Future themes? Send us yours!
In the first years of Ancient Warfare it was a fun exercise to canvass the readership for theme suggestions. It's a way for me to pick your collective brains and consider if they're practicable. It occurs to me we haven't done this for quite some time, so let's revive this tradition right now.
Rules
There are rules? Well, yes, there are a few rules that I at least have to keep in mind, and it would be helpful if you did so too.
- The first rule is that it has to be 'doable'. I too am fascinated by the questions we just can't answer because the sources don't tell us, but that makes for a thin theme indeed! We're happy to try and track down the latest research on a topic (in fact, I would hope we're getting better at doing so than in the earlier issues of AW), but I'm sure you understand there are limits.
- The second rule is that the theme has to be new or, if we've tackled it before, a new angle has to be possible. That might be great fun, actually, so if you do suggest well-trodden ground, feel free to bring up new questions that weren't answered before. Need an overview of past themes?
- Third, we want variety. Everyone has their preferences, but we can't have six themes about the Roman imperial navy in one year (did I just show my hand?) ;-) So mix it up!
- Finally, we have to be able to illustrate it. Ancient Warfare is a visual medium and, I believe, our image researchers are pretty good at digging up artefacts, locations, and generally relevant imagery for each article. But these things have to exist. You'd be surprised how difficult the second century BC can be...
That's it. If you tl;dr-ed the rules, that's fine too. I can't guarantee I'll take you up on an idea, but I do love hearing them. Post away below!
10 comments
Alexander III or the Great of Macedon: Alexander is how this dyslexic guy got started reading in the fall of 1963. Also important that you do not see much any more, I had two Great Male Grammer school Teachers, and these sexual innuendos do not allow male teachers much anymore to be part of a kid’s education. I was 9 going on 10. When I first got on the internet, I happen to be in contact with a woman of the Near East and she just up and exclaimed that Alexander was Gay or Homosexual and so dismissed him. What I have discovered is that Alexander’s story has been ’’’twisted’’’ with his father who was a well know bi-sexual. Further, I have also decided that writers, esp since WW II are very possibly Gay themselves or closet Gays? As I further explain, any man that has fathered maybe 4 but at least 2 by age 32 is NOT leading The Gay Life. This is a delicate topic I know for today’s divided America waring on each other, even sex is politized. And, to be clear, I have never had an issue with a Gay or threatened by a Gay person my entire life, here on the Frontier of the New World, everyone’s money is GREEN.
Hephaestion is cast as his Gay counterpart as if no man has ever not had a Best Friend that is not Gay is ludicrous.///A General of Alexander that made Aristotle famous was Cleitarchus who was charged in Babylon with developing the Successors that became a strong source of friction upon ATG’s return 5 years later, I strongly suggest Professor Peter Green’s masterful write up in his Alexander of Macedon California Press, Clearchus was very much a Plantsman as this writer is and sent back both Flora and Fauna for Aristotle to catalog for many years. Royal Mail must have worked GREAT. Aristotle is The Father of Biology and I credit both his student ATG and Clearchus as making again, Aristotle famous. It is well known also that bc of ATG’s treatment of Ari’s cousin Callisthenes, is why Ari does not write much of ATG. Bad Feelings. One angle also on ATG is his so many first for a Westerner to see, for example the write-up that Green does when ATG comes across a town where ’’Naptha’’’ flows out of the ground lighting up the city at night is a worthy read in Green again. I must end at some point so I choose now and Thank You Ancient Warfare for providing me with this methodology of writing ’’’someone’’ that shares the same passion for Ancient History as I do. GTP
@reloader-1 We’ve identified an appropriate future candidate issue just this morning.
There has yet to be a single issue on Alexander the Great. Yes, the topic has been done to death in various books, but Ancient Warfare Magazine is, in its own way, becoming a compendium of information about the ancient military world that is unparalleled. Give us at least one issue on this polarizing figure!
1. Forces encountered by Alexander in Afghanistan and India.
2. Peloponessian War in the north. Meaning focusing on more peripheral groups such as Macedon and Thrace.
3. Carthaginian experience outside of the Wars with Rome. Iberia, North Africa, Sicily, etc.
The wars of Sumer, Eannatum, Lugalzagesi, Accad, Ur III, Babylon…Hammurabi…
Egypt Middle kingdom, Senusret III and Nubia….
Ancient chinese warfare, the Chin or Han…
Ancient India, Arian warfare, Mahabharata ingredients….
Best generals and their tactics of Ancient Times…
“Uniforms” and weapons of Greece and Rome…
Ancient war technology, catapults, machines, siege tactics….
Messenian wars…the rise of Sparta…
The Athenian empire, Cymon and Pericles at war, liberation of Jonia, Cyprus, Egypt, First Peloponnesian war…
Alexander the Great
Campaigns of Pyrrhus
Wars of Antigonus Gonatas
Campaigns of Pompey the Great
Campaigns of Trajan
Constantine the Great
The empire of Attila, nations and warriors of Attila, Campaigns…
The truth behind the Nibelungenlied, the Rhineland and Burgundy and Attila…
Germanic kingdoms at war, Visigoths, Franks, ostroths, Vandals, Lombards…. Clovis, Thedoric the Great, Leovigild….
Perhaps a section on the technical aspects of arms and armor forging and construction in the ancient world?
There has been very little about the Persians – either Achaemenid, Parthian or Sassanid. I’d love to see more on them. The coverage of pre-classical has been thin too – any more to add there?
Great magazine, well done!