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Soldiers' Lives through History - The Ancient World
Richard A. Gabriel
Book Code: GR3348
ISBN: 0-313-33348-3
ISBN-13: 978-0-313-33348-4
328 pages
Greenwood Press
Publication: 11/30/2006
List Price: $65.00 (UK Sterling Price: £37.95)
Availability: In Stock
Media Type: Hardcover
Also Available: Ebook
Trim Size: 7 x 10
Subjects: Reviews:
  • Aimed at the general reader or college-level researcher, this is an excellent introduction to the topic....This work is recommended for academic and public libraries with military history collections.
    —American Reference Books Annual     2008
  • American military historian Gabriel covers a period from the beginning of the Bronze Age, about 4,000 BCE through the end of the Roman and Byzantine Empires. First he addresses such aspects of military life as the physical conditions of soldiers, equipment, discipline and punishment, tactics, death and wounding, and military medical care. Then he profiles 18 major armies of antiquity, including those of Sumer and Akkad, China, Persia, Imperial Greece, Carthage, and Imperial Rome.
    —Reference & Research Book News     February 2007
Description: Once warfare became established in ancient civilizations, it's hard to find any other social institution that developed as quickly. In less than a thousand years, humans brought forth the sword, sling, dagger, mace, bronze and copper weapons, and fortified towns. The next thousand years saw the emergence of iron weapons, the chariot, the standing professional army, military academies, general staffs, military training, permanent arms industries, written texts on tactics, military procurement, logistics systems, conscription, and military pay. By 2,000 B.C.E., war was an important institution in almost all major cultures of the world. This book shows readers how soldiers were recruited, outfitted, how they fought, and how they were cared for when injured or when they died. It covers soldiers in major civilizations from about 4000 B.C.E. to about 450 C.E. Soldiers' Lives through History; The Ancient World is divided into two parts, the first addressing military life and the second the ancient armies themselves. "Military Life" presents twenty-one chapters, on significant aspects of military life in the ancient world.
Some of the topics include
  • The physical condition of the soldier
  • Recruitment
  • Rations
  • The soldier's equipment
  • Camp life
  • Discipline and punishment
  • Weapons
  • The chariot
  • The cavalry
  • Siegecraft and artillery
  • Death and wounding
  • Military medical care
    Topics are discussed cross-culturally, drawing examples from several of the cultures, armies, and time periods within each chapter in order to provide the reader with as comprehensive an understanding as possible and to avoid the usual "Western-centric" perspective too common in analyses of ancient warfare.
    The second part of the book, "Ancient Armies," seeks to present a detailed description of eighteen major armies of antiquity. Some of the armies included are those of
  • Sumer and Akkad
  • Egypt
  • The Mitanni
  • The Hittites
  • The Philistines
  • The Israelites
  • China
  • India
  • Classical Greece
  • Republican Rome
  • Carthage
  • The Barbarians
  • The Roman Empire
    The book also provides a timeline at the beginning of the book in order to put some of the events, inventions, and developments into more context. There are 36 illustrations and 3 maps that help readers visualize some of the equipment, armor, transport, and formations that ancient soldiers used, carried, and fought in. Chapter bibliographies as well as a general bibliography and a comprehensive index round out the volume.
    • LC Card Number: 2006029538
    LCC Class: U29
    Dewey Class: 355
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