Ancient Warfare Podcast

It is the 1,900th anniversary of the building of Hadrian's Wall, that is if it was begun in AD 122 and not AD 119. Not only is there doubt over the year construction was started on the wall, but we also are not completely sure what its function was. As such, a good topic for the team to discuss.

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Rich posed this question for Murray, 'we have a relatively good picture of what the Roman Legionary weapons and materiel manufacturing process looked like (at least for some time periods).

Do we have any similar information for the Philippian/Alexandrian Macedonian army? That's a lot of 16-foot-long sarissa shafts and spear points to manufacture, and I'm curious what we know about it'.

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Patron of the podcast Chris writes, 'we are told right before the great Illyrian revolt of AD 6-9, the Romans were preparing a campaign against king Maroboduus and the Marcomanni. It is said he had an army of 74,000 (70,000 infantry and 4,000 Cavalry). What do you guys think the outcome would have been of that war/campaign; would he have stood a chance resisting the roman campaign?'

Murray gives us his opinion.

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Scot emailed us this question for Murray to answer; 'Certain tribal confederations, like the Franks & Saxons, typically bear "namesake" weapons (e.g. the Francisca and the Sax). Is the name of the weapon thought to be derived from the name of the confederation, or is the name of the confederation derived from the weapon?'

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In this episode of the Ancient Warfare Magazine podcast Jasper, Murray and Myke talk to games designer Mark Backhouse about his new game Strength & Honour.

The game allows you to recreate battles from the start of the Marian reforms in Rome around 105BC, when the professional Roman legionaries organised in cohorts replaced the older Republican Legion structure of maniples, through to about 200AD.

Patron of the podcast James poses this question for Murray, 'The number of Spartan soldiers declined from its high of 10,000 to less than 2,000 around its defeat by Thebes due, in part, to increasing economic concentration and the resulting decline in the number of soldiers able to pay their mess contributions. Did Spartan society recognise this decline as a problem, and were there efforts to reverse this trend? If there were, why did they fail?'

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Murray is on his own this week. He answers this question sent in from patron of the podcast, Greg; 'How widespread was the use of Hamippoi in 5th BC Greece?'

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Murray answers this question sent in from Christoper, 'do the sources tell us anything about the Spartan warrior Arimnestus who threw the rock that killed Mardonius? I am curious if we know if he survived the battle and if he would have been honoured for his efforts in the victory?'

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