The Wars of the Ancient Greeks and Their Invention of Western Military Culture: And Their Invention of Western Military Culture

by Hanson, Victor Davis; Keegan, John; Keegan, John

• ISBN13: 9780304352227
• ISBN10: 0304352225
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-08-01
• Publisher: Octopus Pub Group

Summary

The Ancient Greeks--who believed that war is the most important thing humans do--bequeathed to the West an incomparable military legacy that still influences the structure of armies and doctrine. Understand the reasons why their unique approach to fighting was so successful and so relentless, its role at the heart of classical culture, the rise of the city state, agrarian duels, the emergence of Athenian and Spartan power, the development of war as a specialized science, and the collapse of Greek warfare after Alexander the Great. 224 pages, 70 color illus., 80 b/w illus., 7 3/4 x 10 3/8.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	5	(4)
Map List	9	(1)
A Millennium of Greek Wars	10	(3)
Notable Greeks at War	13	(4)
Introduction The Greek Military Legacy	17	(13)
Early Greek Fighting (1400---750)
Palace war as evolutionary dead end: the collapse of Mycenaean Greece	30	(4)
Plundering and raiding in the Greek Dark Ages	34	(4)
The Homeric battlefield	38	(10)
The Rise of the City---State and the Invention of Western Warfare (750---490)
The coming of the hoplite	48	(15)
The agrarian duels	63	(9)
The emergence of Athenian and Spartan military power	72	(10)
The Great Wars (490---362)
The defense of Greece	82	(23)
The Peloponnesian war	105	(15)
An army to remember	120	(16)
The Second Military Revolution (362---336)
Philip of Macedon and the Reinvention of Greek warfare	136	(18)
War as a specialized science	154	(12)
Alexander The Great And The Creation Of Hellenistic Warfare (335---146)
Marching through Asia	166	(9)
Total war	175	(16)
The successors, the coming of Rome and the collapse of Greek warfare	191	(17)
Conclusion The Hellenic legacy	204	(4)
Glossary	208	(5)
Further reading	213	(3)
Statistics	216	(3)
Index	219	(5)
Picture credits	224