Soldiers & Ghosts: A History of Battle in Classical Antiquity

This book was very good at getting into not only how the ancients fought but why. Some of the progressions and terminology get hard to follow but it's worth the concentration. If you're an ancient culture fan, this is an excellent book. If not, I think you'll be bored silly.

Subtitled A History of Battle in Classical Antiquity, Soldiers and Ghosts turned out to be a far different book from what I expected. If you're looking for a complete military history of the classical world or a detailed exposition on organization, tactics and weapons look elsewhere. Professor Lendon instead explores the impact of the Greek and Roman cultures on their warfare. I certainly found his thesis an eye-opener, providing a perspective on the subject I never considered before. Well written and up-to-date, this will no doubt prove to be a landmark study of the subject.

JE Lendon's "Soldiers and Ghosts" provides a unique survey of Greek and Roman warfare from 400 BCE to the late Roman Empire, emphasizing how much the Greeks and Romans consciously emulated the past, or at least emulated the idealized past as they understood it from ancient authors. The most successful armies, Lendon contends, were those who could blend the lessons of the past (as understood) with the social and cultural realities of their own time. I found his exploration of Roman military practice from the Early Republic to Late Empire to be most interesting, evolving -- although I am not certain "evolution" is necessarily the most accurate word -- from use of a Macedonian-style phalanx to maniples to cohorts and back to a phalanx. He emphasizes the traditional tension in the Roman army between "virtus" (more or less individual heroics, often in defiance of orders) and "disciplina" (disciplined organization under control of the commanders). If anyone conceives of the Roman army at any time being a machinelike organization of perfect discipline, Lendon's book should cure that view; Roman generals of all eras were often faced with the repeated problem of their soldiers -- not just eager young aristocratic officers but also common footsoldiers -- insisting on launching themselves into quick battle when prudence and common sense would dictate restraint. Lendon also emphasizes the importance of competition between indviduals and, especially among the Romans, units as a force behind better training and performance in battle.

Soldiers and Ghosts is twice magnificent. It is a marvelous history of ancient warfare from the Iliad to the 4th century AD, full of wonderful details about who did what and how. It is also a fascinating exploration of one of the most basic historical questions: why do things change? If we ponder the question of why things change in history, we often fall back on technology. We assume, many of us, that societies change because they develop new tools or new techniques, which cause further changes rippling through institutions and lives. But is this always so? Lendon explores the question by looking at how different ancient armies fought. Over the course of Greek and Roman antiquity, different armies fought in very different ways, and in casual histories one often sees this explained by technological advances. Yet this cannot be so, because in fact there were very few changes in military technology between the time of the Assyrians and the fall of Rome. Nor can the change really be explained by the slow spread of ideas; the Romans were not such fools that it took them 200 years to understand the phalanx. Lendon looks instead at the basic questions of how nations were organized and why men and nations fight. (They do not fight, you may sure, just to win battles.) Lendon argues that ancient nations selected weaponry and battle formations that relected the basic structure of their societies and allowed them to achieve their goals. The wars of the classical Greeks were mainly contests for prestige between city states, and Lendon argues that they fought hoplite battles because this best allowed one group of citizens to test their courage and civic pride against another. The Romans of the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, says Lendon, were obsessed with courage and the honor they could win for themselves and their families by feats of daring in battle, so they adopted tactics that allowed would-be heroes to perform those feats. One of Lendon's best sections describes the fascination with ancient Greek history that overtook the elite of the later Roman empire. In the later empire the Romans abandoned the methods of fighting that had won them their empire in the first place. But instead of adopting new innovations they generally looked backward, copying as best they understood them the tactics of Alexander and even Agamemnon. They often seemed to be battling, not the forces arrayed against them, but the shadow of Madecon or Troy, and as we know, any victories they won against those ghosts did their own society precious little good. For anyone interested in either ancient warfare or why things change, this book is a great discovery.

I loved this book from the first line to the last; Why? 1) It gives a complete view of Greek warfare following the full evolution: Mycenean-->Spartan-->Theban-->Macedonian. <br /> <br />2) the same for the Roman way: Greek phalanx-->maniples--> <br />cohorts--> Greek phalanx(!!) <br /> <br />3) the book is analytical with well thought arguments <br /> <br />4) very nicely presented like a commentary on major battles, <br />with justifications and inside analysis <br /> <br />5) full of great decisive unique momemts of military <br />history: the defeat of Persians by the incredible <br />Spartans, the defeat of the Atheneans by the Theban phalanx, <br />the ferrocious confrontation of the Macedonian phalanx <br />with the Roman maniples at Pydna in Macedonia (northern Greece); <br />my favourite of all in this book the last chapter: the return <br />of the Greek phalanx in the Roman warfare and Julians expedition <br />in Persia. <br /> <br />The book is deep in its scope so for newcomers in this field <br />I would reccommend to buy (read) first a more elementary with <br />graphics so that this text follows easily. Graphics are not many <br />although when it comes to the Greeks one can find photos and <br />sketches of the Macedonian phalanx, the Thessalian Cavalry, <br />the Spartan phalanx and hoplites and when it comes to the Romans, <br />sketches of the Roman legeonaries and the maniples and cohorts. <br />More passionate readers might want to consult other more <br />elementary books for more graphical material. <br /> <br />Overall the author has written a nice humanistic analysis of the <br />way the Greeks and Romans fought; and there is a beauty in the <br />way he connects the most brutal of human activities (killing) <br />with other aspects of the human reality like politics, poetry, <br />aesthetics. <br /> <br />Well done, Mr Lendon, congratulations.