Unit Cohesion and Warfare in the Ancient World

Military and Social Approaches

Joshua R. Hall, Louis Rawlings, Geoff Lee

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2023
• ISBN:
  9781351695800
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: History

This book explores unit cohesion in ancient armies, and how this contributed to the making of war in the Mediterranean world. It takes a varied approach to the subject, from looking at individual groups within larger armies to juxtaposing vertical and horizontal types of cohesion, providing a more detailed understanding of how groups were kept together.

Within the broader definition of 'unit cohesion', this volume approaches more specific aspects of military cohesion in the ancient Mediterranean world including how individual soldiers commit to one another; how armies and units are maintained through hierarchy and the 'chain of command'; and social cohesion, in which social activities and aspects of social power help bind an army or unit together. Examples from across the ancient Mediterranean are explored in this volume, from Classical Greece to Late Antiquity, with topics such as how armies and units cohere during the sacking of cities, Roman standards as a focus of religious cohesion, and how the multi-ethnic mercenary armies of Carthage cohered. Modern approaches to social cohesion are deployed throughout, and these essays serve as an important complement to existing literature on unit cohesion more generally.

Unit Cohesion and Warfare in the Ancient World is of interest to students and scholars of ancient warfare, military history and military studies, as well as those working on the ancient Mediterranean world more broadly.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Contributors
• Unit Cohesion in the Ancient World: An Introduction
• 1 The Eager Amateur: Unit Cohesion and the Athenian Hoplite Phalanx
• 2 The Rhodian Slingers in Xenophon's Anabasis
• 3 Keeping It Together: Aeneas Tacticus and Unit Cohesion in Ancient Greek Siege Warfare
• 4 ‘Once within the Gates’: Storming Cities and Unit Cohesion in Ancient Mediterranean Warfare
• 5 Unit Cohesion in the Multi-Ethnic Armies of Carthage
• 6 Roman Standards and Trumpets as Implements of Cohesion in Battle
• 7 The Legionary Standards as a Means of Religious Cohesion
• 8 Looking for Unit Cohesion at the End of Antiquity
• 9 ‘… They Were Routed’: Cohesion and Disintegration in Ancient Battle
• Index