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We relate with Athens, but idealize Sparta
Paul A. Rahe opens The Spartan Regime with an astute point on how we perceive the ancient Spartans and Athenians. Of course, we may prefer the Athenians, regarding them as more like ourselves, and we may well be right not only in that judgment but in our moral and political preferences as well. Our predilections notwithstanding,…
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Trebuchets on Screen: Chronicles of Narnia
Last month, I emphasized that nothing says medieval like a trebuchet when it comes to film. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008) turns notion on its head by enhancing the traditional trebuchet with an industrial-like enhancement. In the climactic battle of the film, one of the armies employs a double-armed trebuchet that continually swings, seemingly using…
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In Film, Nothing Says Medieval like a Trebuchet
In Remaking the Middle Ages (2011), Andrew B. R. Elliott coined the term “historicon” to identify a film’s “visual conventions which each aim to evoke to the spectator an element of ‘medievality.’” ((Andrew B. R. Elliott, Remaking the Middles Ages: The Methods of Cinema and History in Portraying the Medieval World (Jefferson: McFarland, 2011), 182.)) He provides numerous…
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What the Hell is the Nature of Hellenistic Kingship?
Anyone reading about the Hellenistic Period—the 3 centuries between Alexander and Cleopatra’s deaths—will inevitably learn that kings (and generals) gained legitimacy through military victory. That’s just the nature of Hellenistic kingship, or leadership, or generalship. Sometimes a work will provide details, explaining that when Alexander left no heir and his generals fought over the remains of his…
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Book Review: Roman Empire at War
Taylor, Don. Roman Empire at War: A Compendium of Battles from 31 BC to AD 565. Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2016. Don Taylor has produced a handsome volume on the battles of the Roman Empire. While the book does provide some introductory material on the Roman army and the ancient and early medieval sources about…
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These Weapons Killed Leonidas
Those visiting the site of the Battle of Thermopylae (480 BC) will be disappointed to learn that the battlefield has changed dramatically after 2,500 years. This was not due to development, but instead nature—earthquakes, deposits from the nearby hot springs, sediment deposition, and changes in the sea level. The result is the shoreline is now…
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Caesar’s Account of Bodies Piling up in Battle
Inspired by the “Battle of the Bastards” episode from Game of Thrones, we are looking at ancient accounts of bodies piling up during battle. Caesar’s account of the Battle of the Sambre (57 BC) provides one of the only ancient eyewitness accounts of bodies piling up in battle. ((The Latin is Sabis. Sambre is the…
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Joan of Arc Fired Cannons, not Trebuchets
We know a lot about Joan of Arc including that she besieged cities with cannons, not trebuchets. Yet, when it came time to showcase Joan’s army using siege weapons in The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999), director Luc Besson went with a siege tower and a trebuchet. It’s easy to let this medievalism…
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Bodies Piling up at the Battle of Zama (202 BC)
Inspired by the “Battle of the Bastards” episode from Game of Thrones, we are looking at ancient accounts of bodies piling up during battle. Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca, who had terrorized the Italian Peninsula for 16 years, fought his last battle at Zama against Roman general Scipio Africanus. This battle marks the first instance where…
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Trebuchets on Screen: Conan the Barbarian
The reboot of Conan the Barbarian (2011) is a far cry from its predecessors, but it does incorporate a trebuchet, a distinctly medieval machine. In this fantasy world that appropriates all sorts of medievalism to spark a sense of the Other in viewers, it is obviously more fiction than reality. However, the trebuchet must succumb to…
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Bodies Piling up at the Battle of Issus (333 BC)
Inspired by the “Battle of the Bastards” episode from Game of Thrones, we are looking at ancient accounts of bodies piling up during battle. In the search for piles of bodies in ancient battles, the analysis of Diodorus’s account of Leuctra is disappointing for its unreliability. Worse, it likely means Diodorus’s account of Alexander the…
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Medieval Roots: Wolverine as a Hedgehog of Arrows
One of the most striking images from medieval histories is the crusader penetrated with arrows and still fighting. One Christian chronicler evoked the otherwise harmless “hedgehog” to describe English King Richard I, as he fought on with arrows protruding from his body. ((A Christian chronicler described Richard as a “hedgehog” at Jaffa (1192). Ambroise, The History…
