Ancient Warfare Podcast

Curt asks Murray, 'did Alexander The Great's army introduce Pankration to India? If so could Pankration have contributed to the future expansion of martial arts from India to China & other Asian countries?'

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Jasper, the editor of Ancient Warfare Magazine, asked on social media what themes readers felt the magazine had not covered but should or themes it should revisit. The team look at what suggestions were sent in and give some thoughts of their own.

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Jacob wonders, 'if field artillery was ever used against a Macedonian-style phalanx? If not, why not? The close formation and immobility of the phalanx would leave it extremely susceptible to scorpion, ballista, etc fire.'

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Carlos asks, 'in the current war in Ukraine, we've seen Ukrainian soldiers write insulting messages and trolling ones on artillery shells before firing them at Russian forces. Did a similar practice exist in the ancient Mediterranean world with soldiers writing insults and or the use of verbal insults.'

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Wyton asks, 'During the republic, what were the Romans Italian allies armed with, and how did they fight? As legionaries or some other method?'

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Robert asks, 'Why javelins? It seems that a bow would be a much better weapon for a skirmish in the ancient world, but it seems that javeLin armed light troops may have been the most common type in Europe.

Additionally, if using javelins, why not an atlatl to throw them with? This would make a difference in hitting a target, but one has to believe that range would be an important factor while skirmishing.'

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'Is there today or has there been anyone trying to conduct larger-scale experimental archaeology to try and answer some of the common questions about certain infantry tactics/tropes such as the othismos and open vs closed order legions?'

Murray tells us about experimental archaeology.

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Alex asks, 'When is the last documented evidence of one of the original Roman Legions being in existence?

I remember reading about Legio V Macedonica being based in Egypt just before the Arab Conquests in the 640s, but I am unsure if this is factually correct'.

Murray lists us the last documented evidence for the Legions.

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Murray talks with Roel Konijnendijk about his recent work on 19th-century German language scholars and how they laid the foundations of much of the 20th century's understanding of Classical Greek warfare.

Giants like Moltke, Delbrück, Kochly and Rustow's foundations were, however, based on 19th-century understandings of how war worked, and their views (rightfully) have been challenged. This only began in earnest in the late 20th century, and overcoming the dominance of these 19th-century thinkers is still a mountain to climb.