[.ca] Arms and Armor of the Greeks (ISBN 0801860733)

From Amazon.com:
In 490 B.C. a force of some 10,000 Athenians and their allies met a much larger Persian army on the rocky beach at Marathon. The Greeks arrayed themselves in a thin line, advancing on the Persians slowly, then breaking into a run, splitting the center and enfolding the Persian army in their wings. The tactic surprised the Persians, and even some Greeks. But, argues Cambridge University archaeologist A.M. Snodgrass, tactical innovation alone did not carry the day. "We shall never know quite how Marathon was won," he writes, but "the superiority of Greek equipment must have been an important factor here and elsewhere, and at times perhaps a decisive one." The Greeks, in short, were better armed than the Persians, an edge that had evolved over centuries of martial experimentation. Snodgrass traces the development of armor and weapons and the use of adjuncts like cavalry and war dogs through Greek history, from Mycenaean times to the age of Alexander. He notes, gainsaying many other military historians of ancient Greece, that the Greeks were nowhere near as effective in using cavalry as were their opponents, Persian and otherwise; even in Alexander's time, he writes, cavalry was neglected in favor of mass infantry attacks from heavily armed phalanxes--a tactic that must have cost many lives, but that surely put an unholy fear in the Greeks' enemies. Snodgrass's slender volume is a useful companion for students of Herodotus, Xenophon, Homer, and other chroniclers of ancient warfare. --Gregory McNamee

Short and Helpful:
Arms & Armor of the Greeks is a clearly and concisely written book, which fulfils its purpose very well. Snodgrass provides an adequate and entertaining look at the equipment of a Greek soldier, however, the book is intended for historians and masochistic college students. Snodgrass makes continuous literary references (particularly to the Iliad) and sites battles as examples without explaining their outcome or tactics. To a person without proper schooling in Greek history, the book is as useful as a book on the intricacies of object oriented programming would be to someone who had only superficial knowledge of Windows"· or a book on major to minor chords in fugues would be to someone who listened exclusively to rap music. Though the book is not terribly complicated, it is useless to anyone who cannot put it in context. Although Snodgrass presents all of his points in chronological order, however, within the chapters, and sub-sections are disorganized. A chapter might explain the evolution of helmets, then the use of a particular type of shield, then horse armor, and then go back to helmets. The chapters are mildly schizophrenic, though it may have been unwieldy to discuss each piece of armor in a separate chapter. Helmets should be discussed together, swords should be discussed together, and so on. Much of the information in the book is based on assumptions from literature. Weapons and armor may be unearthed but they do not provide enough facts to warrant a definite thesis on their use. Snodgrass must rely on historians like Thucydides who wrote with a particular bias or may have recalled things incorrectly. Given this disability, Snodgrass maintains a fair amount of objectivity. Thankfully, Snodgrass does not fall into the trap of applying modern tactical theory to ancient warfare as in The Roman Army at War by Adrian K. Goldsworthy, The Medieval Knight by Stephen Turnbull, or the footnotes on almost any translation of The Art of War by Sun Tzu. In the chapter regarding Mycenae, Snodgrass is forced to draw almost exclusively on the artifacts found in the shaft graves or tholos tombs. Tablets written in Linear B serve more as inventory lists for the noble houses and little can be learned from them pertaining to the use of the equipment. Works by Homer were written at the end of the Greek Dark Age (approx. 800BC) and reflect the tribal society of the time rather than the strict hierarchy of Mycenae that they are supposed to. Even with his dearth of sources, Snodgrass manages to create workable theories as to the use of the equipment found from that era. Snodgrass does an excellent job of explaining the evolution of arms and armor in ancient and classical Greece. Every point he makes has at least one collaborating source (usually fairly obscure) and appears valid. The evidence is presented in a clear and chronological method that allows the reader to easily transition from one type of equipment to the next. With the exception of the chapters on Mycenae and the Dark Ages, the book is very well supported. The conclusions made by the author so sound, Arms & Armor of the Greeks is commonly used as a textbook. Since equipment dictates tactics, understanding the arms and armor used by ancient soldiers is key to understanding the sweeping changes in warfare and politics during that time. The citizen-soldier hoplites revolutionized Greek society by allowing small farmers to fight alongside the great estate owners. Not only is Arms & Armor of the Greeks informative, it manages to keep the attention of the reader despite the possibility of being extremely dry. The book is short, concise, and easy to read making it well worth its price.