Hey folks, this week is a bit of a gap week as I am heading out to the annual meeting of the Society for Military History (and, indeed, by the time you read this, I will be there). Normally, I post the abstract of my conference talk for these sorts of things, but since I … Contin … | Continue reading
Fireside this week! Apologies for having so many of these so close together, but the recent car troubles I’ve had have eaten into my time quite a lot. At the same time I am getting ready for the annual Society for Military History conference coming at the end of next week. In an … | Continue reading
This is the second part of the fourth part of our four(ish) part (Ia, Ib, IIa, IIb, IIIa, IIIb, IVa) look at the context between the Roman military system based on the manipular legion and the Hellenistic military system structured around the Macedonian sarisa phalanx in the thir … | Continue reading
Fireside this week! Apologies for having two of these in a row, but as I noted last week, I’ve had some unexpected (but good) travel, which has made a bit of havoc in my schedule and I am still trying to catch back up. Nevertheless, I wanted to use this week’s fireside to muse a … | Continue reading
Fireside this week! The ACOUP schedule might end up being a little unstable for the next few weeks as the coincidence of illness, the dense part of the teaching semester and unexpected travel are playing havoc on my schedule. I can only promise that we will finish the series on t … | Continue reading
This is the first part of the fourth part of our four(ish) part (Ia, Ib, IIa, IIb, IIIa, IIIb) look at why the thing to use to beat a Macedonian sarisa phalanx is, in fact, a Roman legion in the third and second century BC. Last time, we finished our look at the third-century suc … | Continue reading
This is the second part of the third part of our four(ish) part (Ia, Ib, IIa, IIb, IIIa) look at the performance of the Roman army and its legions in the third and second century BC against the Hellenistic armies of the heirs of Alexander. Last time, we sought to assess some of t … | Continue reading
This is the first part of the third part of our four(ish) part (Ia, Ib, IIa, IIb, IIIa) look at the triumph of the Roman legions in the third and second century over the Hellenistic armies of the heirs of Alexander. Last time, we looked at some of the operational and strategic ad … | Continue reading
Fireside this week! We’ll pick up looking at some of the successes of Hellenistic armies next week. For this week’s musing, I wanted to take the opportunity to expand a bit on a topic that I raised on Twitter which draw a fair bit of commentary: that fascists and fascist governme … | Continue reading
This is the second part of the second part of the second part of our four part look at the great third and second century BC contest between the Romans and the heirs of Alexander, asking the question, “What can defeat a Macedonian sarisa-phalanx?” Last time, we started looking at … | Continue reading
This is the first part of the second part of our four? four part look at the great third and second century BC contest between the Hellenistic armies of the heirs of Alexander and the Roman legions. Last time, we looked at the Hellenistic army as a complete system, incorporating … | Continue reading
Fireside this week! I have just finished up a draft of a chapter (to be in one of those multi-multi-author companion volumes) on how video games (particularly more abstract simulation games) depict the ancient world. Writing that chapter led me to reengage with ancient city build … | Continue reading
This is the second part of the first part of our four part look at the context between the Hellenistic army and its Macedonian phalanx and the Romans with their legions. Last week, we looked at the weapons, organization and fighting style of the Macedonian phalanx, the infantry c … | Continue reading
This week on the blog we are starting what is a planned four-part series looking at the twilight of Hellenistic warfare and the triumph of the Roman legion. Our core question is a really common one: why was the Roman legion able to decisively defeat the Hellenistic sarisa-phalanx … | Continue reading
Fireside this week! The semester has started up in earnest and I am pushing hard to try to finish a draft of something I have promised by the end of the month (so this may not be the only Fireside this month). That said, it seemed like a good time to discuss trade, the sea and gr … | Continue reading
This week I want to do something a little different and discuss the evolution and development of a specific weapon, in this case the famed Roman gladius, the sword of the legions. As we’re going to see, this is going to entail a journey covering quite a bit of both time and space … | Continue reading
Apologies for running a fireside so quickly after the gap week, but with the end of the semester coming as the job market gets busier, I haven’t had time to finish the next post on shield walls just yet. That will come out next week for sure though, as it is close to done. For … … | Continue reading
This week’s post is intended to answer a question which came up in response to the last post looking at the most common type of Mediterranean spear, which to put it simply is: what is up with the odd Roman heavy infantry kit built around a sword and two javelins (albeit two javel … | Continue reading
Fireside this week! For this week’s musing, I want to consider the role the historian has in making judgements about the past, particularly – but not exclusively – about historical figures and their legacies. In particular, I very often encounter the notion that historians aren’t … | Continue reading
This week’s post is coming to you all a bit early, as the folks at Paradox Interactive were kind enough to send me a review code for Victoria III – Paradox Interactive’s long awai… | Continue reading
This week, I’m going to offer a fairly basic overview of the concept of strategic airpower, akin to our discussions of protracted war and nuclear deterrence. While the immediate impetus for t… | Continue reading
This is the last part of a four part series (I, IIa, IIb, III, IV) examining the historical assumptions behind the popular medieval grand strategy game Crusader Kings III, made by Paradox Interacti… | Continue reading
This is the third part of a four part series (I, IIa, IIb) examining the historical assumptions behind the popular medieval grand strategy game Crusader Kings III, made by Paradox Interactive. In t… | Continue reading
This is the back half of the second part of a four part series (I, IIa) examining the historical assumptions behind the popular medieval grand strategy game Crusader Kings III, made by Paradox Inte… | Continue reading
This is the second part of a four-part (I) series examining the historical assumptions of the popular historical grand strategy game Crusader Kings III, by Paradox Interactive. Last time we opened … | Continue reading
This week I want to do something we haven’t really done before and look back at one of the older series, This. Isn’t. Sparta. (I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, Gloss., Retrospective), as I w… | Continue reading
This is the third part of a three part (I, II) look at some of the practical concerns of managing pre-industrial logistics. In our last post, we outlined what ‘foraging’ actually entail… | Continue reading
This is the second part of a three part (I) look at some of the practical concerns of managing pre-industrial logistics. In our last post we outlined the members of our ‘campaign community,&#… | Continue reading
In this series we’re going to be bowing to reader demand and taking a close look at the nuts and bolts of maintaining an army in the field. In our last series, after all, we noted that before… | Continue reading
It is the week of July 4th and so I hope that everyone will once again forgive me for taking a break from our normal fare to write out an argument that I’ve had brewing for quite some time. I… | Continue reading
This is the conclusion of the third part of our series (I, II, IIIa, IIIb) looking at the role of the general in commanding pre-gunpowder armies in battle. Last time we looked at how junior officer… | Continue reading
This is the continuation of the third part of our four(ish) part (I, II, IIIa) series looking at the role of the general in commanding pre-gunpowder armies in battle. Last time we looked at how an … | Continue reading
This is the third(ish) part of our four(ish)-part (I, II) look at the role of the general in the command of pre-modern armies, particularly in the context of a pitched battle. Last time, we looked … | Continue reading
This is the second of a four-part (I) look at the role of the general in a pre-modern army, particularly in the context of a pitched battle. Last week, we looked at the information a general might … | Continue reading
This week we’re going to start a four-part look at the role of the pre-modern general or army commander, particularly in the context of a pitched battle. This is of course a vast topic, but w… | Continue reading
This week, we’re going to take a break from the more serious topics to look at infantry tactics and compositions in the Total War series, particularly in the light of the recent Total War: Wa… | Continue reading
For this week, I wanted to expand a bit on a comment I made on Twitter expressing some frustration at the failure of journalists attempting to cover the war in Ukraine (and thus interpret military … | Continue reading
This week I wanted to expand on something I touched on only briefly in our ‘explainer’ on Putin’s War in Ukraine: the “delicate balance of terror” of nuclear deterrenc… | Continue reading
This week, in an effort to fill in some of the theoretical basis for thinking about how weaker powers think about fighting against or defending themselves from stronger powers, I’m going to g… | Continue reading
This week, I want to break from our usual format and respond to the fairly unusual global events. I expect a lot of my readers are trying to get a grasp on what is happening right now in Ukraine an… | Continue reading
This is the third and final part (I, II) of our series tackling the complication and still debated question of ‘how bad was the fall of Rome (in the West)?’ In our first part, we looked… | Continue reading
Fireside this week! I am still working on “Decline and Fall?” Part III and should have that ready for you all next week. Part III is going to deal with economics and demographics (and a… | Continue reading
This is the long-awaited first part of a series (I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII. VIII) taking a historian’s look at the Battle of Helm’s Deep from both J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Two Towers… | Continue reading
This is the second of a three part (I) series tackling the complicated and still very much debates question of ‘how bad was the fall of Rome (in the West)?’ In the last part, we looked … | Continue reading
This is the fourth part of a five part (I, II, III) series covering some of the basics of fortification, from city walls to field fortifications, from the ancient world to the modern period. Last w… | Continue reading
This is the third part of a five part (I, II) series covering some of the basics of fortifications, from city walls to field fortifications, from the ancient world through to the modern period. Las… | Continue reading
Welcome! As we’ve done once before, this week I am going to take a chance to answer a number of shorter questions by my patrons over at Patreon who are at the Patres et Matres Conscripti tier… | Continue reading
Since I finally got out to see Dune (2021), I wanted to take a chance to share some of my reflections on it and this week was a good time because I had nowhere near enough time otherwise to get the… | Continue reading