Ten years of Ancient Warfare are in the bag and hopefully you agree we've celebrated that feat suitably with issue XI.3. Fun though it is to reminisce, the production cycle of doom never stops. So I've been poring over your suggestions and trying to come up with an attractive list of themes for Volume XII.
Since I can't blame the results on the votes of the readership, I thought I'd get moderately scientific, make a list of past themes and see what's been lacking. See the list below. Luckily, for future variety in Ancient Warfare, there are lots and lots of options still open. Besides, there are so many themes I'd like to re-visit...
Themes so far
The past 10-odd years, we've had regular and special issues with the following themes:
| Ancient Warfare issue |
Theme |
| Vol I, 2007 |
1 |
Agricola's campaigns |
|
2 |
Daily Life |
|
3 |
Arms and Armour |
|
4 |
Roman conquest of Spain |
| Vol II, 2008 |
1 |
Light infantry |
|
2 |
Victory and Defeat |
|
3 |
Age of the Trireme |
|
4 |
Campaigns of Caesar |
|
5 |
Warfare in the Ancient Near East |
|
6 |
Third century Crisis |
| Vol III, 2009 |
1 |
Mercenaries |
|
2 |
Early Successor Wars |
|
3 |
Classical heroes |
|
4 |
Barcids at War |
|
5 |
Rome versus Parthia |
|
6 |
Battlefield communications |
|
Special |
The Varian Disaster |
| Vol IV, 2010 |
1 |
Before Rome ruled Italy |
|
2 |
Siege warfare |
|
3 |
Campaigns of Belisarius |
|
4 |
End of the Bronze Age Empires |
|
5 |
Warfare and religion |
|
6 |
Hellenistic kingdoms at war |
|
Special |
Core of the Legion - the Roman centuria |
| Vol V, 2011 |
1 |
Campaigns of Gaius Marius |
|
3 |
Rome and the Sassanid empire |
|
4 |
The Assyrian empire |
|
5 |
Fleets of the Roman empire |
|
6 |
Elite units of the Hellenistic era |
|
Special |
The Battle of Marathon |
| Vol VI, 2012 |
1 |
Warfare in archaic Greece |
|
2 |
Trajan's Dacian Wars |
|
3 |
Cavalry in the ancient world |
|
4 |
Campaigns of Pyrrhus |
|
5 |
The armies of Diocletian |
|
6 |
Celts in the classical world |
| Vol VII, 2013 |
1 |
Conflict in ancient Egypt |
|
2 |
Wars in ancient Sicily |
|
3 |
The early Roman Republic |
|
4 |
Logistics and the army train |
|
5 |
The march of the Ten Thousand |
|
6 |
Campaigns of Marcus Aurelius |
| Vol VIII, 2014 |
1 |
Traitors in the ancient world |
|
2 |
Struggles of the Ionian Greeks |
|
3 |
Warriors of the Steppe |
|
4 |
The Seleucid empire |
|
5 |
Jewish revolts against Rome |
|
6 |
Roman conquest of Greece |
| Vol IX, 2015 |
1 |
The fall of Rome |
|
2 |
The ascendancy of Thebes |
|
3 |
Hittites and their successors |
|
4 |
The first Punic War |
|
5 |
Warriors of the Hellenistic era |
|
6 |
The aftermath of battle |
| Vol X, 2016 |
1 |
The Archidamian War |
|
2 |
Wars in Hellenistic Egypt |
|
3 |
The Mithridatic Wars |
|
4 |
Wars at the edge of empires |
|
5 |
Persian empires at war |
|
6 |
The Year of the Four Emperors |
| Vol XI, 2017 |
1 |
Archery in the ancient world |
|
2 |
The Romans unite Italy |
|
3 |
Caesar and Pompey in the Balkans |
|
4 |
Ancient Israel at War |
|
5 |
Riding to war |
|
6 |
Queen Zenobia |
| Vol XII, 2018 |
1 |
The Decelean War (sequel to X.1) |
|
2 |
Augustus' army |
|
3 |
The Thracians |
|
4 |
Armour in the ancient world |
|
5 |
Successors at Sea |
|
6 |
Crossing the Rhine - Germanic raiders |
| Vol XIII, 2019 |
1 |
Auxiliaries, vassals and allies |
Themes for 2018
Now obviously what I think is missing from this list, depends very much on my own preferences and biases. But a quick plot of those themes that have a clearly defined era, shows we've done much more in 'BC' than in 'AD' times. That makes a lot of sense: Hellenistic warfare is popular and so is the Roman Republic, to name just two reasons. And doh, obviously, there's a lot more history in the remit of Ancient Warfare before the Roman Imperial era.
On the other hand we know a lot more about that empire all by itself than just about anything else. There simply should be more to say about the army of the Caesars. Naval warfare, incidental articles aside, has really drawn the short straw with only two dedicated issues. And yet, there's much to do still in the Hellenistic era, in Greece and Roman Republican history. I don't think we'll venture into full themes outside the Mediterranean, but I'd welcome more proposals about the wider world. Please just make sure they fit the timeframe.
So what are the themes for Volume XII? Look up, they're already in the list. 🙂 Hope you like 'em!
