Ancient Warfare Magazine

Ancient Warfare is a unique publication focused exclusively on soldiers, battles, and tactics, all before 600 AD. Starting with ancient Egypt and Persia and continuing to the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Ancient Warfare examines the military history of cultures throughout Europe, the Middle East and parts of Asia and Africa. Ancient Greece and Rome receive the most frequent coverage, due both to the wealth of contemporary sources and the modern fascination with these two great civilizations. Subject-matter ranges from the familiar to the more obscure: while Alexander the Great, the Persian Wars and Caesar’s Gallic campaigns all receive regular coverage, Ancient Warfare also looks at some of the less common parts of ancient military history, from chariots as battle taxis to PTSD in antiquity.

Ancient Warfare Magazine

PRELIMINARIES NEWS ITEMS BY LINDSAY POWELL

Victory prayer reveals Hittite invasion

Lost Assyrian army camps possibly identified

Nailed sole makes deep impression in Bavaria

Dendra armour was good for extended combat

North harbour of Parium identified

Crassus' wall to block Spartacus found?

HAVE YOU READ?

Centurions' letters found in Egypt

GUARDING EGYPT'S NORTHERN BORDER THE WAYS OF HORUS • Clouds of dust swirled in the air, shimmering in the rays of the rising sun. The great cloud turned the thousands of men moving within it into hazy mirages. But the cacophony of shouted orders, alarms, the neighing and hoofbeats of thousands of horses, told any observer that here was a great army passing by.

Egypt's multi-ethnic army

THE TOMBSTONE OF QUINTUS SEPTIMIUS NIGER MORE THAN JUST WEAPONS • The tombstones of Roman soldiers who died while still serving in the army often referenced their military identity in the inscribed epitaph or in the accompanying relief. But just as there was a wide range of roles a soldier could have in the Roman army, so were there many ways to illustrate their soldierly life after death.

THE PERSIAN WARS AFTER 480 BC FINISHING WHAT WE STARTED • The Greek victories at Salamis and Plataea marked the defeat of the invasion force sent to Greece by the Persian king, Xerxes. Sources insist that the Great King himself had already retreated to Asia after the naval engagement, abandoning his delusional plans to witness his own victory.

THE GREEK VICTORY AT MYCALE - 479 BC LEOTYCHIDES' TRIUMPH • On the same day as the battle of Plataea in August 479 BC, so says Herodotus, the battle of Mycale was fought. It was the culmination of a combined land and sea campaign waged on the far side of the Aegean designed to defeat the Persians once and for all.

MARINES DURING THE GRECO-PERSIAN WARS THE DECKS OF DEATH • As art from the Bronze Age and Geometric Greece attests, the Greeks had a close relationship with the sea for centuries. By the fifth century BC, triremes were becoming the norm. In this galley, its oarsmen and the ship became one weapon, but boarding was still a risk.

THE BATTLE OF THE EURYMEDON A RIVER OF UNCERTAINTY • The battle at the mouth of the river Eurymedon, located on the Mediterranean coast between ancient Lycia and Pamphylia (today, southern Turkey), was unanimously regarded by ancient sources as a major engagement and Greek victory over the Persians. Taking place several years after Xerxes’ invasion of Greece, the battle had significant repercussions for the international balance of power, tested and applied an important military innovation on the Greek side, produced an enduring memory, and earned a stable and longstanding place in Greek tradition.

Themistocles' costly wooden walls

THE ACHAEMENID PERSIAN ARMY GOES TO WAR NO POET TO SING OF THEM • According to Herodotus, the Persian host was a crowd of locusts that dried up the rivers, summoned by the...