A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry
A look at history and popular culture
This is the first half of the second part of our three part (I, IIa, IIb, IIIa, IIIb) look at Paradox Interactive's Hellenistic-era grand strategy game Imperator: Rome. I had hoped to do this part in a single post, but my book writing schedule intervened and so it became necessary to split it up. Last … Continue reading Collections: Teaching Paradox, Imperator, Part IIa: Pops and Chains
This week, in part as a follow-on to our series on the contest between Hellenistic armies and Roman legions, I wanted to take the opportunity to talk about Alexander III, who you almost certainly know as Alexander the Great. But I want to discuss his reign with that title, 'the Great' (magnus in Latin or … Continue reading Collections: On the Reign of Alexander III of Macedon, the Great? Part I
This is the third part of the fourth part of our four(ish) part (Ia, Ib, IIa, IIb, IIIa, IIIb, IVa, IVb, IVc, V) look at the how the Roman military system and its manipular legion were able to defeat the Hellenistic military system and its Macedonian sarisa phalanx in the third and second centuries BC. … Continue reading Collections: Phalanx’s Twilight, Legion’s Triumph, Part IVc: Perseus
This week on the blog we are starting what is a planned four-part ten-part series (Ia, Ib, IIa, IIb, IIIa, IIIb, IVa, IVb, IVc, V) looking at the twilight of Hellenistic warfare and the triumph of the Roman legion. Our core question is a really common one: why was the Roman legion able to decisively defeat … Continue reading Collections: Phalanx’s Twilight, Legion’s Triumph, Part Ia: Heirs of Alexander
This week, on a bit of a lark, we're going to discuss the most common weapon, by far, in the Iron Age Mediterranean (focusing on the period from the 8th to the 1st centuries BC): the humble, effective and ubiquitous thrusting spear. In particular, I want to discuss the striking fact that despite the wide … Continue reading Collections: The Mediterranean Iron Omni-Spear
This week on the blog we're going to talk about Cleopatra or to be more specific, we're going to talk about Cleopatra VII Philopator, who is the only Cleopatra you've likely ever heard of, but that 'seven' after he name should signal that she's not the only Cleopatra. One of the trends in scholarship over … Continue reading Collections: On the Reign of Cleopatra