Early African warfare: Nubian archers in the Middle Kingdom (from the Nubian museum in Aswan, Egypt) The beginnings of war There has been fighting in Africa since the early Stone [...]
Testudo formation on the Column of Trajan, Rome What did the Roman army do? The Roman army fought many wars over the long history of the Roman Empire. For hundreds [...]
Roman soldiers on the Column of Marcus Aurelius, Rome The Romans were (along with some Greek city-states) among the first people on Earth to pay their soldiers a regular salary so that they could be [...]
So-called "Mars of Todi", an Etruscan statue from about 500 BC What was Mars the god of? Mars was the Roman god of war and fighting, the son of Juno (all by herself, with [...]
Indra, 4-5th c. AD (Mathura, India) Who was Indra? In the earliest Hindu stories that we know of, from the Rig Veda, Indra is the ruler of the Hindu gods, the [...]
Greek warfare: hoplite soldiers (Chigi Vase, ca. 650 BC) Wars were very common in ancient Greece. The Greeks lived in little city-states, each one like a small town in the United [...]
Greek hoplites and democracy - a Corinthian helmet from the 600s BC Hoplites needed armor When the Greek city-states turned to this new hoplite way of fighting, it meant that each man [...]
Ancient Greek soldiers - Greek hoplites in a phalanx formation (Chigi Vase, ca. 650 BC) Before the hoplite phalanx In the Bronze Age, and in the early part of the [...]
A pentekontor People called the earliest Greek warships pentekontors. They were probably designed to compete with similar Phoenician ships being built about the same time. Pentekontors were long, narrow ships, designed to [...]
The god Ares, on an Athenian black figure vase from about 570 BC What is Ares the god of? Ares is the ancient Greek god of war , and so [...]
