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This portal is dedicated to the knowledge of ancient warfare in ancient times, focusing on the early antiquity up to the fall of the Western Roman Empire, roughly 3500 years of warfare. With the help of the best web sources, ancient authors, archaeological evidences, recreations, illustrations, maps, animations, and screenshots from the highly praized Total War video game serie, choosed by history channel (Sega(r) - Creative assembly(r))

Ancient-battles peeks into the ancient "sea peoples" or the achaeans and minoans from the bronze age and homeric times, but also the Mauryan empire and T'sin armies, the steppe peoples, the Celts, as the early, or at the opposite, very late romans, like the western "barbarized" ones, or the Byzantine, "Hellenized" romans. What we know apart the famous "triplex acies" of pre-marian times, triarii, principes, hastati, equites, and velites? Before this was the very early roman army composed of aristocratic cavalry or Celeres, derived from the Etruscan nobility, and a heavy phalanx composed mainly on spearmen by classes, and a reformed army by Dictator and general Marcus Furius Camilius, with six Censes classes, with rorarii, leves and accensii...

casque d'Agris

Two splendid examples of cross-culture in the IVth Century BC, two ceremonial Gallic helmets of the era, widely decorated in Greek and Celtic patterns.

And what we know about the greek classic armies at this time, with hoplites and meprised psiloi and hippiko, and their opponents, the persians, and beyond the sparabara, takabara, kardaka and other troops ? -The greek-city states age became, with the Macedonian rise, the Hellenistic era, which created terms like "phalangitai, hypaspistai, chalkaspidai, argyraspidai, Leucaspidai, akontistai, peltastai, thureophoroi, toxotai, sphendonetai, thorakitai, hetairoi, prodromoi" were known and became a model for all combined army from the Herakles columns to the Indus river... A true encyclopedia of ancient warfare.

Carthaginian Hoplites

September 2018: Hoplites from africa

Punic Hoplite

Last time we spoke about the Corsicans and Sardinian mercenaries of Carthage and their civilization since before the bronze age, but now we are directly confronted with the hard core of the Carthaginian Army, the Hoplites. Hoplites of Carthage itself and its colonies (Liby-punic) formed the bone of all Carthaginian armies. Whereas cheap, versatile and lightly armed or armoured Libyans provided the meat of the army. How did the Carthaginians even considered adopting greek warfare ? What were the different types of hoplites and how they evolved through the Hellenic age and Roman extension in the Mediterranean through three Punic wars ? It's all about the definitions we give to these units, ranging from low-social rank militias to the superbly equipped and trained Sacred batallion of Carthage... From Magon's reforms in 550 BC to Carthage's dramatic fall in 149 BC, that's four centuries of warfare throughout the Western Mediterranean, hoplite-style.

More on the Punic Hoplites