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4 results

  • 23 - Land technologies

  • from Part IV - Comparisons: Cross-Cultural Analysis
  • Edited by Anne Curry, University of Southampton
  • David A. Graff, Kansas State University
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of War
    Published online:
    25 September 2020
    Print publication:
    01 October 2020, pp 640-661

  • Summary

    The ages of humankind are designated by the material with which they made tools and weapons: stone, bronze, and iron. Remnants of these tools and weapons, found in archaeological excavations, are often the earliest evidence of existence in a place, especially before humans were able to express (and depict) themselves in words or art. Artistic depictions would follow, and then written ones, but both several thousands of years later. A wood, stone, or metal club, a stone or metal spearhead or arrowhead, a metal dagger or sword – and this appears to have been the progression – all could be used for hunting, likely their main function in pre-agricultural societies.

  • 10 - Battle

  • from Part II - The later Roman Empire
  • Edited by Philip Sabin, King's College London, Hans van Wees, University College London, Michael Whitby, University of Warwick
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Warfare
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    06 December 2007, pp 342-378

  • Summary

    This chapter assesses the factors which distinguished Roman armies from their various opponents: the tactical roles of the different troops deployed; their training, discipline and morale; and whether their attitudes to and preparation for combat were equal to the operational tasks they faced. Like their predecessors, later Roman emperors and officers embarking on military operations had at their disposal a number of military treatises or tactica. While Roman cavalry became more effective in fulfilling its existing tactical roles, the fundamentals of mounted combat remained unchanged. Sieges constitute over half the military engagements in late antiquity. Given the relative rarity of large-scale Roman offensives before the sixth century, Roman troops were ordinarily in the role of defenders, and more likely to be limitanei than comitatenses. This changed perspective is evident in contemporary treatises, which hitherto dealt almost exclusively with offensive siegecraft.