Struggle for control: Wars in ancient Sicily

IN THIS ISSUE: Struggle for control - Wars in ancient Sicily
A N C I E N T
WARFARE
VOL VII, ISSUE 2
Struggle for control:
Wars in ancient Sicily
With:
• The Siege of Motya
• Agathocles of Syracuse
Also:
• Roman refusal of military service
• Alexander the Great at the River Granicus
And much more!
www.ancient-warfare.com
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US/CN $9.99 € 7,10
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A N C I E N T
WARFARE
Publisher: Rolof van Hövell tot Westerflier
Editor in chief: Jasper Oorthuys
Editorial staff: Josho Brouwers (editor Ancient Warfare),
Lindsay Powell (news editor), Arianna Sacco (proofreader)
Marketing & media manager: Christianne C. Beall
Contributors: Matthew Beazley, Duncan Campbell,
Sidney Dean, Filippo Donvito, Annelies Koolen, Korneel
van Lommel, Paul McDonnell-Staff, Konstantin Nossov,
Nicholas Sekunda, Vincent van der Veen.
Illustrators: Igor Dzis, Carlos García, Brendan Keeley,
Julia Lillo, José Antonio Gutierrez Lopez, Pablo Outeiral,
Angel García Pinto, Johnny Shumate, Nikolai Zubkhov.
Design & layout: MeSa Design (www.mesadesign.nl)
Print: PublisherPartners (www.publisherpartners.com)
CONTENTS
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News and letters
Subscriptions
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Ancient Warfare is published every two months by
Karwansaray B.V., Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
PO Box 1110, 3000 BC Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Motya, 397 BC
Sow the wind and reap the
whirlwind
THEME
Struggle for control
Wars in ancient Sicily
5
9
Editorial office
PO Box 4082, 7200 BB Zutphen, The Netherlands
Phone: +31-575-776076 (NL), +44-20-8816281
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Website: www.ancient-warfare.com
Contributions in the form of articles, letters, reviews,
news and queries are welcomed. Please send to the
above address or use the contact form on
www.ancient-warfare.com.
26 Dionysius I’s Siege of
Struggle for control
Historical introduction
34
Treachery, tyranny
and terror
Agathocles of Syracuse and
the Third Greco-Punic War
Sicilian Greek
fortifications
Military architecture as
source
40 “Keep your grubby
paws off my stuff!”
Roman ownership inscriptions
12
Timoleon of Corinth
Saviour of Sicily
42 “I would rather cut
off my thumb”
Refusal of
military service
in ancient Rome
18
An underestimation of
the enemy’s cavalry
48 Alexander’s great
cavalry battle
What really happened at the
River Granicus?
Athenian cavalry in Sicily
24 In the service of
Syracusan tyrants
53
Reviews
Books and games
A regiment of Cretan
mercenary archers
58 On the cover
ISSN: 2211-5129
Printed in the European Union.
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NEWS & LETTERS
Julius Caesar in Germania
As readers will be aware, Julius Caesar conquered Gaul.
Archaeological evidence for this is abundant, as demonstrated by excavations at Alesia and Gergovia. However, Caesar is
also claimed to have gone to Britain, Belgium and Germany,
and for those places the archaeological evidence simply has
not surfaced so far. Still, Caesar’s forces in these territories
must have left behind hundreds of temporary camps used by
the eight legions that spent more than a decade in the countries north of the Alps.
Suddenly, this situation is changing. Last year, Thuin in
Belgium was identified as the place where Caesar defeated
the Aduatuci. Then came Hermeskeil: a camp close to Trier,
that possibly saw service during the late fifties BC. And now,
two more military camps have been unearthed in Hessen,
both of which date to the middle of the first century BC, are
Roman, and are located on the right bank of the River Rhine.
Caesar was here after he had several bridges built across the
Rhine in 55 and 53 BC. From a military point of view, these
expeditions were not great successes, but they added to
Caesar’s military reputation.
The recent discoveries confirm in an archaeological sense
the truth of what Caesar was saying. Of course, it is presumed
that the archaeologists have not made a mistake, and it must
be stressed that there is, at the moment, no official report yet.
However, the latter seems very unlikely, since the evidence is
fairly straightforward: Roman pottery of the mid-first century
BC and a presence on the eastern banks of the River Rhine.
(For links to further information, please visit the editor’s blog
on our website.)
New evidence for Ahmose’s war against the Hykos
Evidence for a brutal battle between Egyptian troops and the
Hyskos has been found near the Suez Canal. Excavations of
Tel Habuwa, near the town of Qantara East, are shedding light
on the campaign led by Pharaoh Ahmose I (r.1550–1525 BC)
to eject the Hyksos invaders from Egypt. The Hyskos were a
mixed people from West Asia who took over the Eastern Nile
Delta at the beginning of the Second Intermediate Period.
While working at the site archaeologists discovered the
remains of administrative buildings dating back to the Hyksos
and the New Kingdom periods in the second millennium BC
along with many grain silos. The silos could store more than
280 tonnes of grain, indicating the great size of the Egyptian
army which was stationed at Tel Habuwa at that time.
Each structure is a two-storey building with a series of
mud-brick rooms and courtyards. Inside, excavators found
a collection of coffins, skulls and skeletons of people and
animals buried in sand. Preliminary studies of the skeletons
reveal that they bear visible signs of trauma: deep scars and
wounds as the result of being struck with arrows or spears.
The remains of buildings destroyed by fire were also
found, confirming surviving written accounts, which describe
a great conflagration during Ahmose I’s battle against the
Hyksos. On the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus in the British
Museum, the copyist mentions the capture of some Egyptian
towns in year 33 of the reign of Apophis, the penultimate king
of the Hyksos Fifteenth Dynasty. Ahmose imposed his authority over Tharo to besiege the Hyksos in their capital Avaris in
the Delta and prevent them from contacting their allies in the
east, and finally oust them from Egypt. Ahmose succeeded in
reclaiming the Delta Region for Egypt around 1560 BC. (See
also Arianna Sacco’s contribution on the Hyksos in the previous issue of Ancient Warfare, pp. 14–19.)
Themes and deadlines
The following are the themes for the next upcoming issues:
- VII.3 The Early Roman Republic
- VII.4 Logistics and the army train
- VII.5 The March of the Ten Thousand (June 20th)
- VII.6 The wars of Marcus Aurelius (August 20th)
- VIII.1 Traitors, deserters and defectors (September 20th)
© Brendan Keeley
If you have a proposal that fits our themes, we would be
interested to hear from you to discuss the possibility of
publishing an article. Send your proposal – including
the angle you propose to take, ideas for illustrations and
artwork, and your qualifications – to [email protected]. Do make sure you send them before the proposal
deadlines mentioned above.
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