Ancient Warfare Magazine: Volume IV, Issue 2, Blockade and Assault: Ancient siege warfare |
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Ancient Warfare Magazine: Volume IV, Issue 2, Blockade and Assault: Ancient siege warfare This issue of Ancient Warfare magazine focuses on siege warfare, with six articles covering nearly five hundred years of history, from Thucydides to the Roman sieges of Jerusalem and Masada. The articles themselves vary in scope, with those on Thucydides, Punic fortifications and Alexander looking at a large number of sieges at different locations, that on Sparta focusing on one location over time, and the remaining articles focusing on individual sieges.
Alongside the articles on siege warfare are articles looking at one aspect of bioarchaeology and at the nature of hoplite warfare. This first of these examines evidence that suggests that Alexander's invading armies did indeed leave significant numbers of settlers behind in the eastern fringes of his empire, and demonstrates just how valuable this sort of work can be. The second, on the exact nature of the 'shove' in hoplite warfare does a good job of trying to decide if the 'shove' was physical or metaphorical, and of explaining how difficult it can be to reconstruct the exact nature of the actual fighting in ancient warfare - something that our sources and their audiences were so familiar with that they rarely bothered to provide any details.
This is another interesting set of articles, covering a wide time period within its central theme.
Chapters
The Source: Reports from a Witness (Thucydides)
A Wall of Men, instead of bricks: Success and failure in Spartan siege warfare
With Winged Soldiers: Six sieges of Alexander the Great
Defending Cities, Ports and Coasts: Punic Fortifications
Capturing a Desert Fortress: Flavius Silva and the siege of Masada
A War of Logistics: The siege of Jerusalem, 66 AD
Genes of the Phalangites: Bioarchaeology and the ancient battlefield
The Debate: 'The shove' or not 'the shove'