1st Edition

Ancient Warfare: The Basics

By Conor Whately Copyright 2026
218 Pages 25 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

218 Pages 25 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

218 Pages 25 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

Ancient Warfare: The Basics offers an engaging introduction to warfare in the ancient Mediterranean World from the mythical Trojan War, through the rise of hoplites and conquests of Alexander the Great to Roman hegemony and the Arab conquests of western Asia. This volume explores warfare in the ancient Mediterranean through art, literature, and archaeological evidence and covers a vast... Read more

List of figures vii Acknowledgements ix Timeline xv Maps xvii Introduction: “The bronze gleamed around him like flashing fire”: warfare in the Bronze Age Mediterranean, 1400–600 BCE 1 1 “The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must”: warfare in archaic and classical Greece, 600–404 BCE 15 2 “Very well then, Alexander comes first”: fourth-century Greece to the wars of the Diadochi, 404–275 BCE 37 3 Carthage and the “mutability of human affairs”: the Hellenistic age and the Punic Wars, 300–200 BCE 59 4 “More fortunate than Augustus, and better than Trajan”: from warlords to emperors, 200 BCE–117 CE 81 5 “They make a desert and call it peace”: the Roman Empire, 117–284 CE 103 6 “If you want peace, prepare for war”: the end of antiquity and the birth of the medieval world, 284–641 CE 123 Conclusion 143 Glossary 145 Further reading 157 Selected bibliography 163 Index 191

Biography

Conor Whately is a professor of Classics at the University of Winnipeg. He has published a number of journal articles, book chapters, and books on topics ranging from the Roman frontiers and late antique historiography to Roman Arabia.