The greatest battle narratives

[Jona Lendering]

I am trying to make a list of must-read battle narratives of Antiquity. The battle's importance is irrelevant, what matters is whether there is a good story that tells something about ancient warfare.

My favorites are

* Darius against the Scyths 513, as told by Herodotus
* Marathon 490, as told by Herodotus
* Thermopylae 480, as told by Herodotus
* Artemision 480, as told by Herodotus
* Mantinea 418, as told by Thucydides
* Syracuse 415-413, as told by Thucydides
* Lechaeum 390, as told by Xenophon
* Leuctra 371, as told by Xenophon
* Issus 333, as told by Arrian
* Scythians 329, as told by Arrian
* Gabene 318, as told by Diodorus
* Ecnomus 256, as told by Polybius
* Cynoscephalae 197, as told by Polybius
* Pydna 168, as told by Livy
* Carthage 146, as told by Appian

[now I don't know...]

* Nervians 57, as told by Caesar
* Avaricum 52, as told by Caesar
* Pharsalus 48, as told by Caesar
* Philippi 42, as told by Appian
* Teutoburg Forrest 9 AD, as told by Cassius Dio
* Idistaviso 16, as told by Tacitus
* 1st Cremona 69, as told by Tacitus
* Masada 73 or 74, as told by Flavius Josephus
* Strasburg 357, as told by Ammianus
* Adrianopel 378, as told by Ammianus

Which ones did I miss?

[Praefectusclassis]

What qualifies as a 'must read'?

[Jona Lendering]

Good stories, page turners. The siege of Masada was not very important, but it's a good story, isn't it?

[Kate Gilliver]

What makes a great battle narrative? Just one that's a page-turner? Does it have to be accurate?!
One that's a bit different by avoiding some of the standard themes that recur in so many narratives? (some standard Roman ones being father meets son / brother meets brother etc. on opposing sides in battle in civil war; two sides in civil war battles fight in eery silence - Appian loves that one). If so, then Lucan and Silius Italicus might be worth a mention, though they are poetry so hardly classic pitched battle narratives (and Silius Italicus was probably mad or on something).
Does an eye-witness battle account get extra credit? You've got some Caesar up there, but try Ammianus' account of the siege of Amida which I think's one of the most exciting personal accounts of any military action from antiquity (afraid Ammianus is in the office so I can't give you a ref, but it's in the Penguin trans. - AD 359)
I also like Sulpicius Galba's personal account of Forum Gallorum (Cicero ad Fam 10.30 - you can almost feel the adrenaline rushing through the guy as he's writing the letter to Cicero straight after the engagement. I prefer it to Appian's 'set piece' description in Civil War 3.68.

Bit surprised to see absence of any Punic war battles - you could have a great time arguing over whether Livy or Polybius provides greater excitement.

Finally - cos I'm on sabbatical so feeling flippant - how about Cassius Dio's narrative of the defeat of Boudicca? It's a real page-turner - at least in the Loeb edition where you have to turn 11 because of his tedious over-blown battle orations :wink:

Kate

[hoplite14gr]

Cunaxa by Xenofon (have skythed chariots!!!!!)


Kind regards

[Nathan Ross]

Concerning Tacitus, I would say that his account of Cremona 2 is the better one - perhaps it was just a bigger battle, but he also seems better informed about it. Plus there are the details of the soldiers disabling the enemy catapult and the third legion saluting the sun.

As for Caesar, I tend to prefer his descriptions of the less triumphant clashes - sometimes he seems to concentrate on the smaller details to try and obscure the bigger picture - but it's these small details which the modern reader tends to find most interesting! Thus I'd cite his Dyrrachium over Pharsalus, for example. The piece from the Gallic Wars about the defeat of the the fourteenth legion at Aduatuca in 54bc (quoted in the 'Roman Heroes' thread) is also splendid, and informative too - e.g. the division of leadership between two legates, and the subsequent confusion in command, plus the apparent willingness of relatively fresh troops to kill themselves rather than surrender. The siege of Q.Cicero's camp (unidentified, afaik, but probably somewhere near modern Namur?) the following year is very good, if only for the original appearance of top modern comedy duo Vorenus and Pullo :lol:

A good list though - shame there's nothing (as yet) from the II or IIIrd centuries. Does Arrian's battle plan count? Short as it is - hardly a 'narrative' - and perhaps far from accurate, I do like Zosimus' brief description of Emesa in 272.

And I second the scythed chariots - from Plutarch's 'Sulla' I believe.

[Jona Lendering]

That's nine additions, all of them excellent ideas and none of them on my longlist of 68 battles, of which the preceding list was a selection. I will post the full list Friday afternoon and explain why I am doing this. Please continue to mention battles about which you liked to read.

[Nathan Ross]

I would put Cassius Dio's account of Actium in the list too - perhaps not a 100% accurate account of the 'real' battle, but certainly a dramatic description of naval warfare in the Roman era.

[Jona Lendering]

I have been invited to write a book on ancient battles. Now there have been written many of these books already, so I have chosen as theme "fog of war": a battle is completely chaotic, no one knows what really happens, and it is therefore easy to create effective propaganda. That will be the central thought of this book. I will treat more than fifty battle narratives, quoting a substantial part of them, and explaining the mechanisms of propaganda.

With your help, I have made a long-list of about 80 battles, which was cut back to just over fifty. Selection criteria: historical importance (e.g., decisive battles); military importance (innovation); historiographical importance (is the story famous? the reader may not be disappointed); and finally - fights I personally find interesting (e.g., Bar Kochba).

Here's the "shortlist":

Prologue: the Trojan War
- because Homer is pretty accurate as far as mutilations are concerned

1. Battle of Der, 720
- two contradicting royal inscriptions; Chronicle ABC 1

2. Sack of Nineveh, 612
- Chronicle ABC 3
- world historical importance

3. Fall of Babylon, 539
- Cyrus cylinder; Chronicle ABC 7
- [url:34lz1d2p]http://www.livius.org/ct-cz/cyrus_I/babylon02.htm[/url]l
- [url:34lz1d2p]http://www.livius.org/ct-cz/cyrus_I/babylon05.html[/url]
- world historical importance

4. Pelusium, 525
- Herodotus 3.11-12 + naophorus of Uzahor-Resne ([url:34lz1d2p]http://www.livius.org/w/wedjahorresne/wedjahorresne.htm[/url])
- illustration of Persian imperialism; Herodotus is funny

5. Marathon, 490
- Herodotus 6.111-114
- my readers will be disappointed if it's not there

6. Thermopylae, 480
- Herodotus 7.210-233
- my readers will be disappointed if it's not there

7. Salamis, 480
- Herodotus 8.83-98
- my readers will be disappointed if it's not there; I preferred Artemisium
- however, [url:34lz1d2p]http://www.livius.org/saa-san/samas-eriba/samas-eriba.html[/url] is interesting

8. Eurymedon, c.465
- Diodorus 11.60-62
- [url:34lz1d2p]http://www.livius.org/a/turkey/eurymedon/eurymedon.html[/url] explains why this battle is included

9. Sybota, 432
- Thucydides 1.43-55
- interesting naval battle

10. Mantinea, 418
- Thucydides 5.66-74
- interesting hoplite battle with a classic remark about the phalanx' drift to the right

11. Siege of Syracuse, 414-413
- Thucydides 7.85-87
- Thucydides at his very best

12. Aegospotamoi, 405
- Xenophon, Hellenica 2.2
- historical significance

13. The Ten Thousand in Armenia, 400
- Xenophon, Anabasis 4.4
- because it's an interesting sociological document

14. Lechaeum, 395
- Xenophon, Hellenica 4.4.16
- military significance: peltasts

15. Leuctra, 371
- Xenophon, Hellenica 6.4
- because of it military significance

16. Issus, 333
- Arrian, Anabasis 2.6-11
- because it is one of the few battles that we can really reconstruct (cf. Keegan, Face of Battle)

17. Gaugamela, 331
- AD -330 ([url:34lz1d2p]http://www.livius.org/cg-cm/chronicles/bchp-alexander/astronomical_diary-330_01.html[/url])
- because [url:34lz1d2p]http://www.livius.org/aj-al/alexander/alexander_z7.html[/url]

18. Jaxartes, 329
- Arrian, Anabasis 4.4
- Alexander at his best: fleet, artillery, cavalry, infantry all in one battle

19. The Mallians, 325
- Arrian, Anabasis 6.5-8
- genocide

20. Paraetacene, 318
- Diodorus 19.27-31
- brilliant account of a Hellenistic battle

21. Babylonian War, 311
- Diodorus 19.90-93, 19.100; Polyaenus 4.9.1; BCHP 3, reverse
- personal favorite; cf. [url:34lz1d2p]http://www.livius.org/di-dn/diadochi/war06.html[/url]

22. Sentinum, 295
- Livy 10.27-31
- because of the devotio of Decius Mus reminds me of Leonidas

23. Ecnomus, 265
- Polybius 1.26-28
- [url:34lz1d2p]http://www.livius.org/sh-si/sicily/sicily_t25.html[/url]
- because this is one of the greatest naval battles in history

24. Hannibal in the Alps, 218
- Livy 21.32.6-37.6
- because my readers will be disappointed if it's not there

25. Trasimene Lake, 217
- Livy 22.4-7
- because it's one of the few major battles that started with a trap

26. Cannae, 216
- Livy 22.44-51
- because my readers will be disappointed if it's not there

27. Zama, 202
- Livy 30.32-35
- historical importance

28. Cynoscephalae, 197
- Polybius 18.29-32
- military significance: legion beats phalanx
- the alternative is Pydna, but Polybius' account is excellent and culminates in a famous comparison of the two types of warfare

29. Siege of Carthage, 146
- Appian, Punic War 127-132
- personal favorite

30. Siege of Jerusalem, 63
- Flavius Josephus and 1QpHab 5.12-7.5 (Dead Sea scroll)
- because of the interesting second source

31. Carrhae, 53
- Plutarch, Crassus 19-33
- because I want to make it clear, once and for all, that Carrhae is not in the desert; I don't know why this is so often stated

32. Alesia, 52
- Caesar, Gallic war
- military and historical significance - and of course lovely propaganda

33. Dyrrhachium, 49/48
- Caesar, Civil war 3
- because, as someone here said, Caesar is at his best when he describes his reverses

34. Pharsalus, 48
- Caesar, Civil war 3.88-95
- world historical significance

35. Philippi, 42
- Appian, Civil wars 4.105-138
- because this is a great story

36. Actium, 31
- Cassius Dio 50.31-34
- Virgil, Aeneid 8.671-713
- because of the tremendous amount of propaganda based on this battle

37. Teutoburg Forest 9 A.D.
- Cassius Dio 56.18-24
- Velleius Paterculus 2.117-120
- Tacitus, Annals 1.60-62
- Florus 2.30
- [url:34lz1d2p]http://www.livius.org/te-tg/teutoburg/teutoburg01.htm[/url]
- because otherwise, these words would be written in French

38. Flevum, 28
- Tacitus, Annals 4.72-73
- because Tacitus' story fits the excavation

39. Pilate and the Samaritan prophet, 36
- Flavius Josephus, Jewish antiquities 18.85-87
- I think my readers will be surprised

40. Boudicca
- Cassius Dio 62.1-14
- no real reason, but a book without Britain would be incomplete

41. Street fighting in Rome, 69
- Tacitus, Histories 3.82-84
- because I could not make decision between First and Second Cremona

42. Siege of Jerusalem, 70
- Excerpts from Flavius Josephus
- world historical significance

43. Bar Kochba, 132-136
- several sources
- personal favorite ([url:34lz1d2p]http://www.livius.org/ja-jn/jewish_wars/jwar07.html[/url])

44. Limes
- Not a real battle, of course, but is is important

45. Severus' Parthian campaigns, 193-196
- Herodian 3.9
- Cassius Dio, 75.1-3, 9-12
- Arch of Severus ([url:34lz1d2p]http://www.livius.org/a/italy/rome/arch_severus/arch_severus1.html[/url])
- because I like this combination of evidence

46. Valerian's Persian campaign, 260
- Lactantius, Death of the Persecutors 5
- Sassanid text from Naqsh-e Rustam
- Sassanid relief from Bishapur
- because I like those Sassanid reliefs and have Iranian friends

47. Milvian Bridge, 312
- Eusebius, Life of Constantine 1.26-32
- Eusebius, History of the church 9.9
- world historical importance

48. Siege of Amida, 359
- Ammianus Marcellinus 19.1-8
- great description of a siege

49. Adrianople, 378
- Ammianus Marcellinus 31.12-13
- because this was an important battle

50. Sack of Rome, 410
- Orosius 7.39
- because of the symbolical importance

51. Catalaunian fields, 452
- Jordanes, Getica 118-218
- because it's one of the few battles of the fifth century we have an account of

52. Overthrow of the Burgundians, 437
- I know that this disturbs the chronological arrangement, but soit.
- Nibelungenlied 38
- because this is a source of a completely different, medieval type

[Jon Eaton]

How about Tacitus' account of the battle at Mons Graupius in the Agricola?

[Jona Lendering]

I've considered it. My publisher and I have used three criteria to decide which battles were useful and which were not. But the battle was not decisive (Agricola was recalled); there were no new battle techniques; nor is the story famous in Holland - and I am writing in Dutch... I do not think the book will be translated into English, which might be the moment to include this fight (and leave out Flevum).

[Philhellene]

I would add the battle of Ipsus (301 BC) - between 21st and 22nd.
- Plutarque, Demetrius, 28-29.
- decisive battle of the war of Diadochi

And siege of Rhodes (305/304 BC) - in the same place
- Plutarque, Demetrius, 21-22.
- because of innovations

[Jona Lendering]

I'll consider it - thanks for the suggestion. Rhodes is indeed important.