It is the 1,900th anniversary of the building of Hadrian's Wall, that is if it was begun in AD 122 and not AD 119. Not only is there doubt over the year construction was started on the wall, but we also are not completely sure what its function was. As such, a good topic for the team to discuss.
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Rich posed this question for Murray, 'we have a relatively good picture of what the Roman Legionary weapons and materiel manufacturing process looked like (at least for some time periods).
Do we have any similar information for the Philippian/Alexandrian Macedonian army? That's a lot of 16-foot-long sarissa shafts and spear points to manufacture, and I'm curious what we know about it'.
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Patron of the podcast Chris writes, 'we are told right before the great Illyrian revolt of AD 6-9, the Romans were preparing a campaign against king Maroboduus and the Marcomanni. It is said he had an army of 74,000 (70,000 infantry and 4,000 Cavalry). What do you guys think the outcome would have been of that war/campaign; would he have stood a chance resisting the roman campaign?'
Murray gives us his opinion.
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Scot emailed us this question for Murray to answer; 'Certain tribal confederations, like the Franks & Saxons, typically bear "namesake" weapons (e.g. the Francisca and the Sax). Is the name of the weapon thought to be derived from the name of the confederation, or is the name of the confederation derived from the weapon?'
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In this episode of the Ancient Warfare Magazine podcast Jasper, Murray and Myke talk to games designer Mark Backhouse about his new game Strength & Honour.
The game allows you to recreate battles from the start of the Marian reforms in Rome around 105BC, when the professional Roman legionaries organised in cohorts replaced the older Republican Legion structure of maniples, through to about 200AD.
Patron of the podcast James poses this question for Murray, 'The number of Spartan soldiers declined from its high of 10,000 to less than 2,000 around its defeat by Thebes due, in part, to increasing economic concentration and the resulting decline in the number of soldiers able to pay their mess contributions. Did Spartan society recognise this decline as a problem, and were there efforts to reverse this trend? If there were, why did they fail?'
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Murray is on his own this week. He answers this question sent in from patron of the podcast, Greg; 'How widespread was the use of Hamippoi in 5th BC Greece?'
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Murray answers this question sent in from Christoper, 'do the sources tell us anything about the Spartan warrior Arimnestus who threw the rock that killed Mardonius? I am curious if we know if he survived the battle and if he would have been honoured for his efforts in the victory?'
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The legion that wrested control of the Mediterranean region from Carthage and the Successor states is very familiar. But some notions have recently been challenged.
Following the discussion of the Roman legion in episode 119, the Ancient Warfare team returns to the topic with this episode looking at issue XV.4 of the magazine.
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Patron of the podcast Lubos asks, 'Why was the greek phalanx so ineffective against the Romans? Were they just obsolete or just that the Greek generals didn't evolve their tactics and formations to counter roman maniples?'
Murray gives us his opinion.
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Sparked by current events in the work patron of the podcast Carlos asks 'what steps did ancient commanders do to ensure that their army's logistics were in order?'
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Murray is still in New Zealand but has found the time to answer this question from patron of the podcast Chris.
'How much do we trust Homer? Are there good examples of corroborating accounts that give us the means to verify or put his missives in context?'
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Murray is on holiday in New Zealand, but while on his travels he has found the time to answer this question from Christopher.
'Do we have any indication as to what Epaminondas of Thebes looked like? He was a fantastic general and I find it strange that we have not found any statues or busts that portray him. Is it because Alexander razed Thebes to the ground?"
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We were due to look at the latest issue of the magazine Rise of the Legion pt.II. As the issue has only just been released, we thought we would save the discussion on that topic for the next full episode of the podcast in May.
In the meantime, Myke suggested the team discuss commanders as tactical units and whether they participated in the fighting, or command from behind the lines?
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Murray tackles this question from Jorn Schneider, 'How did generals plan campaigns and how did armies find out where to go without maps?'
Murray is once more without Jasper but give us his opinion on what he thinks mattered most in Ancient Warfare.
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Murray is on his own this week and tackles this question sent in by Patron of the podcast Paul, 'Name one event in Ancient Warfare where the majority of the sources are in agreement with an event happening, be it a battle or an event during a battle, etc. but you call foul - never happened - and vice versa.'
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While we wait for the latest episode of the magazine to be released, Murray suggested the Ancient Warfare team address one of the questions sent from a listener.
What do you think was the most important factor in ancient warfare?
Anne asks 'how did ancient armies and generals inspire (coerce?) loyalty among the troops?'
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Patron of the podcast Carlos sent us this question, 'what were the methods used by groups like the Romans or any of the Near East powers to counter the firepower discipline and mobility of the horse archer nomad armies?'
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Murray gives his thoughts on this question sent in by Greg 'There are quite a few examples of the use of recon and scouting from ancient warfare (perhaps more where it didn't happen!). Also, we see examples of espionage and intel via xenoi relationships in the Greek world. But how much did we see what we might recognise as military intelligence, and how dependant was it on the personality of a commander?'
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Adam asks 'Slings are an iconic weapon of the ancient period, but don't seem to have been used much in later periods. What made them so suited to ancient warfare?' Murray is on his own and tackles this one.
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Do you think the “Grass Crown” was really a rare award or that it just wasn’t written about very often for whatever reason?
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Murray tackles this question on the Silver Shields.
Do we have any evidence that the Silver Sheilds' actual combat effectiveness began to diminish as they grew old? How much of it was true strength and how much of it was fearsome reputation? How unique were these 'old' veterans in ancient warfare?
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