The General Demosthenes and His Use of Military Surprise

The General Demosthenes and His Use of Military Surprise PDF Author: Joseph Roisman
Publisher: Franz Steiner Verlag
ISBN: 9783515062770
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 92

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Book Description
The Athenian general Demosthenes, who fought in the Peleponnesian war, used surprise in all his military operations. Chiefly because of this reason he has sometimes been labeled as an original thinker, if not a misunderstood genius. This study asks whether Demosthenes deserved the accolades that have charaterized much of the modern studies of the general and his age. The investigation identifies what factors were responsible for Demosthenes' successes and failures, and draws attention to the hitherto unnoticed contributors to the general's victories. The study points to Demosthenes' inclination to take great risks, his uncompromising belief in the effectiveness of surprise in war, and his readiness to ignore objective difficulties in pursuing his goals. In addition, Demosthenes' campaigns indicate a narrow perception of military problems, a tendency to give up rather easily when things were not going according to plan and an inability to lead an orderly retreat.

The General Demosthenes and His Use of Military Surprise

The General Demosthenes and His Use of Military Surprise PDF Author: Joseph Roisman
Publisher: Franz Steiner Verlag
ISBN: 9783515062770
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 92

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Book Description
The Athenian general Demosthenes, who fought in the Peleponnesian war, used surprise in all his military operations. Chiefly because of this reason he has sometimes been labeled as an original thinker, if not a misunderstood genius. This study asks whether Demosthenes deserved the accolades that have charaterized much of the modern studies of the general and his age. The investigation identifies what factors were responsible for Demosthenes' successes and failures, and draws attention to the hitherto unnoticed contributors to the general's victories. The study points to Demosthenes' inclination to take great risks, his uncompromising belief in the effectiveness of surprise in war, and his readiness to ignore objective difficulties in pursuing his goals. In addition, Demosthenes' campaigns indicate a narrow perception of military problems, a tendency to give up rather easily when things were not going according to plan and an inability to lead an orderly retreat.

A Commentary on Thucydides: Volume II: Books IV-V. 24

A Commentary on Thucydides: Volume II: Books IV-V. 24 PDF Author: Simon Hornblower
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780199276257
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 540

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Book Description
This will be a 3 volume commentary on Thucydides. Appendices will appear in v.3 to be published some years hence.

Conflict in Ancient Greece and Rome [3 volumes]

Conflict in Ancient Greece and Rome [3 volumes] PDF Author: Sara Elise Phang
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 2571

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Book Description
The complex role warfare played in ancient Greek and Roman civilizations is examined through coverage of key wars and battles; important leaders, armies, organizations, and weapons; and other noteworthy aspects of conflict. Conflict in Ancient Greece and Rome: The Definitive Political, Social, and Military Encyclopedia is an outstandingly comprehensive reference work on its subject. Covering wars, battles, places, individuals, and themes, this thoroughly cross-referenced three-volume set provides essential support to any student or general reader investigating ancient Greek history and conflicts as well as the social and political institutions of the Roman Republic and Empire. The set covers ancient Greek history from archaic times to the Roman conquest and ancient Roman history from early Rome to the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE. It features a general foreword, prefaces to both sections on Greek history and Roman history, and maps and chronologies of events that precede each entry section. Each section contains alphabetically ordered articles—including ones addressing topics not traditionally considered part of military history, such as "noncombatants" and "war and gender"—followed by cross-references to related articles and suggested further reading. Also included are glossaries of Greek and Latin terms, topically organized bibliographies, and selected primary documents in translation.

Thucydides's Melian Dialogue and Sicilian Expedition

Thucydides's Melian Dialogue and Sicilian Expedition PDF Author: Martha C. Taylor
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806164131
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 459

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Book Description
Best known for his account of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides (c. 454–c. 395 b.c.) was an Athenian general and historian. This valuable commentary addresses the most famous part of Thucydides’s narrative: the Sicilian Expedition (books 6–8.1), which resulted in a major defeat for Athens. Designed for advanced undergraduate and graduate students of Greek, Martha C. Taylor’s student-friendly text is the first single volume in more than a century to focus on the expedition and the first to include the Melian Dialogue (5.84–116), considered the “prelude” to the invasion. Many beginning readers of Thucydides require assistance with the author’s often difficult constructions. In her notes to the text, Taylor breaks down Thucydides’s convoluted sentences and explains them piece by piece. Her notes also explain the author’s many historical and literary references. In her in-depth introduction, Taylor provides students with all the information they need to begin reading Thucydides. She discusses what we know about the Greek author—and what we do not—and she analyzes his unique language and style. To place the Sicilian Expedition in historical context, she summarizes the events leading up to and following the Sicilian Expedition, and she examines important aspects of Athenian democracy, including Thucydides’s presentation of the Athenian boule, the city’s advisory citizen council. In addition to textual and historical commentary, this volume includes three maps; an appendix addressing the epitaph of Perikles (2.65.5–13), in which Thucydides appears to contradict his later presentation of the Sicilian Expedition; source suggestions for student term papers on relevant topics; and a general bibliography. Thucydides’s Melian Dialogue and Sicilian Expedition is designed for use with the Oxford Classical Text of Thucydides, which is available online.

Thucydides: The Peloponnesian War Book VII

Thucydides: The Peloponnesian War Book VII PDF Author: Christopher Pelling
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316829839
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
In Books 6 and 7 Thucydides' narrative is, as Plutarch puts it, 'at its most emotional, vivid, and varied' as he describes the Sicilian Expedition that ended so catastrophically for Athens (415–413 BCE). Book 7 opens with Athens seemingly on the point of victory, but the arrival of the Spartan commander Gylippus marks a change in fortunes and the Athenian commander Nicias is soon sending home a desperate plea for reinforcements. Three narrative masterpieces follow their arrival, first the eerie confusion of the night battle on the heights, then the naval clash in the Great Harbour, and finally the desperate attempt to escape and the slaughter at the river Assinarus. Following the sister commentary on Book 6, the Commentary offers students considerable help understanding the Greek while the Introduction discusses Thucydides' narrative skill and the part these books play in the architecture of the history.

Alexander the Great in Arrian’s ›Anabasis‹

Alexander the Great in Arrian’s ›Anabasis‹ PDF Author: Vasileios Liotsakis
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110659972
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Arrian’s Alexandrou Anabasis constitutes the most reliable account at our disposal about Alexander the Great's campaign in Asia. However, whereas the work has been thoroughly studied as a historical source, its literary qualities have been relatively neglected, with no autonomous monograph existing on this matter. Vasileios Liotsakis fills this gap in the studies of Alexander the Great’s literary tradition, by offering the first monograph on Arrian’s compositional strategies. Liotsakis focuses on the narrative techniques and verbal choices, through which Arrian allows praise and criticism to intermingle in his portrait of the Macedonian king. His main point of argument is that Arrian systematically exploits an abundance of narrative means (military descriptions, presentation of peoples, march-narratives, anachronies, and epic elements) in order to draw the reader’s attention not only to Alexander’s intellectual skills but also to the fact that the king was gradually corrupted by his success. This book puts Arrian’s literary contrivances under the microscope, sheds new light on unexplored aspects of the Anabasis’ narrative arrangement, and contributes to the studies of Alexander’s prosopography in Classical historiography.

The Greek World 479-323 BC

The Greek World 479-323 BC PDF Author: Simon Hornblower
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136831258
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 455

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Book Description
The Greek World 479-323 BC has been an indispensable guide to classical Greek history since its first publication nearly thirty years ago. Now Simon Hornblower has comprehensively revised and partly rewritten his original text, bringing it up-to-date for yet another generation of readers. In particular, this fourth edition takes full account of recent and detailed scholarship on Greek poleis across the Hellenic world, allowing for further development of the key theme of regional variety across the Mediterranean and beyond. Other extensive changes include a new sub-chapter on Islands, a completely updated bibliography, and revised citation of epigraphic material relating to the fourth-century BC. With valuable coverage of the broader Mediterranean world in which Greek culture flourished, as well as close examination of Athens, Sparta, and the other great city-states of Greece itself, this fourth edition of a classic work is a more essential read than ever before.

Thucydides on International Law and Political Theory

Thucydides on International Law and Political Theory PDF Author: Iacovos Kareklas
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1498599591
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
Thucydides on International Law and Political Theory demonstrates that in classical times, especially in the era of the Peloponnesian War, international law and strategy existed in an advanced form among the city-states of ancient Greece. It shows how the work of Thucydides and classical Greek international law and politics have influenced aspects of modern international law and international politics. Iacovos Kareklas extensively analyzes Thucydidean political realism and indicates how it differs from modern realist and neo-realist theories of politics and presents that the “just war” theory of Thucydides’s time formed the legal and political basis of contemporary kinds of military intervention. Further, interstate treaties as listed in the work of Thucydides are categorized, interpreted, and commented upon. The military strategy of classical Greece and the role of religion in foreign policy decision making are also emphasized.

Information Gathering in Classical Greece

Information Gathering in Classical Greece PDF Author: Frank Santi Russell
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 9780472110643
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
"Information Gathering in Classical Greece opens with chapters on tactical, strategic, and covert agents. Methods of communication are explored, from fire-signals to dead-letter drops. Frank Russell categorizes and defines the collectors and sources of information according to their era, methods, and spheres of operation, and he also provides evidence from ancient authors on interrogation and the handling and weighing of information. Counterintelligence is also explored, together with disinformation through "leaks" and agents. The author concludes this fascinating study with observations on the role that intelligence-gathering has in the kind of democratic society for which Greece has always been famous"--Publisher description.

Thucydides and the Shaping of History

Thucydides and the Shaping of History PDF Author: Emily Greenwood
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472502442
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
Thucydides' work was one of the most exciting creations in the cultural history of Greece in the fifth century BC - one of only two monumental prose works to have survived - and it still poses fresh and challenging questions about the writing of history. In the twenty-first century, it still challenges the reader: there is a marked tension in Thucydides' History between his aim to write about contemporary events and his desire that his work should outlast the period in which he composed it. Thucydides and the Shaping of History addresses two important issues: how contemporary was the History when it was written in the fifth century, and how 'contemporary' is it now? This book approaches the shaping of history from three different angles: the way in which Thucydides shaped history and how his narrative shapes our experience as readers of the History; the relationship between Thucydides' work and contemporary institutions, such as the theatre; and the role that ancient readers and modern scholars have played in shaping how we perceive the History. This book combines a close analysis of Thucydides' narrative with a discussion of its intellectual motivation; it examines how the historian attempted to determine the way in which readers would respond to his conception of the events of the Atheno-Peloponnesian War, and to ensure the continuing influence of his ideas.