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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…
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Trebuchets on Screen: Game of Thrones
Yes, I’m critiquing the plausibility of this trebuchet while ignoring the dragons. The “Battle of the Bastards” episode from Game of Thrones introduced a new twist on the trebuchet, utilizing gravity but defying physics and logic. It was in the background of the siege of Meereen. Blink and you’ll miss it. Like a trebuchet, the…
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Bodies Piling up at the Battle of Leuctra (371 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. Writing more than 300 years after the Battle of Leuctra, Greek historian Diodorus (c. 80-20 BC) tells us of the battle between a Spartan-led army against the Boeotian coalition led by Epaminondas…
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Military historians don’t evoke other battles like they used to
In doing some research on the Battle of Marathon, I was reading the late A. R. Burn’s Persia and the Greeks (1962). He gets into the nitty-gritty of topography, religion, logistics, strategy, and tactics. Over the course of 13 pages describing the lead up to the battle and its aftermath, Burn evoked numerous battles from other…
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Bodies Piling up at the Battle of Cremera (477 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. Starting with the oldest account I found—Cremera—the common problem with many of these ancient accounts immediately appears, as almost all of these historians were writing well after the events. For example,…
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8 Ancient Accounts of Bodies Piling up in Battle
With the airing of Game of Thrones’ “Battle of the Bastards” episode, many historians, myself included, offered commentary on how scenes resembled those found in medieval chronicles. One of the more unusual aspects, at least for Hollywood productions, was the piles of bodies on the battlefield. Numerous articles recounted how the episode’s creators were inspired…
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War is Hell: A Military History of Hellraiser
The Hellraiser franchise features some of the most unforgettable imagery, even if you haven’t seen a single film. Pinhead is a pop-culture icon who sits comfortably alongside Freddy Kruger and Jason. My parents wisely kept me away from these movies as a child, but in my rebellious 30’s, I have watched them with an initial tongue-in-cheek…
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Edward Longshanks Sent His Heart and Bones to War?
The deathbed image of English King Edward I (r. 1272-1307) refusing to show mercy to William Wallace is a modern one, but also completely false. Edward had Wallace executed nearly 2 years before he himself died. The king was far from his deathbed at that point. Thanks, Braveheart. Remarkably, this is not the most fantastical…
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4 Reasons Why Battle of the Bastards was no Cannae
I received some criticism on my Game of Thrones article–Battle of the Bastards is Straight from Medieval Chronicles. In particular, some folks are shocked by the lack of any mention of Cannae (216 BC), the ancient battle where Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca enveloped a numerically-superior Roman army and destroyed it. SPOILER WARNING Despite the notion…
