Spring Class: Military History of the Ancient Mediterranean

The course will explore the military history of the ancient world from the early Iron Age to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. It is not designed to be a mere survey of battles and campaigns, but rather an in-depth engagement with primary source materials (in translation) analyzing how warfare and violence shaped the political, cultural and social history of the ancient world. 

Our approach will be chronologically structured, moving from the rise of Near Eastern empires in the aftermath of the Bronze Age collapse and the development of heavy infantry in Archaic Greece, to the democratic thalassocracy of 5th century Athens. In the 4th century, the fragile Greek system of fragmented poleis was overwhelmed by the rising power of Macedonia, which developed a “new model army” that conquered not only Greece, but overthrew the Achaemenid Empire and left in its wake a new international system of successor dynasties. We will then turn to Rome, which evolved from a modest city in Central Italy into an unusually successful conquest state based on an amateur citizens’ militia. The political crises of the Late Republic spawned destructive civil wars, and led to the formation of a  monarchy that rested on the coercive presence of a professional army posted on the frontier. By the Late Empire, however, the Roman Army increasingly proved unable to ensure either internal stability or external security, despite a series of military reforms.  Our survey of ancient military history will be multifaceted: we will explore the institutional dynamics of various armed forces (including tactics, chains of command, logistics, etc.), the interface between war and religion, the impact of  violence on both ethnic identity and gender definition, the role of technology, the relationship between military service and political participation, and the public commemoration of warfare. 

The class is currently scheduled for TTH from 9:30-11am in 112 Waggoner. For prospective students, the class is listed as AHC 325/CC 348 (unique 32215): Military History of the Ancient Mediterranean. Queries can be directed to [email protected].

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