In this episode, Murray muses on a question sent in by Nathan asking if, in the ancient world, there was some sort of volley fire such as we see in the 19th century with ranks of infantry.

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Andy has been listening to rival podcasts as points out that 'the term assassin does not turn up until after the crusades. My understanding is there were plenty of assassinations before this. What term did the Romans use? Where these people specially trained?' 

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Curt asks Murray, 'did Alexander The Great’s army introduce Pankration to India? If so could Pankration have contributed to the future expansion of martial arts from India to China & other Asian countries?'

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Jasper, the editor of Ancient Warfare Magazine, asked on social media what themes readers felt the magazine had not covered but should or themes it should revisit. The team look at what suggestions were sent in and give some thoughts of their own.

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Jacob wonders, 'if field artillery was ever used against a Macedonian-style phalanx? If not, why not? The close formation and immobility of the phalanx would leave it extremely susceptible to scorpion, ballista, etc fire.' 

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Carlos asks, 'in the current war in Ukraine, we've seen Ukrainian soldiers write insulting messages and trolling ones on artillery shells before firing them at Russian forces. Did a similar practice exist in the ancient Mediterranean world with soldiers writing insults and or the use of verbal insults.'

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Wyton asks, 'During the republic, what were the Romans Italian allies armed with, and how did they fight? As legionaries or some other method?'

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Robert asks, 'Why javelins? It seems that a bow would be a much better weapon for a skirmish in the ancient world, but it seems that javeLin armed light troops may have been the most common type in Europe.

Additionally, if using javelins, why not an atlatl to throw them with? This would make a difference in hitting a target, but one has to believe that range would be an important factor while skirmishing.'

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'Is there today or has there been anyone trying to conduct larger-scale experimental archaeology to try and answer some of the common questions about certain infantry tactics/tropes such as the othismos and open vs closed order legions?' 

Murray tells us about experimental archaeology.

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Alex asks, 'When is the last documented evidence of one of the original Roman Legions being in existence?

I remember reading about Legio V Macedonica being based in Egypt just before the Arab Conquests in the 640s, but I am unsure if this is factually correct'.

Murray lists us the last documented evidence for the Legions.

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Murray talks with Roel Konijnendijk about his recent work on 19th-century German language scholars and how they laid the foundations of much of the 20th century's understanding of Classical Greek warfare. 

Giants like Moltke, Delbrück, Kochly and Rustow's foundations were, however, based on 19th-century understandings of how war worked, and their views (rightfully) have been challenged. This only began in earnest in the late 20th century, and overcoming the dominance of these 19th-century thinkers is still a mountain to climb.

Curt wonders why did Alexander the Great not look westwards, starting with Rome during his conquests? There are a lot of 'what if's' here for Murray to deal with.

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Samuel points out that Xenophon makes reference to the Sciritai as part of the Spartan army foray into Boeotia during the mid-370s). And the sources are a bit patchy.

He asks do we know/can we infer anything about the Sciritai? How did they fit into Spartan society as a whole? What roles did they perform within the Spartan army (on and off the battlefield)? How were they armed? 

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Mark, one of our patrons, wonders if Murray sees a place for AI in helping to translate ancient manuscripts. Could AI step up to help with this and help sort and categorise through keywords, names, etc.

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Listener Andy Shaw wonders why the sarissa 'seems to fall out of use between the two periods even though protecting infantry from cavalry remains a consistent problem across ancient and medieval warfare'?

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Murray gives this thought on this question sent in, 'is the supposed decline in the quality of Hellenistic cavalry true or is that exaggeration with Hellenistic cavalry remaining elite well into the conquest of said Hellenistic kingdoms by the Romans?'

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When did the phalanx become the fully-developed formation we imagine? In this issue of Ancient Warfare, we explore the various changes and developments in the seventh through fifth centuries BC that eventually led to the emergence of the 'Classical' Greek hoplite.

The Ancient Warfare team discuss issue XVI.2 of the magazine, The coming of the Hoplite: Shields, spears and shining bronze.

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Murray ponders why Macedonian casualty figures were low and how enemy casualty figures might have been calculated. Did someone go around counting all the dead Persian bodies, or did Macedonian soldiers get to estimate how many Persians they had killed? 

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Following his last question from Murray a few weeks ago, Andy asks, 'the question I’ve always wondered is why it seems to fall out of use between the two periods even though protecting infantry from cavalry remains a consistent problem across ancient and medieval warfare'?

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"Alexander's Companion cavalry seemed to be the premier cavalry of its age, and was instrumental in the battles against the Persian empire. Why is it then, under the Successor Kingdoms' Generals, that they faired so poorly when confronting the inferior Roman cavalry? Was it due to the lack of Alexander himself, poor training, or just the professionalism of the Roman Legion?"

Murray gives us his thoughts...

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Imperium Romanum is a YouTube channel dedicated to bringing history to life, with documentaries looking at everything Ancient Rome; from the army and military equipment to politics, religion, culture, lifestyle and much more. 

In this episode, Jasper, Murray and Marc are joined by Marc Beermann from Imperium Romanum to talk about what they do.

If you want to enter the competition for a copy of Myke Cole's The Bronze Lie, you need to email awa@ancient-warfare.com with you 25 words on what you enjoy about the magazine. 

The competition closes on 28 February 2023.

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An interesting 'what if' quest from Jeff, who asks Murray for his thoughts on 'what if the Roman Empire had never fallen and was still around today, what would the world look like? And what do you think a modern Roman Empire would be like?"

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Brendon asks why the Macedonian phalanx at the Battles of Issues and Gaugamela suffered such a low casualty rate from arrows fired by archers?

Murray gives us his opinion.

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Tony sent this in for Murray to think about, 'can you tell us anything about the difference in style of combat when comparing late medieval pike vs ancient Sarissa?' 

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