Just Finished Reading: Ancient Warfare – A Very Short Introduction by Harry Sidebottom

I’ve been toying recently with the idea of doing another Masters Degree as my brain seems (at least sometimes) to be turning into mush. I’m almost more than a little fed up and think that’s because I’m not getting enough mental stimulation. I didn’t want to do anything I’ve done or touched on before so when I found a course on Ancient and Medieval Warfare at a nearby University it seemed idea. At the moment I’m still thinking about it – and will probably put it off until 2013 – but the course seems different enough that it could be quite fun even taking into account that I’d need to learn some Latin. This book then looked like an ideal introduction but turned out to be something I hadn’t really expected.

What I had expected was a potted history of the Ancient world with discussions of tactics and technology – The Greek phalanx and the Roman Gladus for example – with side debates on various pivotal battles like Thermopylae. Doing justice to this subject in a mere 128 pages would be difficult, I thought, but do-able. What I found was completely different. Instead of discussing things from the ground up the book took a far more top down approach. The author posed the question: Did the Greek and Roman civilisations create and develop a distinctive ‘Western Way of War’ in contrast to their many enemies and are we living with that legacy today. What hooked me from the start was the down to earth – and fun – approach to the subject. Not only does the author know his stuff, which you should expect from someone who teaches in Oxford, but he’s confident enough to play with his knowledge in order to engage his audience but without talking down to them or appearing in anyway condescending. I actually laughed as I read the first page which described the opening battle portrayed in the movie Gladiator when the Roman legions faced down the German barbarians. It seems true, the author starts, but in fact it was far from the truth. The Western Way of War was, he maintained, a cultural construct and like other cultural constructs had an origin, was based on how we see ourselves and how we want others to see us and, importantly, changes over time as cultures themselves change.

Throughout the rest of the book – using examples from both the Greek and Roman world – the author expands on his thesis by delving into how the ancients viewed war, what myths and stories about themselves they responded to (or against) and explodes a fair few myths about the way wars were fought and the reasons for going to war in the first place. It certainly gave me a flavour of what I might be up against in a future seminar and certainly gave me a lot to think about.

Expect more books on Ancient and Medieval warfare in the coming months and more military history books in general. It appears that my teenage interest in all things military has resurfaced. Watch this space.