Warfare in the Ancient World: From the Bronze Age to the Fall of Rome (Praeger Series on the Ancient World)

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From the clash of bronze weapons on bronze armor to the fall of Rome, war often decided the course of ancient history. This volume is a practical introduction to the study of warfare in the ancient world, beginning with Egypt and Mesopotamia, and tracing the advances made in battle tactics, technology, and government over hundreds of years, culminating with developments in Greece and the Roman Empire. The chronological structure allows the reader to trace certain general themes down through the centuries: how various civilizations waged war; who served in the various armies and why; who the generals and officers were who made the decisions in the field; what type of government controlled these armies; and from what type of society they sprang. Major events and important individuals are discussed in their historical contexts, providing a complete understanding of underlying causes, and enabling readers to follow the evolution of ancient warfare as armies and empires became steadily larger and more sophisticated. Yet as Chrissanthos makes clear, history comes full circle during this period. Rome's collapse in 476 C.E. inaugurated an unforeseen dark age in which great armies were left decimated despite advanced technology that, while proving decisive in the outcome of many critical battles and stand-offs, had vanished amidst the Empire's crumbling walls.

In addition to the chronological treatment, Chrissanthos also includes sections on such important topics as chariot warfare, cavalry, naval warfare, elephants in battle, the face of battle, and such vital, but often-overlooked topics as the provisioning of the army with sufficient food and water. Eyewitness accounts are incorporated throughout each chapter, allowing the reader brief glimpses into the life and times of peasants and soldiers, generals and politicians, all of whom were dealing with war and its irreconcilable consequences from differing vantage points. Battle diagrams and maps are carefully placed throughout the text to help the reader visualize particular aspects of ancient warfare. The book also furnishes a detailed timeline and an extensive bibliography containing both modern and ancient sources.

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Warfare in the Ancient World: From the Bronze Age to the Fall of Rome (Praeger Series on the Ancient World) Review

The premise of this book is straightforward and captivating - that civilisations rise and fall through attention to the military art; that waging war better than the other guy is what allows a nation to impose its culture on mankind.

The author promises to explore this conundrum through an all-encompassing examination of weaponry, organisation, leadership and the manner in which forces logistically come to the march, spanning the Bronze Age to the Fall of Rome. The author then goes on to state that; "This is, in fact, the book I wished existed when I first became interested in these topics so many years ago".

Given this promise of a ground breaking, yet compact sweep and analysis within the confines of just 248 pages, one is furnished with the expectation of a tight, chronologically ordered and empirically-based study that would illustrate the manner in which civilisations and regimes are militarily born, what made them militarily prosper and what caused their ultimate military travail.

Indeed, the text begins in a genuine fashion with a study of Ancient Egypt, the growth of the chariot as the preeminent fighting genre and a review of the first large-scale battles of Megiddo and Qadesh. However, it is here that the first cracks begin to appear.

Despite his overriding aim, the author fails to explain how it was that the Egyptians were financially and logistically able to adopt the chariot style of warfare from their oppressors the Hyksos and how it was organisationally, that they would eventually change tact into a nation of infantry warriors, yet, subsequently still fall into decay by way of the invasions of the Sea Peoples.

A quick broom under the rug launches the reader into the Iron Age. First the Assyrians and then the Persians join the stage. Again, mere sentences only give treatment to their military hierarchies and ways of waging war.

The clue to this brevity arrives in the next chapter: "War in the Archaic Age Greece 800-500 BCE", in which the author shifts focus to the Aegean with a discussion of Homeric Greece. To say that the author offers original insight of any sort is a fallacy. For here the purport is to describe the change in the face of warfare as practiced by the "Heroes" of the Iliad and the Odyssey but rather than just a scholarly reference to Homer, the author quotes the bard in massive sections at a time. Readers are justified to ask, why not simply buy these Epics themselves if that's the extent of this text's nuance?

It quickly becomes apparent that "Warfare in the Ancient World - From the Bronze Age to the Fall of Rome", is not a fresh look at the role of warfare in Ancient times at all - as it is a regurgitation of sources by the author in the briefest and most disjointed of ways. The introduction of the Hoplite in the chapter that follows is equally as shallow: They had round shields, no-one knows why...

Combine this with numerously frustrating typos and the poorest of editing in allowing the repeated continuance of the word "grieves" instead of "greaves" for leg armor (despite being written correctly once) and "Achaemonid" instead of "Achaemenid" etc., and one is left with a massively overpriced book that offers little motivation not to substitute it through a library of enormous options in genuine investigation, well suited to the lay reader.

At $40 USD plus, in both physical and Kindle form, this book is just not worth the investment. The coverage of the Bronze and Iron Ages is so scant that its title is largely misleading.

Given that its entirety is basically focused on Greek and Roman times, that is where readers would be best advised to target their search for an alternative.

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