Soldiers and Ghosts: A History of Battle in Classical Antiquity
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Genres: Classics, Reference, Non Fiction, History, Literature, Military, War, Military History, Ancient, Research
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Original title: Soldiers and Ghosts: A History of Battle in Classical Antiquity Rating: 4.10 Publish date: August 22nd 2006 Language: English Isbn: 0300119798 |
Sparta, Macedon, and Rome—how did these nations come to dominate the ancient world? What set their armies apart? Noting this was an age that witnessed few technological advances, J. E. Lendon shows us that the most successful armies were those that made the most effective use of cultural tradition. Ancient combat moved forward by looking backward for inspiration—the Greeks, to Homer; the Romans, to the Greeks and to their own heroic past. The best ancient armies recruited soldiers from societies with strong competitive traditions; and the best ancient leaders, from Alexander to Julius Caesar, called upon those traditions to encourage ferocious competition at every rank. Ranging from the Battle of Champions between Sparta and Argos in 550 B.C. through Julian’s invasion of Persia in A.D. 363, Soldiers and Ghosts brings to life the most decisive military contests of ancient Greece and Rome. Lendon places these battles, and the methods by which they were fought, in a sweeping narrative of ancient military history. On every battlefield, living soldiers fought alongside the ghosts of tradition—ghosts that would inspire greatness for almost a millennium before ultimately coming to stifle it.
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In short, the book seems padded wickedness, but rather interesting if the reader is already familiar with the classic story, focuses on the sociological dimension of the war, and may have already read Victor Davis Hanson, The Western Way of War: Infantry Battle in Greece classical or maybe even (if you have a little ‘discipline and virtus) the first chapters of philosophical treatise Alasdair MacIntyre in After Virtue: A Study in moral theory.
The final issue is of such importance that, apart from some (mostly useless) story at the beginning of the book, Lendon seems unaware that these concepts are not only transport in modern warfare, and assumes that these concepts almost extinct (becoming ghosts of the title ) with the Romans. But you can easily indicate the conflict between virtus governed Montgomery and Patton in World War 2, against the Union or Confederate styles of fighting in the civil war. These impulses seem to be present in all the wars of all times in all places, not only in the classical period. It is unclear how such impulses unique to the Greeks and Romans, or whether to provide unique solutions to these problems.
One of the most interesting debates is the inability of Rome to understand how conditions have changed over time, often blind guides then in reality that the equipment and the training of their men n used were not those used by soldiers in the past.
excellent book on the war greek-roman and focuses on the process of thinking of these ancient civilizations. Strongly recommended.
I think in the end, if you agree with the ideas presented in soldiers and ghosts will depend on the individual to accept the idea that the Greeks and the Romans were more people like us. Personally, I do not believe that and I think, independently, by our standards, exotic belief systems and moral codes, however, have been motivated by impulses and almost identical to ours. That’s why I think Soldiers and Ghosts reading interesting and challenging, but ultimately as a misguided attempt to solve some of the many mysteries that remain unresolved regarding the military aspects of Greek and Roman civilizations.
It is an analysis that shows how the structure of their armies have been modeled on the civil societies that produced them, and the extent to which the warriors ideals reflect those of society as a whole.