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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
What consequence did the Persian suffer after the battle of marathon?
The Persian punitive expedition against Athens went home. Persia then decided to bring all the Greek city-states in mainland Greece within its empire to stop them supporting rebellions in Asia Minor. It mounted a full scale invasion ten years later, which was repelled by a combination of the southern Greek cities. This too was repelled, and then after thirty years of further warfare Persia gave up and a peace was agreed.
Philip II and his son Alexander III (the Great) and their Greek allies met Athens and their Greek allies at the battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC where Macedonia and its allies were victorious and the hegemony of a united Greece transferred to them.
September 2, 31 BC. September 2 (about 450 years earlier, in 480 BC) is also the day that Pheidippides ran from Marathon to Athens to spread the news of the victory and died on the spot. (That is a legend that I spoke about in Battles that Changed the World: Marathon). === === Although this is irrelevant to the question, Pheidippedes ran to Sparta and back to summon the Spartans to Marathon, and died after the 120 mile round trip. It was the entire 9,000 of the Athenian army which ran the 26 miles from Marathon to Athens after the battle, carrying weapons and armour, as they had to get back in time to intercept the Persian cavalry which had been rowed around the cape to Athens to take advantage of traitors ready to open the gates for them.
What were five methods of offensive tactics that the ancients could use to assault a walled city?
1. Bribe venal elements within the city to open the gates*.
2. Conspire with dissident elements in the city to open the gates**.
3. Defeat the enemy outside their gates then follow up the fleeing soldiers through the gates as they fled***.
4. Dismantle a section of the walls to gain entry.
5. Siege - starve them out.
* His father Philip said that he could take any city as long as there was a path up which he could drive a donkey laden with gold.
** In Greek cities there was always a dissident element. When this dissidence was extreme, they had no compunction in betraying the city if the attacker promised to install them in power.
*** Armies of attacked cities often made a stand outside the city. If defeated they would seek refuge behind the walls, giving the attacker the chance to follow them in.
When did Rome add the territory including Carthage?
In 146 BCE after they destroyed Carthage and sold its inhabitants into slavery. It then established a colony on the site to settle retired soldiers.
What was the emblem of the 4th Flavia Felix Roman legion?
This legion was actually reconstituted by Vespasian
The battle of Marathon is rather falsely touted in those terms. In fact it was a Persian punitive expedition against Athens for interfering in Greek city revolutions in Asia Minor (within the Persian Empire). Their loss at Marathon persuaded the Persians to return, though this was defeated by the southern Greek cities ten years later. It was not Persian despotism, it was about the Persians trying to maintain peace within their empire without having outsiders stoking up trouble. After a long intermittent war, Persia gave up and left the Greek cities to go back to their usual fighting each other.
Why didn't the ancient Romans have an Air Force or Marine Corps?
Considering it was 'ancient' Rome, the technology was not well developed to have an Air Force. As far as a marine corps, yes, the Romans had marines. They were the soldiers who fought on ships in addition to the naval crews. They were called "miles classicus" to distinguish them from the "miles gregarius" or common soldier of the legion.
Did Rome use a volunteer army?
Initially yes. Well more or less. They were a militia called out for campaigns. Later it became professionalised as the Roman empire grew and garrisons were needed, and they were enlisted for set periods like 16 or 20 years.
Originally it was composed of small-farmers, who turned out to defend their property and to pinch the property of others to get land for their sons. The unpropertied class was exempt from service, as it was thought that it was not fair to make them fight for others' property, and as they had no motivation they would be unreliable anyway.
This ended at the close of the 2nd Century BCE when the Germanic invasion required much greater numbers, and the non-propertied classes were enlisted. That caused a social upheaval as they became dependent on their generals for pay, loot and land for resettlement. The generals thus had a following which they used to advance their own power and political interests. This was in large part responsible for the civil wars of the 1st Century BCE, and lasted until Augustus took control, and allocated all the legions to himself, so there was but one general with army backing. Thereafter the army was professional.
Was the peloponnesian war inevitable?
It was when Athens established an empire, and the conservative Thucydides son of Melisias was exiled, leaving the overconfident Pericles guiding Athenian foreign policy along a path leading to unyielding confrontation with the Peloponnesian city-states.
Did athenian democracy lead to Athens loss in the peloponnesian war?
Athens took on too much and became too adventurous. It was early weakened by plague, then became too ambitious in over-extending itself trying to take Syracuse in Siily.
It had various forms of government as its fortunes rose and fell under both democratic and broad-based oligarchic governments. Pericles' guidance was lost when he died two years into the war, and a succession of stable and unstable leaders ensured that the Periclean objective of defence-offence was not adhered to. Democracy was just a part of the problems which brought Athens down.
Who rruled over the ostrogoths?
Their kings of the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy were:
- Theodoric the Great 489-526
- Athalaric 526-534
- Theodahad 534-536
- Witiges 536-540
- Ildibad 540-541
- Eraric 541
- Totila 541-552
- Teia (552-553
Did Sparta conquer the Asia minor after the peloponnesian war?
King Agesilaus II of Sparta led an expedition into Asia Minor 396-394 BCE, and had considerable success in defeating Persian provincial governors there. His efforts were cut short when he was recalled to prosecute wars in mainland Greece against the combined forces of Athens, Thebes, Corinth and Argos, and could not return to Asia to pursue his plans to overthrow Persian power - achieved by Alexander 60 years later.
Does anyone know any facts about mercenaries?
Soldiers for hire predate standing armies.
The term "company" as a military unit is derived from the "free companies", which were mercenary armies during the late medieval period.
In 1991, the UN Mercenary Convention was passed, in which mercenaries would from then forth be considered illegal combatants under international law.
In the case of American contractors working for PMCs in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan, the contractors are not considered mercenaries by law because they are nationals of a party to the conflict.
The infamous Caribbean pirates were original raiders for hire by the various governments warring for control of trade in the region. They were known as privateers, and hired to conduct raids against enemy shipping, essentially making them mercenary sailors.
The name 'Greek' is in fact ancient as well, as the famous philosopher Aristotelis verifies: "
...and she was not there forever, but after the cataclysm of Deucalion, which occurred in the Hellenic area, in fact, in the ancient Hellas, which was around Dodoni, and it changed many times the flow of Acheloos river. In that area live the Selloi and the ones that were once called Graecoi and are now called Hellenes..." [Aristotelis Meteorologika, I, 14]
Greek was a name used by the Romans when they first ran into the colonies (Tarentum, Sybaris, Croton etc) in southern Italy, named after the Greek tribe they knew as the Graeci who had retained the older name that Hellenes (were known by). According to the Greek tradition, the "Graeci" ("Greeks", Γραικοί, Graikoi) were renamed "Hellenes" probably with the establishment of the Great Amphictyonic League after the Trojan war.
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The Greeks called themselves Hellenes after their legendary founder Helen.
As the Romans penetrated south in the Italian peninsula they ran into a tribe called the Graeci. They then ran into the Hellenic cities in southern Italy, and thinking that they were the same people in large numbers, called them Magna Graeci - Great Greeks.
The name Greek stuck. The Greeks still call themselves Hellenes.
What was the biggest problem the Roman empire faced?
In the physical sense, the Answer is : Communication -- Although they built excellent roads to help alleviate somewhat, the serious disconnect between outlying territories and the Home province, it was and never could be, enough.
The fundamental cause of the peloponnesian war?
Athens and its empire's dominance of power in the Greek world was responded to by the formation of Peloponnesian League of mostly Dorian cities led by Sparta to counter-balance the situation. Athens' aggressiveness and the parallel resistence of the League led inexorably to war.
Marathon 490 BCE.
What were the effects of the Persian and Punic Wars on Greece and Rome?
he Persian Wars brought Athens to a position and strength and prosperity on the back of the anti--Persian league which it led in the later stages o the war, and which it then turned into an empire of its own. This led to organised divisions in the Greek world, and devastating wars, and paved thay for Macedonia to achieve dominance, and use this power to seize the Persian Empire.
Rome's destruction of Carthage in the Punic Wars gave it control of the Western Mediterranean, which it expanded to control of the Eastern Mediterranean as the Greek world continued its infighting and so divided and weakened itself that it made an easy target for Roman takeover.
