Warfare in the Classical World: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Weapons, Warriors, and Warfare in the Ancient Civilizations of Greece and Rome

This is a great resource for anyone interested in that huge chunk of time from the Homeric era to about the end of the Western Roman Empire. The illustrations are great, and a surprising amount of topics are covered, from now extinct elephant species to ships and machines. The author has a good way of showing long trends: Greek light infantry becoming heavier while heavy infantry became lighter, for example, that you might not otherwise notice. It is definitely worth the price.

Go elsewhere for descriptions of ancient battles, which are seriously lacking in this book, even with diagrams.Re: The Battle of Pharsalus (48 BC) on pages 171-172, Warry neglects to inform us that Caesar's decisive move was placing the six cohorts (eight in Warry's book) at an oblique angle BEHIND the cavalry on Caesar's right wing so that Pompey and Labienus could not see that the six cohorts where there. Then as Labienus' cavalry attacked, Caesar's cavalry gave way and backed up to allow the six cohorts to attack Labienus' cavalry on their left flank, which broke Labienus' cavalry. Even the diagram in this book has it wrong, which places the six cohorts not behind the cavalry but to the right of the cavalry.Re: Alexander and The Battle of Gauagamela (331 BC), again Warry misses the decisive move, this time by Alexander and the Companions cavalry, which in a move of classic penetration, attacked AT Darius at an angle after a gap was created by Alexander's movement to the right in front of Darius' front line.I can recommend Richard A. Gaibrel's books "The Great Battles of Antiquity" (1994), which is a shorter version of the three volume "Empires of War," (2005), which both contain excellent descriptions of these two battles (and many others) with diagrams. Re: Gauagamela, the 1961 edition of Encyclopedia Britannica, which has an excellent article which presents Alexander's decisive move that allowed him to attack Darius from the rear by wheeling the Companion cavalry through the gap he created.Warry's book does have a lot of great pictures, but it is really not much more than "An illustrated encyclopedia of weapons, warriors and warfare in the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome," and unfortunately presents incomplete sketches of the battles covered in this book. For the pictures, this book is OK, but that is about it.For general reference: "O2S4 MEC:"Objective (Simplicity);Offensive, Sprit of;Superiority at Point of Contact (Economy of Force);Surprise (Security);Security (Surprise);Simplicity (Objective);Movement (Mobility);Economy of Force (Superiority at Point of Contact);Cooperation (Unity of Command)

This is a beautifully balanced book. It covers the classical period between 1600BC and 800AD in a very organised and readable way. Each period is prefaced with the heading "Ancient Authorities" and outlines where the following information is sourced. Then the period is discussed in flowing narrative which highlights the key personalities and events of the time along with an indepth look at the mechanics of warfare. The strategy and tactics presented is blended nicely with the historical discussion. The numerous battle maps and accompanying data are a treasure for the military, history and wargaming buffs. The artwork throughout is first class as are the maps. I particularly like the full page colour depictions of combatants from different armies with detailed explanatory notes, some of the best I've seen. I found the middle part of the book focussed a little more heavily on the historical aspect. It did not contain as many battle maps as the first and latter part did, and I found myself flicking ahead to see when I would reach one of the battle descriptions and maps. In summary, this is a terrific encyclopedia and ranks as one of the nicest books I have seen on the subject. Superb.

This truly is a marvelous book and provides a wonderful introduction to warfare in the classical world. The only issue I had with the book was the scant details on warfare during the Roman Empire itself. The Greece section -- from Homeric times to Alexander the Great and his successors -- comprises half the book's pages, and then the Roman Republic section -- from Pyrrhus to the beginning of Octavian/Augustus rule -- comprises about 80 pages. This leaves only 15 pages for the Empire itself, about 400 years of history, and the section scarcely went into any detail whatsoever. I'm not sure why the author chose largely to ignore this critical part of Roman history; perhaps he thought there was enough information out there already.This one problem aside, the book is simply marvelous, and as long as you don't mind the author breezing over Imperial Rome, it's a must-buy. The Alexander the Great section in particular is spectacular.

This is an excellent introduction to ancient warfare. It is lavishly illustrated, and provides excellent diagrams to support some of the concepts such as how a phalanx of Greek infantry manoevered and then moved into combat. The book covers the technology of the times, but also looks at tactics and gives an overview of the politics that lead to the various conflicts. I would higly recommend this book for beginners in the field of ancient warfare such as myself. My only reservation, is that while the primarary authorities are extensively referenced in the text, I would have liked to see a bibliography (although the glossary is great too!) Highly recommended for beginners or those with a general interest in the topic.

Superb book covering Greece and Rome at war, and their enemies.I bought this in 1998 and read it cover-to-cover twice, wrote 14 chapter by chapter reviews for my friends, and have referenced it about a hundred times in the past two decades.Has great color maps and diagrams, color drawings of soldiers and equipment, detailed descriptions of battles, and chronologies.Presents history in a fun to read style.This is a great book!

For the 224 pages this book is good. It doesn’t have much on tactics or ancient battles but then this book wasn’t about that. It gave us an idea on the weapons & armour used in the classical world. There are other books out there that specialises in the battles & tactics. How can anyone give low marks to this book for what it was lacking when I knew by reading the title just what it would specialise on. Did not arrive in time.

Superb book, despite its age, it was first published about 30 years ago, the information contained therein is still relevant and presented in a straight forward no nonsense manner. And the illustrations are excellent. In my opinion the book has never been bettered.Copies are becoming increasingly rare - if you get the chance of one - snap it up!

One of my personal favorites. Well written but the illustrations are by far the best anywhere.

Gostei muito de ler esse livro e admirar as belíssimas ilustrações e fotos. Apesar de não se aprofundar em informações sobre os diferentes períodos e povos ( diria que o livro está mais para uma espécie de resumo ou introdução ), achei muito útil como um ponto de partida para conhecer outros impérios da antiguidade e ter uma visão geral sobre o período.

Dieses Buch ist ein Schmuckstück in jeder Hinsicht.Zum einen ist es wertvoll. In Relation zum Gesamtumfang sehr ausführlich beschreibt John Warrey Charakteristika der verschiedenen Armeen der Antike. Auch Entwicklungsgeschichten, z.B. der griechischen Helme oder römischen Schilde sind enthalten und illustriert.Und eben die Illustrationen schmücken aufgrund ihrer Schöhnheit nicht nur das Buch sondern sind bis aufs Tüpfelchen detailliert.Hinzu kommt die Ausführlichkeit. Er beschreibt eben nicht nur die Armeen und ihre Ausrüstung sondern auch die Schiffsentwicklung z.B. die berühmte Triere und die Pentere.Fazit: Dieses Buch gehört mit zu dem besten auf diesem Gebiet und sollte in keiner Fachbibliothek fehlen und jedem Laien zur Freude gereichen.This Book seems to be a treasure for every interested.In word and picture it's a very exactly and detailed explanations to nearly every army of the ancient world and their weapons through the centuries. Also its not that Hugh it should be to get all the information in, it gives all information you ll need.Also the ships of the time are shown, e.g. the triere and pentere.So, it's a must for everyone.