Conor Whately - Böcker

This volume is the first to focus solely on how specific individuals and groups in Byzantium and its borderlands were defined and distinguished from other individuals and groups from the mid-fourth to the close of the fifteenth century. It gathers chapters from both established and emerging scholars from a wide range of disciplines across history, art, archaeology, and religion to provide an accurate representation of the state of the field both now and in its immediate future. The handbook is divided into four subtopics that examine concepts of group and specific individual identity which have been chosen to provide methodologically sophisticated and multidisciplinary perspectives on specific categories of group and individual identity. The topics are Imperial Identities; Romanitas in the Late Antique Mediterranean; Macro and Micro Identities: Religious, Regional, and Ethnic Identities, and Internal Others; and Gendered Identities: Literature, Memory, and Self in Early and Middle Byzantium. While no single volume could ever provide a comprehensive vision of identities on the vast variety of peoples within Byzantium over nearly a millennium of its history, this handbook represents a milestone in offering a survey of the vibrant surge of scholarship examining the numerous and oft-times fluctuating codes of identity that shaped and transformed Byzantium and its neighbours during the empire’s long life.

This volume explores the enigmatic primary source known as the ancient military manual. In particular, the volume explores the extent to which these diverse texts constitute a genre (sometimes unsatisfactorily classified as ‘technical literature’), and the degree to which they reflect the practice of warfare.With contributions from a diverse group of scholars, the chapters examine military manuals from early Archaic Greece to the Byzantine period, covering a wide range of topics including readership, siege warfare, mercenaries, defeat, textual history, and religion. Coverage includes most of the major contemporary siege manual writers, including Xenophon, Frontinus, Vegetius, and Maurice. Close examination of these texts serves to reveals the complex ways in which ancient Greeks, Romans, and Byzantines sought to understand better, and impose order upon, the seemingly irrational phenomenon known as war.Providing insight into the multifaceted collection of texts that constituted military manuals, this volume is a key resource for students and scholars of warfare and military literature in the classical and Byzantine periods.

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 geographical area stretching from northern Europe to western Asia. After an introduction discussing the Trojan War, chapters explore warfare in ancient Greece from the Archaic to the Hellenistic period before shifting to the Persian army and the rise of Macedon. Whately then moves to Roman warfare, covering Rome’s naval prowess, its wars against rebels and aggressors and its expansion in the east, exploring how Rome’s way of war changed in the Late Antique period. The rise of the Huns, horse archery, and the last great war of antiquity – Rome versus Persia in the seventh century CE – close out the book.This concise, accessible guide to ancient warfare is suitable for undergraduate and postgraduate students in Classics and ancient history as well as scholars and general readers interested in warfare in the pre-modern world.

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 geographical area stretching from northern Europe to western Asia. After an introduction discussing the Trojan War, chapters explore warfare in ancient Greece from the Archaic to the Hellenistic period before shifting to the Persian army and the rise of Macedon. Whately then moves to Roman warfare, covering Rome’s naval prowess, its wars against rebels and aggressors and its expansion in the east, exploring how Rome’s way of war changed in the Late Antique period. The rise of the Huns, horse archery, and the last great war of antiquity – Rome versus Persia in the seventh century CE – close out the book.This concise, accessible guide to ancient warfare is suitable for undergraduate and postgraduate students in Classics and ancient history as well as scholars and general readers interested in warfare in the pre-modern world.

This volume is the first to focus solely on how specific individuals and groups in Byzantium and its borderlands were defined and distinguished from other individuals and groups from the mid-fourth to the close of the fifteenth century. It gathers chapters from both established and emerging scholars from a wide range of disciplines across history, art, archaeology, and religion to provide an accurate representation of the state of the field both now and in its immediate future. The handbook is divided into four subtopics that examine concepts of group and specific individual identity which have been chosen to provide methodologically sophisticated and multidisciplinary perspectives on specific categories of group and individual identity. The topics are Imperial Identities; Romanitas in the Late Antique Mediterranean; Macro and Micro Identities: Religious, Regional, and Ethnic Identities, and Internal Others; and Gendered Identities: Literature, Memory, and Self in Early and Middle Byzantium. While no single volume could ever provide a comprehensive vision of identities on the vast variety of peoples within Byzantium over nearly a millennium of its history, this handbook represents a milestone in offering a survey of the vibrant surge of scholarship examining the numerous and oft-times fluctuating codes of identity that shaped and transformed Byzantium and its neighbours during the empire’s long life.

Follows the military lives of three soldiers across the Roman world, providing interesting, historical insight into the Roman military from the late republic to the end of antiquity in the westThis book introduces readers to three historical Roman soldiers—Titus Pullo from the late republic, Aurelius Polion from the high imperial era, and Flavius Aemilianus from late antiquity. The three men inspire the themes and chronological organization of the text. Drawing on a wide and diverse body of evidence, the author charts their lives from enlistment to death or retirement, allowing students to envision the life of a Roman soldier who is on duty or experiencing adventures across the Roman world.An Introduction to the Roman Military: From Marius (100 BCE) to Theodosius II (450 CE) starts with a historical overview before introducing readers to the Roman soldier. It covers such things as the military hierarchy, soldierly origins, recruitment and training, and the soldier's appearance and identity. The next section looks at the Roman military during war—its environment, strategies, campaigns, and enemies. Their existence during times of peace follows that and focuses on how soldiers celebrated victory, mourned defeat, and readjusted to civilian life after a war. The book also features a timeline for readers to follow, as well as two glossaries—one filled with Roman military terms and the other with important names and events. Authentically captures the experiences of Roman soldiersEducates undergraduate or graduate students on Roman military historyDescribes Roman soldiers based on legal, epigraphic, and archaeological evidenceEmphasizes the human side of the Roman militaryMoves through three Roman historical periods—the late republic, high imperial, and late antiquityAn Introduction to the Roman Military is an engaging choice as a text for specific courses on the Roman military or army. It is also suitable for more general courses covering ancient warfare.In addition to university students, researchers and history enthusiasts will have the opportunity to follow the military lives of three Roman soldiers with this unique book.

This volume explores the enigmatic primary source known as the ancient military manual. In particular, the volume explores the extent to which these diverse texts constitute a genre (sometimes unsatisfactorily classified as ‘technical literature’), and the degree to which they reflect the practice of warfare.With contributions from a diverse group of scholars, the chapters examine military manuals from early Archaic Greece to the Byzantine period, covering a wide range of topics including readership, siege warfare, mercenaries, defeat, textual history, and religion. Coverage includes most of the major contemporary siege manual writers, including Xenophon, Frontinus, Vegetius, and Maurice. Close examination of these texts serves to reveals the complex ways in which ancient Greeks, Romans, and Byzantines sought to understand better, and impose order upon, the seemingly irrational phenomenon known as war.Providing insight into the multifaceted collection of texts that constituted military manuals, this volume is a key resource for students and scholars of warfare and military literature in the classical and Byzantine periods.

How can we attempt to understand the experience of those involved in ancient battles, sieges and campaigns? What was the visual impact of seeing the massed ranks of the enemy approaching or the sky darkened with their arrows? How did it feel to be trapped in the press of bodies as phalanxes clashed shield to shield? What of the taste of dust on the march or the smell of split blood and entrails? What of the rumble of approaching cavalry, the clash of iron weapons and the screams of the dying? The assault on all five senses which must have occurred is the subject of this innovative book.Sensory history is a new approach that attempts to understand the full spectrum of the experience of the participants in history. Conor Whately is the first to apply the discipline in a dedicated study of warfare in the classical world. He draws on literary, archaeological, reconstructive and comparative evidence to understand the human experience of the ancient battlefield in unprecedented depth.

In Battles and Generals: Combat, Culture, and Didacticism in Procopius’ Wars, Whately reads Procopius’ descriptions of combat through the lens of didacticism, arguing that one of Procopius’ intentions was to construct those accounts not only so that they might be entertaining to his audience, but also so that they might provide real value to his readership, which was comprised, in part, of the empire’s military command. In the course of this analysis we discover that the varied battles and sieges that Procopius describes are not generic; rather, they have been crafted to reflect the nature of combat – as understood by Procopius – on the three fronts of Justinian’s wars, the frontier with Persia, Vandal north Africa, and Gothic Italy.