Warfare In Ancient Greece: Arms and Armour From The Heroes Of Homer To Alexander the Great

by Tim Everson

In this first comprehensive study of Ancient Greek warfare for over 35 years, Tim Everson discusses clearly and thoroughly the background, weapons and tactics of the ancient Greeks. He describes the weapons, armour, helmets, chariots and other military equipment used in from c. 1550 to 150 BC and traces how and when various pieces of equipment came into use; whether they were introduced from other regions or were native developments; the effectiveness of the armour and weapons used and when and why things changed (or not). Set against a background of a broad history of Greek warfare - how they fought, why they fought and the developments in tactics over the centuries - he examines both the archaeological evidence of actual finds, as well as ancient depictions of military equipment on vases and in sculpture and literary evidence of Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides and many other ancient authors.

Genres: History

272 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2005

Reviews

[Andrew D · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book 3 review.

I guess this is more of a textbook than anything else, but I’m still counting it.
I think this book did a good job explaining the history and creation of the various arms and armours of the ancient Greeks, how they were used, how they were developed over time, etc., I just wish it was more visual opposed to literary. I felt a tad annoyed having to google practically everything described because of the lack of photographs and diagrams (when there were diagrams they were quite crude), and the fact most objects Mr. Everson writes about are cited from other books I don’t have in my possession.
It would have helped immensely to have actual diagrams or photos to compliment the description of physical objects, but other than that, not the most boring textbook I’ve ever read.

Until the next book,
xoxo

[Kal · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a poorly made book; in this day and age, it is flat out inexcusable and indicative of lazy authorship.

If the subject matter that a learner is interested in is the arms and armor of Ancient Greece, then one would reasonably expect visual aids relevant to such arm and armor so that one can learn about them. It is frustrating to read descriptions that then spend a long time googling names, graves, regions, etc trying to see what is being described.

Lots of arms and armor are very similar to one another, so which ones are being described. Perhaps specific links to a museum display from the many high quality museum websites out there. Even Wikipedia has lots of high resolution images of almost everything.

It is not like this is an impossible task for this extremely short book.

Useless book for anyone wanting to learn. You are better off reading the many online sources with proper photo references. Even an amateurish youtube video is more useful than this.