WARFARE IN THE CLASSICAL WORLD

John Warry

Barnes and Noble Inc. 1998, 302 pgs., index

Reviewer comment:
The author treats the subject matter in a rather generalized - even theoretical - manner. This is an excellent summary that actually focuses on the broad topics that are often missed in detailed military histories of battles. The author stresses the political causes and aspects of warfare generically and wars in particular.

The Pronunciation of Ancient Languages
This is a short, interesting explanation of the difference between Greek and Roman (Latin) pronunciation and its rendition in the alphabet. Then the author notes how both were subject to changes that took place as they were inherited between ancient and modern times. The result has been that they are confused by modern speakers of English, French, Italian and German when translated into written words in those languages. One frequent example that readers encounter is pronunciation of the initial sound shown in English as C rather than K in such words as Caesar of Corinth.

Homeric and Mycenaean Warfare

The Persian Wars

The Peloponnesian War

The Decline of Sparta and the Ascendancy of Thebes

Alexander the Great

Alexander's Successors and the Later Greek World

Pyrrhus of Epirus and the Roman Republic

The Punic Wars and Roman Expansion

Marius and Sulla

Pompey ad His Epoch

Julius Caesar

The Wars of the Triumvirate

The Military Task of Imperial Rome

The Coming of the Barbarians