War and Peace in Ancient and Medieval History

by Edited by Philip de Souza , John France

• ISBN13: 9780521174145
• ISBN10: 0521174147
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-03-03
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This is a major study of the ideas and practices involved in the making and breaking of peace treaties and truces from Classical Greece to the time of the Crusades. Leading specialists on war and peace in ancient and medieval history examine the creation of peace agreements, and explore the extent to which their terms could be manipulated to serve the interests of one side at the other's expense. The chapters discuss a wide range of uses to which treaties and other peace agreements were put by rulers and military commanders in pursuit of both individual and collective political aims. The book also considers the wider implications of these issues for our understanding of the nature of war and peace in the ancient and medieval periods. This broad-ranging account includes chapters on ancient Persia, the Roman and Byzantine Empires, Anglo-Saxon England and the Vikings.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Making and breaking treaties in the Greek world

War, peace and diplomacy in Graeco-Persian relations from the sixth to the fourth century BC

Treaties, allies and the Roman conquest of Italy

Parta victoriis pax: Roman emperors as peacemakers

Treaty-making in late antiquity

Byzantine diplomacy: good faith, trust and co-operation in international relations in late antiquity

Treaties between Byzantium and the Islamic world

Siege conventions in Western Europe and the Latin East

Paying the Danegeld: Anglo-Saxon peacemaking with Vikings

Peace among equals: twelfth-century European treaties

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