of Asiatic and Greek cultures, producing the hybrid Hellenistic kingdoms which dominated the ancient world for some 200 years until the rise of the Roman Empire. The period is of crucial importance in ancient Greek history, and marks the point from which Hellenistic influence became fundamental in the development of modern Western culture.
Author : Christa Steinby
Publisher : Pen and Sword
Page : 248 pages
File Size : 26,45 MB
Release : 2014-10-30
Category : History
ISBN : 1844159191
The epic struggle between Carthage and Rome, two of the superpowers of the ancient world, is most famous for land battles in Italy, on the Iberian peninsula and in North Africa. But warfare at sea, which played a vital role in the First and Second Punic Wars, rarely receives the attention it deserves. And it is the monumental clashes of the Carthaginian and Roman fleets in the Mediterranean that are the focus of Christa Steinby's absorbing study. ?She exploits new evidence, including the latest archaeological discoveries, and she looks afresh at the ancient sources and quotes extensively from them. In particular she shows how the Romans' seafaring tradition and their skill, determination and resourcefulness eventually gave them a decisive advantage. In doing so, she overturns the myths and misunderstandings that have tend to distort our understanding of Roman naval warfare.
Author : John Lund
Publisher : Aarhus Universitetsforlag
Page : 390 pages
File Size : 25,37 MB
Release : 2015-10-26
Category : History
ISBN : 8771244514
This is the first monograph devoted solely to the ceramics of Cyprus in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods. The island was by then no longer divided into kingdoms but unified politically, first under Ptolemaic Egypt and later as a province in the Roman Empire. Submission to foreign rule was previously thought to have diluted - if not obliterated - the time-honoured distinctive Cypriot character. The ceramic evidence suggests otherwise. The distribution of local and imported pottery in Cyprus points to the existence of several regional exchange networks, a division that also seems reflected by other evidence. The similarities in material culture, exchange patterns and preferential practices are suggestive of a certain level of regional collective self-awareness. From the 1st century BC onwards, Cyprus became increasingly engulfed by mass produced and standardized ceramic fine wares, which seem ultimately to have put many of the indigenous makers of similar products out of business - or forced them to modify their output. Also, the ceramic record gradually became less diverse during the Roman Period than before - developments which we today might be inclined to view as symptoms of an early form of globalisation.
Author : Elena Coda
Publisher : Purdue University Press
Page : 342 pages
File Size : 39,82 MB
Release : 2016-01-15
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 1612494455
Re-Visioning Terrorism: A Humanistic Perspective is an interdisciplinary collection of essays that aims to offer a plurality of visions on terrorism, expanding its meaning across time and space and raising new questions that explore its multifaceted occurrences. The different ideological, philosophical, and cultural perspectives emerging from the essays and the variety of humanistic disciplines involved intend to provide a complex and even contradictory picture that emphasizes the fact that there cannot be a univocal conception and response to terrorism, in either the practical or the intellectual domain. The editors borrow the concept of rack focus response from cinema to create an innovative and flexible interpretative approach to terrorism. Rack focus refers to the change of focus of a lens so that one image can come into focus while another moves out of focus. Though the focal distance changes, the reality has not changed. Both items and events coexist, but given the nature of optics we can only see clearly one or the other. This occurs not just with lenses, but also with human perceptions, be they emotional or intellectual. The rack focus response requires that we try to shift focus from the depth of field that is absolutely clear and familiar to the "other" that is unclear and unfamiliar. This exercise will lead us to reflect on terroristic events in a more nuanced, nondogmatic, and flexible manner. The essays featured in this volume range from philosophical interpretations of terrorism, to historical analysis of terror through the ages, to cinematic, artistic, and narrative representations of terroristic events that are not limited to 9/11.
Author : Barbara Burrell
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 1215 pages
File Size : 17,59 MB
Release : 2024-03-13
Category : History
ISBN : 1119113598
A one-of-a-kind exploration of archaeological evidence from the Roman Empire between 44 BCE and 337 CE In A Companion to the Archaeology of the Roman Empire, distinguished scholar and archaeologist Professor Barbara Burrell delivers an illuminating and wide-ranging discussion of peoples, institutions, and their material remains across the Roman Empire. Divided into two parts, the book begins by focusing on the “unifying factors,” institutions and processes that affected the entire empire. This ends with a chapter by Professor Greg Woolf, Ronald J. Mellor Professor of Ancient History at UCLA, which summarizes and enlarges upon the themes and contributions of the volume. Meanwhile, the second part brings out local patterns and peculiarities within the archaeological remains of the City of Rome as well as almost every province of its empire. Each chapter is written by a noted scholar whose career has focused on the subject. Chronological coverage for each chapter is formally 44 BCE to 337 CE, but since material remains are not always so closely datable, most chapters center on the first three centuries of the Common Era, plus or minus 50 years. In addition, the book is amply illustrated and includes new and little-known finds from oft-ignored provinces. Readers will also find: A thorough introduction to the peoples and operations of the Roman Empire, including not just how the center affected the periphery ("Romanization") but how peripheral provinces operated on their own and among their neighbors Comprehensive explorations of local patterns within individual provinces Contributions from a diverse panel of leading scholars in the field A unique form of organization that brings out systems across the empire, such as transport across sea, rivers and roads; monetary systems; pottery and foodways; the military; construction and technology Perfect for graduate and advanced undergraduate students of archaeology and the history of the Roman Empire, A Companion to the Archaeology of the Roman Empire will also earn a place in the libraries of professional archaeologists in other fields, including Mayanists, medievalists, and Far Eastern scholars seeking comparanda and bibliography on other imperial structures.
