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Ancient Wars
The Ancient period is generally accepted as being 600 BCE to 500 CE, before which was the Archaic period, and after which began the Medieval period. However as there is not an Archaic Wars category, it is acceptable to post pre-500 BCE military questions in this area.
1,657 Questions
Who lost the battle of Salamis?
They allowed themselves to be fooled into splitting their fleet, with the Egyptian third of it being sidelined from the battle.
They allowed themselves to be dragged into entering the bay of Salamis, again splitting their fleet by going around both sides of Psyttalia Island and by moving in in two thin lines, exposed to mass flank attack in the narrow waters of the strait.
How did the army from Macedonia defeat the Greek city-states?
Superior tactics, superior cavalry, and superior infantry using a pike twice as long as the Grek spears, making their phalanx an overwhelming machine.
Gladiators were both professional and amateur fighters in ancient Rome who fought for the entertainment of its "civilized" spectators. hese matches took place in arenas in throughout the empire and for the bulk of its history. Man vs. man and man against animal engagements, in combat that was at times to the death, was the ancient world sport that rivaled all of modern society spectacles rolled into one.
Did they use the trebuchet in Ancient Rome?
Yes, they did. The Romans were masters of seigecraft and technology. Apart from the trebuchet, they also used catapults known as 'Onagers' ('wild ass' due to its kick) and giant mechanical crossbows, which they called Scorpions.
How did the peloponnesian war lead to alexander's success as a conqueror?
Not directly - he came to power 70 years later.
'Swordsman' - their sword was called a 'gladius' in Latin.
How did Octavius Caesar Augustus try to solve the problems of the late Republic?
Augutus had the task of fixing Rome's broken government once he took control. One of the first things he did was to reduce the size of the massive army that he inherited. (He had his own troops and Antony's troops in addition to the troops stationed around the empire) In miitary matters he also required the troops to swear their loyalty oaths directly to him rather than to their individual commanders as they had previously done. By doing this he established a national army and reduced the chances of another civil war. He repaired the infrastructure of the city of Rome and restored or totally rebuilt 82 temples. He established a secure food supply for the city by taking over personal control of the new province of Egypt which was the "breakbasket" of the Mediterranean, thus eliminating the threat of fammine that at times, plagued Rome. He tried to return the population to its moral roots and values, by laws such as the marriage laws, the adultry laws, etc.
Why did the Spartans fight to the death during the battle thermopylae?
They selflessly stayed to hold the pass until their allies could escape the field and gain sanctuary within the walls of friendly cities.
How many were killed in the Athens and Sparta war?
First of all it was not Spartan war,because almost all Greek cities fought in it,either on Greek or Persian side.
No one can tell you the number,especially civilians who died. But the military losses of Greeks could have been few tens of thousands,and Persian few times more.Including storm that hit their fleet maybe more than hundred thousand people. But it is all greatly speculative
Sparta did not have a war against the Persians. It comprised part of the Greek forces in repelling the invasion of peninsular Greece - two years of a fifty year war involving several hundred Greek cities.
A spartan warrior was told to return from war with or to?
Their shield. It was believed that, if a Spartan returned without their shield, they had thrown it at the enemy as they ran away from the fight. Fleeing from battle in Sparta was a capital offense.
ANSWER
The actual quote is fiction.
It never appeared in any ancient source but was used today to clearly emphasize the very core of their culture.
How did Alexander the Great treat his men?
Unlike may conquerors before, Alexander the Great allowed the local rulers of ares he conquered to continue ruling over their lands and practicing their own religions. This kept his conquered territories pacified and more trusting of his empire.
What was the primary consequences when the peloponnesian war weaken the greek states?
The usual outcomes of war - loss of life, destruction of property, loss of productivity, starvation, pillage, leaving the whole Greek world weakened, setting the scene for more internal warm and intervention by first Persia and then Macedonia.
How do you look like a Gladiator?
There was 3 kinds of gladiators, one had a round, large metal shield and a very short sword, another had a trident and an armored arm pice with a crescent-shaped blade on the end, the blade was used only to cause the enemy to spill blood and cause pain, the third had a buckler (a shield that is only about 9" across), and a short sword. historians think this third gladiator was reliant on speed, which explains his light armament.
Who was Augustus and what did he accomplish?
Octavian (who later styled himself Augustus) was the adopted son of Julius Caesar who named him as his heir in his will.
After bringing the Civil Wars to a successful conclusion he set about establishing a regime which would avoid the faults in the republican model which had brought on the civil wars. He did this by indirect means to avoid the charge of trying to be king, which brought out the knives against father Julius:
a. took the powers of a tribune of the plebs for life (immunity within Rome, veto, ability to introduce legislation).
b. became a pro-magistrate (immunity outside the city, authority outside Rome in the Empire).
c. allocated the frontier provinces to himself, the settled ones to the Senate (the frontier ones had the legions, which he thereby kept out of the hands of rivals).
He also declared an end to expansion and stablised the Empire on defensible boundaries, supplementing this with diplomacy.
Read his achievements in his own words:
http://classics.mit.edu/Augustus/deeds.html
Why was Sparta a rival of Athens?
The were not always enemies. They were when Persia invaded mainland Greece 480-479 BCE. Yet during the war between Athens and its allies and Sparta and its allies (431-404 BCE) the Persians provided the money for Sparta to raise a fleet to match the dominant Athenian one, resulting in Athens' final defeat.
Necessity and opportunity make strange bedfellows.
Why was Thermopylae so important?
It was potentially important as it was designed to precipitate a naval battle which the Greeks hoped they would win and cripple the Persian invasion.
The naval battle was lost by the Greeks, so the Thermopylai stand was of no military importance.
Its importance was that, after the failed naval battle, the Spartan contingent remained holding the pass to let their allies escape before the Persian cavalry broke through and anihilated them - a symbol of noble sacrifice.
What did the conflict between Athens and Sparta result in?
A war 431-404 BCE between the cities and their allies which wrecked most of the Greek world. Athens lost its empire and dominance, Sparta became the leading power for 30 years until overturned by Thebes.
The weakening and instability gave a free ride to Persian influence over Greece, but subsequently opened the way for Macedonia to dominate Greece, and finally mount a campaign to destroy the Persian empire.
Why were Greeks so successful against Persian on the three wars?
1. A strategy of fighting on interior lines, exposing the Persian forces to supply difficulties in a poor and hostile area of operations.
2. Superior land tactics, using terrain to offset the superior cavalry.
3. Superior naval tactics of engaging the Persian fleet in narrow waters.
What was Xerxes actual height?
Xerxes I of Persia reigned until 465 BC. At the time, there was no standard system of measurement like there is today. No one wrote down exactly how tall he was. Historical records say that he was taller than the average man, which would suggest the 5'10" to 6'2" range.
By no means was he considered a giant from a height standpoint, although he certainly would have been large from a muscular-skeletal standpoint.
When did Thebes defeat Sparta?
In a long long history of poleis named Sparta,among others,Thebes did defeat Sparta.But the event was quite late in Spartan history when not much of the famous system was existing anymore,not hard armored hoplites,superior trained troops..In that time (early 4th BC) there were only few hundred of Spartan citizen soldiers existing in the city.
Why were the Marathon and the Thermopylae important to the Persian War?
They were rallying calls for the Greeks.
The Athenian success at Marathon demonstrated to the other Greek cities that the Persians could be beaten.
Thermopylae became another symbol for Greek steadfastness which was used by the Greeks for propaganda on the superiority of the Greek warrior.
Why were the Persians able to surround the Greeks defending Thermopylae Pass?
That had everything to do with local geography. At the point where the Spartans and their allies had put up their blockade the terrain was very narrow. Even though the Persians according to legend had 'hundreds of thousands' of soldiers, at that specific point no more than a few hundred at a time could squeeze through, which meant that the Greek army always faced an even number of adversaries or even less.
Of course the Persians could send in fresh troops every time while the Greeks had to send out mostly the same troops each time. But the Persians were hindered by the rubble and the deaths of earlier fights and not all Persian troops were fit to be sent in. The many lightly-armed and auxiliary troops would have been no match for the heavily armed and close-combat specialist Greek hoplites.
How were the Greeks able to defeat the larger Persian army?
Superior naval and land strategies and tactics.
Operating on interior lines - that is, being close to their source of supply of men, food and materiel, unlike the Persians whose support came from Asia Minor in an age of poor transport.
A major Greek strategy was the elimination of the persian fleet, which
- could no longer protect supply ships - after losing naval superiority at Salamis, half the Persian army went home as it could not be supplied.
- posed an amphibious threat to the Greek cities which kept their armies at home protecting them - after Salamis the Greek armies were able to concentrate at Plataia to defeat the reduced Persian army.
Who were the auxiliary troops in the Roman army?
The auxiliary troops supported the Roman legions. They were non-Roman soldiers originally from Italy and later from the rest of the empire. Augustus gave them the same structure as that of the Roman legions.
During the Roman Republic the Italic auxiliaries provided 60% of the pool of military manpower available to Rome, making her the large military force in the Mediterranean. During the rule by emperors the number of soldiers was the same as that of the Roman legions, thus doubling the size of the Roman army. Another advantage was that the auxiliaries supplied the bulk of the cavalry of the Roman forces.
What was the Peloponnesian War noteworthy for?
It involved the Greek world from Sicily to Asia Minor, whith great destruction and loss of life. It cost Athens its empire after it lost.
