Full Description
Taking a populist approach to a serious subject, Myke Cole combines a novelist's flair for drama with an ancient historian's eye for detail to create a unique book that delves into one of the most popular areas of the Ancient World.
From the time of Ancient Sumeria, the heavy infantry phalanx dominated the battlefield. Armed with spears or pikes, standing shoulder to shoulder with shields interlocking, the men of the phalanx presented an impenetrable wall of wood and metal to the enemy. Until, that is, the Roman legion emerged to challenge them as masters of infantry battle.
Covering the period in which the legion and phalanx clashed (280-168 BC), Myke Cole delves into their tactics, arms and equipment, organization and deployment. He draws on original primary sources to examine six battles in which the legion fought the phalanx - Heraclea (280 BC), Asculum (279 BC), Beneventum (275 BC), Cynoscephalae (197 BC), Magnesia (190 BC), and Pydna (168 BC).
Cole shows how and why the Roman legion, with its flexible organization, versatile tactics and iron discipline, came to eclipse the hitherto untouchable Hellenistic phalanx and dominate the ancient battlefield.
Contents
Preface
Chronology
Maps
PART I: And in this Corner . . . Examining the Legion and the Phalanx
1. Who Would Win in a Fight? The Eagle and the Lion
2. Not your Father's Phalanx: The Legacy of Iphicrates
3. Mules that Kill: Under the Eagle of Rome
PART II: Fight! The Legion versus the Phalanx in Six Battles
4. Heraclea (280 BC): Rome's First Test
5. Asculum (279 BC): "One more such victory, and we are undone."
6. Beneventum (275 BC): Pyrrhus' Last Gasp
7. Cynoscephalae (197 BC): The Legion Triumphant
8. Magnesia (190 BC): No Refuge for Hannibal
9. Pydna (168 BC): The Fall of the Antigonids
10. Legions and Phalanxes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
