Circum Mare: Themes in Ancient Warfare

331 Pages·2016·10.78 MB·English

by  Jeremy Armstrong

CircumMare:ThemesinAncientWarfare
Mnemosyne
Supplements
history and archaeology
of classical antiquity
SeriesEditor
HansvanWees(UniversityCollegeLondon)
AssociateEditors
JanPaulCrielaard(VrijeUniversiteitAmsterdam)
BenetSalway(UniversityCollegeLondon)
volume388
Thetitlespublishedinthisseriesarelistedatbrill.com/mns-haca
Circum Mare:
Themes in Ancient Warfare
Editedby
JeremyArmstrong
WithaForewordby
LeeL.Brice
leiden | boston
Coverillustration:GrandeLudovisi‘BattleSarcophagus’,Rome,PalazzoAltemps(MuseoNazionale
Romano)Inv.8574.ImagereproducedwiththepermissionoftheMinisterodeibeniedelleattivitàculturali
edelturismo—SoprintendenzaSpecialeperilColosseo,ilMuseoNazionaleRomanoel'Areaarcheologica
diRoma.PhotobyJeremyArmstrong.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Names:Armstrong,Jeremy,editorofcompilation.
Title:Circummare:themesinancientwarfare/editedbyJeremyArmstrong;
withaforewordbyLeeL.Brice.
Othertitles:Themesinancientwarfare
Description:Boston:Brill,[2016]|Series:Mnemosyne/supplements;
volume388|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2016011219(print)|LCCN2016011917(ebook)|ISBN
9789004284845(hbk.:alk.paper)|ISBN9789004284852(e-book)
Subjects:LCSH:MediterraneanRegion–History,Military–To1500.|Military
artandscience–MediterraneanRegion–History–To1500.
Classification:LCCDE84.C572016(print)|LCCDE84(ebook)|DDC
355.020937–dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2016011219
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issn2352-8656
isbn978-90-04-28484-5(hardback)
isbn978-90-04-28485-2(e-book)
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Contents
Foreword vii
LeeL.Brice
Acknowledgments ix
Abbreviations x
1 WarandSocietyintheAncientWorld:AnIntroduction 1
JeremyArmstrong
MilitaryNarratives
2 SimpleWords,SimplePictures:TheLinkbetweentheSnapshotsof
BattleandtheWarDiaryEntriesinAncientEgypt 13
AnthonySpalinger
3 Caesar’sExemplaandtheRoleofCenturionsinBattle 34
DavidNolan
TheEconomicsofWarfare
4 CoinageandtheEconomicsoftheAthenianEmpire 65
MatthewTrundle
5 TributumintheMiddleRepublic 80
NathanRosenstein
MilitaryCohesion
6 TheTiesthatBind:MilitaryCohesioninArchaicRome 101
JeremyArmstrong
7 SacramentumMilitiae:EmptyWordsinanAgeofChaos 120
MarkHebblewhite
vi contents
MilitaryAuthority
8 CircumscribingImperium:PowerandRegulationintheRepublican
Province 145
RalphCovino
9 TheDelianandSecondAthenianLeagues:ThePerspectiveof
CollectiveAction 164
JamesKierstead
IrregularWarfare
10 ‘Warlordism’andtheDisintegrationoftheWesternRoman
Army 185
JeroenW.P.Wijnendaele
11 TheSignificanceofInsignificantEngagements:IrregularWarfare
duringthePunicWars 204
LouisRawlings
FortificationsandSieges
12 ‘SiegeWarfare’inAncientEgypt,asDerivedfromSelectRoyaland
PrivateBattleScenes 237
BrettH.Heagren
13 TissaphernesandtheAchaemenidDefenseofWesternAnatolia,
412–395bc 262
JohnW.I.Lee
Bibliography 283
Index 317
Foreword
My own involvement with this volume is as the series editor for Brill’s new
WarfareintheAncientMediterraneanWorld—BrillCompanionstotheClassi-
calWorld.Althoughthispresentvolumeprecededthatseries,itisindicativeof
anewcommitmentBrillhasmadetopublishmoreworksonthemilitaryhis-
toryoftheancientworld.Thesevolumeswillappearinseveralseries,including
Ancient Egypt,the Ancient NearEast and Persia, the aforementionedseries,
and Mnemosynesupplements—suchasthis volume.Takenasawhole these
volumes,companions,andmonographswillcontinuetopresenttherichpro-
ductionofmilitaryhistoricalworkbeingdoneandstimulatenewworkasthe
field continues to evolve. Circum Mare: Themes in Ancient Warfare demon-
stratessomeofthewaysinwhichmilitaryhistoryremainsafascinatingand
livelytopic.Itismyimmensehonortointroducethisnewcontributiontothe
field.
Circummare,“AroundtheSea,”mayseemlikeanunusualnameforavolume
thataddressesmilitaryhistoryonland,butitcapturesthethrustofthisvolume
inacoupleusefulways.Theseaaroundwhichthesechaptershavefocusedis
theMediterranean.Readersandpractitionersofmilitaryhistorytendtothink
ofthefieldingeographicallynarrowterms.WecanpickupbooksonGreece,
Rome, Egypt, or Persia, among other topics, and each one tends to focus on
warfareandmilitariesfromonestate’sorpower’sperspective,muchasdoour
sources.Evenwhenwefindbooksthatbringtogetherwarfarefrommultiple
regions,cultures,orperiods,likeGreeceandRome,theystilltendtodosoin
waysthatfocusonthedifferencesbetweenthemratherthantheconnections
betweenhowpeopleindifferentcontextssolvedsimilarproblems.Certainly
there are obviously consistent themes across time and culture—victory and
loss,hand-to-handcombat,spoils,missedopportunities,death,etc.—butthere
remainmanytopicswedonotusuallyconsider.Theseessaysprovidereaders
a chance to compare how people in different ancient contexts approached
relatedaspectsofwarfareandthemilitary.TheMediterraneanbasinconnects
themandprovidesaunifyinggeographiccontext.
A second way in which Circum mare fits this volume is in the array of
methodologiesitbringstogether.Inthatsense,themetaphorical“sea”around
whichthesechaptersarearrangedistraditionalmilitaryhistory.Despiteforty-
fiveyearsoftheso-calledNewMilitaryHistory,aginormousamountofwritten
workinmilitaryhistoryremainsfocusedonthetraditionalareasofbiography
and‘drumsandtrumpets’.Academicmilitaryhistoryhasmovedwellbeyond
theseapproaches.Thisvolumebringstogether,inpairs,chaptersthatdemon-
viii foreword
strate the continuing evolution of military history methodology. Attempting
toshedlightonvariousaspectsofthemilitarypast,theauthorsdevelopnew
twists on older topics, like economics and literary/visual culture, as well as
morerecentworkoncollectiveaction,rationalactors,irregularwarfare,mil-
itary cohesion, and warlordism. The resulting combination provides exam-
plesofthewaysinwhichnewapproaches,andaskingnewquestionsofolder
approaches,continuetoshedlightonaspectsofancientwarfareandmilitaries.
LeeL.Brice
WesternIllinoisUniversity
Acknowledgments
Thiseditedvolume,likesomanyothers,wasbornoutofaconference—inthis
particularinstance,onefocusedonthetopicofancientwarfareandheldatthe
UniversityofAucklandinJuly2012.The‘CallforPapers’whichwasissuedfor
theconferencewasextremely(andconsciously)vague,hopingtopullinthe
widestpossiblerangeofspeakers—andindeed,scholarsrepresentingawide
rangeofresearchinterests(includingAncientEgypt,Greece,Rome,andlate
Antiquity)presentedpapersonvariousaspectsofwarfareintheancientworld.
However,despitethevarietyoftheofferingsandthemyriadapproachesand
methodologieswhichwereemployed,duringthediscussionswhichfollowed
each paper it became clear that all of the scholars were working on similar
themesandissuesandthatthepapers,althoughvariedingeographicregion
andtemporalcontext,couldbebroughttogethertopresentasurprisinglycohe-
sive ‘snapshot’ of current directions in ancient military history. The decision
was then made to publish the papers from the conference which best rep-
resentedthis‘snapshot.’Thesepapersweresupplementedwithafewinvited
chapterstofilloutanyareasorthemeswhichwereinitiallyunderrepresented,
althoughpreferencewasgiventothematicunityovergeographicortemporal
coverage.Thecollectedpaperswerethenpairedbasedonthematicchoicesto
form,whattheeditorhopesis,aprovocativeexaminationofcurrentdirections
inthisexcitingfieldfromaroundtheMediterranean.
As always with these projects, there are far too many people to thank, as
everystageofthisprojectrepresentedacollaborationofonesortoranother.
However,Iwouldfirstofallliketothankallofthecontributorstothevolumefor
theirinitialcontributions,fortheirdiligentreworkingofthosecontributions
following comments from myself and the reviewers, and for their patience
and understanding as this project slowly trundled forward. I would also like
to thank the Faculty of Arts of the University of Auckland for their financial
supportoftheconferencein2012,Prof.LeeL.BriceandTesselJonquièrefor
theireditorialsupport,input,andacumen,andallofthepeerreviewers,whose
workwasmoreoftenthannotpaidinmere‘thanks’.Finally,thepresentvolume
wouldalsonothavebeenpossiblewithouttheeditorialsupportofMs.Sheira
Cohen and Ms. Julia Hamilton, whose tireless work on the minutiae (and
particularlythereferencingandbibliographicstyle)Iamimmenselygrateful
for.
JeremyArmstrong
UniversityofAuckland