BD-Basiliensis

Alexander

série:	Alexandre le Grand
éditeur:	Greenhills Books
auteur:	Dodge Theodore
classement:	biblio506
année:	1994
format:	cartonné, avec jaquette
état:	TBE/N
valeur:	20 €
critère:
remarques:	English book the meteoric career of Alexander as a man of imagination, his great practical statesmanship and military genius is vividly reconstructed in Dodge's narrative with many maps, original charts and pictures although these illustrations are of rough drafts - of the ancient author, Arrian, a talented military man, is the most reliable and his work "Anabasis" the most valuable history - the other ancient authors are: Quintus Curtius, Diodorus Siculus of Sicily, Plutarch, Strabo and Polybius - the art of war - the author refers mainly to Napoleon military aspects, Hannibal being the subject of a separate book of Dodge 1/ Alexander - the earliest histories are but a record or wars - strategy was described as the art of making war upon the map (political objectives, military resources and actions) being the sense of whereas the tactics is battlefield manoeuvring - strategos = military leader, general - together with strategy and tactics are the logistics and engineering 2/ early history of war - the first reliable history of waar is found in the Bible and afterwards in the Iliad by Homer (1200 BC) - so long as man existed on the earth, he has been a fighting animal - the art of sieges to storm fortresses 3/ early Oriental armies - Assyrians, Babylonians and Medes - infantry constituted the bulk whereas the cavalry was the flower - the drill and discipline of te Jewish army was considerable - the egyptian pharaon Sesostris was alleged to have conquered territories as far as the Oxus and Indus n.b. in Herodotus' histories there appears a story told by Egyptian priests about a Pharaoh Sesostris (about 2000 BC) who once led an army northward overland to Asia Minor, then fought his way westward until he crossed into Europe, where he defeated the Scythians and Thracians (possibly in modern Romania and Bulgaria), according to Herodotus, Sesostris was the only Egyptian king to rule Ethiopia - Cyrus the great was an influent conqueror, in his army, military service lasted up to 40 years of age 4/ early Greek armies and wars - every freeman was a soldier and was trained accordingly - for the infantry, in front were the least brave, in the rear the most brave - the hoplites were formed in a dense body called phalanx - Sparta and Athens were distinguished for the perfection of their military organisation - for Sparta war was the only art - the Spartans never opened a campaign before the full moon, this was a religious custom - Athens was a kind of democracy but effectively on the rich citizen would rule the city-state - Athens had a famous fleet, Sparta had no fleet >> p. 40 description of an hoplite 5/ Cyrus and Darius - before these conquerors, there was no military science to the art of war - Cyrus (559-530 BC) originated from the family of the Achaemides, he united Persia and Media by submitting also Croesus, king of Asia Minor (battle of Thrymba) - later on, Cyrus extended his conquests to the Scythians east of the Caspian sea - Darius (521-485 BC) consolidated the Persian empire, he made war again to the Scythians but without great success 6/ armies in the fifth century BC - Darius divided his empire into 20 satrapies, notable satrapies were Babylon and Assyria, Egypt, Lydia, Bactria and India, the corps d'élite were the Immortals, the most effective part of the Asiatic armies was the cavalry, mostly Median and Parthian the best of the Greek population embraced arms as a profession, mostly in form of mercenaries for various kings or states a corps d'élite in Thebes was the sacred band or band of lovers the phalanx had proven a good formation and was continuously improved with the sarisa (pike) as main offensive weapon and the psiloi (shield) as defensive weapon - the peltasts (light foot) were generally on the flanks of the army (or in front) >> p. 69 the formation of the phalanx (one wing strengthened) was created by Epaminondas, that was an advance in battle tactics - often the cities were fortified with citadels, in Athen: the Acropolis, in Thebes: the Cadmae - the instruments of siege: mainly the catapult with arrows and the ballista with stones - Themistocles was the founder of the Athenian navy (400 triremes) 7/ Miltiades - Marathon (490 BC) - first pitched battle was in Marathon led by Miltiades with a tactical plan of battle, the Greeks were outnumbered but were more heavily armed, with an "esprit de corps" and more disciplined - the Greeks moved forward at a run taking the Persian army by surprise while strengthening their flanks and encircling the mass of Persians who were trying to push the Greek center which was retreating, thus annihilating the Persian army from 3 parts, the Persian army was destroyed - afterwards the Greek army marched steadily to Athen just in time to forestall capture of their city by the Persian fleet 8/ Brasidas (424-422 BC) the Peloponnesian war with Brasidas, the Spartan and Pericles, the Athenian with the participation of Demosthenes in the battles - the retreat of Brasidas in good order from Illyria n.b. Brasidas was a Spartan general and statesman and is considered to be the most distinguished Spartan commander of the first decade of the Peloponnesian War, he died during the Second Battle of Amphipolis while winning one of his most spectacular victories 9/ Xenophon - Agesilaus (401-394 BC) - Cyrus the younger, second son of Darius II, started a dispute with his brother Artaxerxes - victory at the battle of Cunaxa but Cyrus was killed and the Greek mercenaries had to make their way out of the country under the command of Xenophon, a talented officer - that was a grandiose retreat to the science of rear-guard fighting known as the march of the ten thousand (401 BC) as told in the book Anabasis, out of the 13'000 only 6000 lived to see the Euxine (Black Sea), they had marched over 4000 miles during 14 months - Alexander had a predecessor in the invasion of Asia: Agesilaus, king of Sparta during the Sparta-Persian war 399-394 BC - after having routed the Persians in Asia Minor, Agesilaus took the way home through Thessalia and beat the Thebans at the battle of Coronaea (394 BC) 10/ Epaminondas (371-362 BC) - this great Theban leader stamped his name as one of the world's early tacticians, he invented the manoeuvre of the oblique order of battle instead of parallel order by strengthening deeper one wing of his army with a strong column of attack, it was a masterly conception produced by this oblique way of attack - first victory against Sparta at Leuctra (371 BC) with the sacred band under Pelopidas - victory again at Mantinae (362 BC) but Epaminondas was killed during the battle 11/ Philip and Macedon (359-336 BC)
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