For my final project I wanted to demonstrate the weapon styles of the Roman Legionary. I figured that we hadn’t gotten to really destroy anything in class, so I better take advantage of this to get in a little bit of fun. The research was unsurprisingly difficult, many of the books would only mention things in short passages, but not with a lot of detail to really get a solid feeling for how the Romans truly attacked.

             I watched a lot of youtube videos in order to see what re-enactment groups would do, even though that was less fruitful than I had hoped, but it gave me a start.

            I was able to easily find information about the Roman Legionaries formations, the tortoise, and the spear formations were the most readily available and were also simple enough to describe in class with only one of me (Keppie). The entire Roman fighting system was designed around using the shield and sword as a unit, combined with your fellow soldiers. Once I started putting things together I realized how powerful this army would be against other ancient forces.

            For the weapon strikes I simply had to copy what I had seen, however I did pull information from the class also, especially in regards to the piercing style of striking. Using the shield as a level the Gladius was lethal in close combat. While it was wielded with one-hand, the shield gave the ability to maintain on target and strike harder at your foes. Because it was a short sword it was not meant for slashing as much as piercing because the internal organs are better protected from slashes than from piercing, and if you want to drop your opponent, you take those out (Milner).

            The other strike that I found was to go after the knees by quickly lifting the shield up at an angle to your opponent and then a quick, stab at the knee in order to cripple your opponent and then easily finish them off.

            I had a lot of fun with this project and I hope it came across in class. I do not have any of the pictures from the demonstration at this time to include on the blog, but I do believe everyone was there still.

Veni Vidi Vici!!!!

Works Cited

Bishop, M.C. Roman Military Equipment: from the Punic Wars to the fall of Rome. Oxbow: Oxford, 2006. Print.

Bosworth, A.B. Conquest and Empire: The Reign of Alexander the Great. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. Web.

Keppie, Lawrence. The Making of the Roman Army: From republic ot empire. Lawrence: University of Oklahoma press, 1984. Print.

Milner, N.P. Vegetius: Epitome of Military Science. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1993. Print.

I was a little disappointed when the Center for Diversity and Unity changed the film screening from Blood Diamond to the Genocide in Darfur: Darfur Eyewitness film. The film was made by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and was actually a very touching and powerful story. The film featured two men, U.S. Marine Brian Steidle and Jerry Fowler, the director of the Committee on Conscience, who witnessed the effects and bloodshed in Darfur. Fowler told of his time in Chad helping the refugees and he spoke about a woman who had two gunshot wounds in her leg. She told him that she had received the gunshot wounds when she tried to draw water from the village well that the soldiers were guarding. It shocked me that they not only took away the peoples home, destroyed their belongings and families, and now they won’t even let the village people survive with their basic necessities.

To prepare for the screening and the discussion I was supposed to lead following the screening, I looked at many articles talking about Genocide in general I was unaware that Genocide had a clearly defined definition. I always just understood it as a mass killing. But in fact, the real definition of Genocide is much more powerful and clear. It states that:

“Genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, such as

a)      killing members of the group;

b)      causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

c)      deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or part;

d)     imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. “

–          United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime Genocide, adopted on December 9, 1948

Fowler also mentioned ways we can help stop the genocide in Darfur. We need tell the stories of what’s happening out there, spread awareness and just get people to start caring about genocide. Just like with the KONY campaign we need to make people aware that genocide is happening NOW, that it didn’t stop with the Holocaust. I was disappointed the attendance at the screening was very small, I feel if people took a little time out of their day to share the knowledge of genocide the world might be just a little better.

Check out the Signpost coverage of the event in the Center for Diversity and Unity!!!: http://www.wsusignpost.com/2012/04/07/holocaust/

I had a lot of fun researching biological and chemical warfare in the ancient world. I grew up with two older brothers who loved to burn thing and blow things up so it’s natural that I would take an interest in this topic.

The funnest part for me was reading about the myths and finding out how they correlate with real events and places. The most interesting story for me to read was the story of the Assyrian army under Sennacherib attacked Egypt and the Pharaoh prayed to the god Ptah who sent thousands of mice to chew up their weapons and bring plague to the Assyrian army. The most interesting thing about this story, reported by Herodotus, is that the exact same story happens in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is also under attack by Sennacherib’s army and the god of Israel also sends thousands of mice to defeat the Assyrian army. I found this fascinating as Josephus later backs up Herodotus’ account. Where was the true setting of this story? Is the bible accurate in saying it was Jerusalem or was Egypt where this miracle actually happened?

Another exciting thing I did for the project was when I was researching Greek Fire. All the sources compare Greek Fire to modern napalm. So I decided to make some napalm myself and see just how deadly it could be. My brothers used to make napalm all the time in the summers when they were out of school. I enlisted the help of my oldest brother, Daniel, to help me make napalm. The basic recipe for making napalm is Styrofoam, gasoline, and a metal pot. He told me to pour gasoline into the metal pot. Next, we added bits and pieces of Styrofoam into the gasoline. We kept stirring like it was a batter of caramel and kept adding bits of the Styrofoam until we had a sticky, gray/white, syrupy mixture. Then, we burned it. We dug a small but deep hole and put some grass and twigs into it. Then we put the mixture on and lit it on fire. It was really cool. The fire was bright and the smoke was black. It burned bright for about 20 minutes until it started to die down. It was really fun. I wanted to bring some of my homemade napalm to class to show everyone but I was pretty sure the fire marshal would have frowned upon that. 

Animals are everywhere. From dogs to cats and rats to snakes every country has them. The ancient world had many uses for animals the oxen and horses provided means of transportation and proved helpful in wars such as cavalries or elephants used in Hannibal’s invasion of Italy. The animals also provided food and clothing for the people of the ancient days. But animals also have sinister uses. In the bible we read much of plagues and pestilences where god sends an “angel” to help the people of Jerusalem. According the second Book of Kings around 700 BCE a large army of Assyrians under the rule Sennacherib began attacking Jerusalem. Isaiah urges King Hezekiah to keep defending the city and tells him that God will protect the city. God sends an “angel” and smites the 185,000 soldiers camping outside of Jerusalem. The angel of god is a plague carried by rats that swept through the already unsanitary camp of the Assyrians (2 Kings: 19).

A similar story is reported by Herodotus where the pharaoh of Egypt is also under attack by Sennacherib. The Pharaoh was told by the god Ptah in a dream to face the Assyrians for he would send help to the Egyptians. The Pharaoh thought the god meant an Army but instead the god Ptah sent thousands of rats and mice to chew the weapons of the Assyrians and bring (Mayor). According to the book of Samuel, rats and mice were already known to be bringers of plague and death (1 Samuel: 5).

Rats have not been the only deadly animals used in ancient warfare. Snakes, scorpions and smaller insects have also been widely used to attack the enemy.  In the ten biblical plagues, lice was the third. Bees have also been used against the enemies. Mayor states that the poisonous hornet’s nest was hurled at the enemy to confuse and to kill the enemies. The swarm of angry hornets would buzz around the unsuspecting enemy and sting them until they either died or found some sort of shelter and even then most soldiers would be badly injured.

The same would be done with other insects and reptiles. In the ancient Mesopotamian city of Hatra, scorpions would be put into clay pots and sealed, then hurled at the enemy where the irritated scorpions were ready to attack the first aggressor that they saw (Herodian). Mayor believes that the clay bombs were not filled only with scorpions but with a “potpourri of scorpions, assassin bugs, wasps, pederin beetles and other venomous insects from the desert around Hatra (Mayor).”  Who would have thought that such small animals could do so much damage to strong, brave men? 

Works Cited

Herodian. History of the Empire. Trans. C.R. Whittaker. Loeb Classical Library; Harvard University Press, 12 April 2012.

Herodotus. The Histories . Ed. A.D. Godley. n.d. 12 April 2012. <www.perseus.tufts.edu>.

Mayor, Adrienne. Greek Fire, Poison Arrows and Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World. New York: The Overlook Press, 2003.

Samuel. “1st Book of Samuel.” Various. The Holy Bible. King James Version. n.d. 12 April 2012.

The Holy Bible. The Old Testament. Ed. King James Version. n.d.

Various. “2nd Book of Kings.” Various. The Holy Bibile. King James Version. n.d. 12 April 2012.

Fire has fascinated man since the beginning. Ever since the fire was first invented we have tried to control it, find ways to make it bigger, last longer, and more deadly.  Since as early as 9^th BCE, people have been adding chemicals to fire to make incendiary and flaming weapons (Wikipedia). Greek Fire was the deadliest weapon known to man in the ancient world. James Partington compared the horror of the ancient world to the response of modern times towards the Atomic Bomb deployed on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan in August 1945. Greek Fire was used primarily to obliterate the enemies naval vassals. The Byzantines would fill little clay grenades with Greek Fire and throw them onto enemy ships. Adrienne Mayor also describes entire ships alit with the fire and deployed towards enemy ships to destroy an entire fleet. So just what exactly is Greek Fire and where did it come from?

Greek Fire is reported to have been invented Kallinikos, an artificer from Heliopolis (Theophanes) who fled from captivity by the Muslims to Constantinople. Kallinikos taught the Byzantines his recipe for destruction. Greek Fire was first used to end the conquest of Constantinople by the Muslim empire. Many historians such as James Partington and Adrienne Mayor dispute the chronicler Theophanes claims that Kallinikos invented Greek Fire and instead attribute it to the “many centuries of observations, discoveries and experiments with combustible sulphur, quicklime, and naphtha – in formulas known by various names such as liquid fire,…, sea fire, sticky fire…, and so on.” (Mayor) Mayor also notes that similar incendiary weapons were found to have been used in Indian and Chinese warfare.

A lot of secrecy surrounds the manufacture of Greek Fire. All the recipes of Greek Fire have been lost or destroyed so that enemies could not obtain the destructive mixture. Greek fire is speculated to have either a base of saltpeter which would make it a precursor to gunpowder (Roland) or Quicklime, which was well known to be used by the Byzantines and Arabs at the time.  Both theories have been refuted by literary and empirical evidence as saltpeter was not known to the western world until much later (Partington) and quicklime would have had to come in contact with water to ignite (Roland).

Many historians now agree that that the main ingredient of Greek Fire had a petroleum base.  Greek Fire is compared to Napalm which was invented in 1942 at Harvard University by Louis Fieser and his team of chemists. The two compositions have many similarities as historians speculate that Greek Fire had a petroleum base. They are both liquid and sticky and when described its effect in battle “it clings to the clothes and skin and cannot be extinguished by water (Mayor).

Works Cited

Crosby, Alfred W. Throwing Fire: Projectile Technology Through History. Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Leicester, Henry Marshall. The Historical Background of Chemistry . Courier Dover Publications, 1971.

Mayor, Adrienne. Greek Fire, Poison Arrows and Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World. New York: The Overlook Press, 2003.

Partington, James. A History of Greek Fire and Gunpowder. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.

Roland, Alex. “Secrecy, Technology, and War: Greek Fire and the Defense of Byzantium.” Technology and Culture 33 (1992): 655-679.

Theophanes. The Chronicle of Theophanes; an English Translation of Anni Mundi 6095-6305 (A.D. 602-813). Trans. Harry Turtledove. Uniersity of Pennsylvania Press, 1982.

Tzu, Sun. The Art of War. Trans. J. H. Huang. New York: Quill William Morrow, 1993.

Wikipedia. “Greek Fire .” n.d. en.wikipedia.org. 2012.

According to legend, it was the great Hercules who first dipped his arrow in the poisonous venom of the Hydra thus inventing the first biological weapon. Hercules used his arrows against many foes such as the centaur Nessus who kidnapped his wife Deianeira. Hercules dipped his arrows in the mythical many-headed Hydra but there were much easier ways to poison your arrow tips. Poisonous snakes and insects were widely used in the Middle East to make their arrow tips deadly. But the most common arrow poisons come from plants such as hellebore, wolfbane, henbane, yew tree, and belladonna . Hellebore was used in both war and medicine (Mayor). When used as a poison, Hellebore would cause swelling of the tongue, vomiting slowing of the heart rate and finally death (Wikipedia). Wolfbane was also very deadly. When pierced with a wolfbane dipped arrow, you would drool and vomit followed by paralysis and death. Henbane was to be gathered without touching the plant in any way or one would suffer from seizures, psychosis and then death (Pliny). All of these poisons bring about a terrible and painful death to those who are unlucky enough to be on the receiving end of the toxic arrows.

Poison has always been seen as a villainous and treacherous tactic to subdue the enemy.  There are many ways to poison the enemy without shooting arrows at them. Poisoning wells are a common way to quickly annihilate the enemy and break down the defenses of cities. Hellebore was commonly used to poison the wells. Hellebore was used to attack the strong defensed city of Kirrha around 590 BCE (Mayor). The soldiers of the Greek City States gathered and threw a large amount of hellebore roots into the river Pleistos and caused the city “never-ending diarrhea” (Pausanius). Wolfbane was also used to contaminate wells. Dead bodies were also used to contaminate the waters. Mayor describes a river near Delphi where the Centaur Nessus was said to have died from Hercules arrow. The rotting corpse of Nessus contaminated the water and caused violent diarrhea for the unsuspecting drinker (Mayor). 

The myth of the Hercules and the Hydra serves as a cautionary tale against poison. Poisoning your arrows was considered in both the east and the west as dishonorable. Hercules kills many enemies with the poisoned arrows but he also caused the death of many of his friends. His friend Chiron was killed by one of Hercules stray arrows. Hercules was also responsible for indirectly ending his own life. The centaur Nessus got his revenge on Hercules by tricking Hercules’ wife into smearing a vial of his own poisoned blood onto a garment which was then given to Hercules. Hercules died a fiery and painful death just as his enemies had because of his hydra poisoned arrows. Homer also criticized the hero Odysseus for poisoning his arrows (Mayor). Odysseus met his end when he himself was struck with spear poisoned with the venom in a stingray’s spine (Homer).

Works Cited

Elder, Pliny the. The Natural History. Ed. John Bostock and H.T. Riley. Trans. H. Rackham. Perseus, n.d.

Homer. The Illiad. Ed. Bernard Knox. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin Books, 1998.

Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin Books , 1996.

Mayor, Adrienne. Greek Fire, Poison Arrows and Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World. New York: The Overlook Press, 2003.

Pausanius. Description of Greece. Trans. W. H. S. Jones. Fordham University Press, n.d.

Polyaenus. Stratagems of War. Ed. Attalus.org. Trans. R. Shepherd. n.d.

Wikipedia. Hellebore. en.wikipedia.org, n.d. April 2012.

Biological and chemical warfare has been around for centuries. Starting from the invention of fire and the first poison discovered humans have been using it to our advantage. For centuries we have been discovering and refining the ways we use the weapons. We have figured out how to propel poisons and fire. We have discovered how to artificially create the chemicals needed to make a strong long lasting fire with little effort.

In the ancient world, the use of biological and/or chemical weapons was frowned upon and viewed as cowardly. The famous historian Thucydides stated that “it was supposed that Sparta poisoned the wells.” Even though Sparta won the Peloponnesian War, its reputation was destroyed. Homer also frowned upon the use of biological tactics. He made it clear that Odysseus poisoning his arrows to attack the Trojans was a dishonorable act. Mayor states that the western world was not alone in their condemnation of the use of biological weaponry. The Eastern world also frowned upon such practices. In the Laws of Manu, The Hindus forbade the use of venom or fire on their arrows (The Laws). In Sun Tzu’s Art of War, he approves of the use of fire as a way to frighten and confuse the enemy but condemns using it to cause pain and suffering (Tzu).

Triumphing against these painful and deadly weapons was rare and if a person were lucky enough to escape the torment of these seen as godlike. Even the great demigod Hercules could not escape the torment of the Hydra’s venom.

Works Cited

Buhler, G., trans. The Law of Manu. Fordham University Press, c. 1500 BCE. 30 March 2012.

Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin Books , 1996.

Mayor, Adrienne. Greek Fire, Poison Arrows and Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World. New York: The Overlook Press, 2003.

Santosuosso, Antonio. Barbarians, Marauders, and Infidels: The Ways of Medievel Warfare. Westview Press, 2004.

Tzu, Sun. The Art of War. Trans. J. H. Huang. New York: Quill William Morrow, 1993.

Word Book. Inventions and Discoveries: Warfare. Ed. Jake Bumgardner. Chicago: World Book, Inc., 2009. 

Disclaimer: this is a fictional character I have made up to talk about daily life in roman Legion.

It has been a month since I’ve joined the Roman army. It has been hard. I am to be awake and dressed by the time the cock crows at dawn. After a quick breakfast of cold meat, we gather for parade where roll call is taken and the other soldiers are reprimanded for falling back asleep while standing. My duties include cleaning the stables and latrines. I hate it. The smells are foul and I get dirty again very quickly. I can’t wait until it’s my turn to guard the gates. After I finish my cleaning I go for training. It’s very difficult but I enjoy the exercise and escape from the stench of the stables. I’m not very good with a sword yet but I’m quickly improving. I can never wait for dinner and I devour the delicious meal of meat, bread and beer. Tonight is my turn for the night watch. I dread this more than cleaning the stables. Last time I dozed off while on watch for a moment and was fined a week’s pay.

It has been 3 months since I’ve been on campaign. I miss mother and my sisters. Today my Contubernium was allowed to go on leave for a day to the local town where we went to the bathhouses which weren’t as fancy as the ones back home but they were a welcome distraction for my pains. Because of all my training I have many aches and the warm water and cheap oils of the Unctorium (massage room) soothed my many aches. The only thing that wasn’t different from home was the games. I played a couple games of Tali and I haven’t yet lost my luck! Afterwards we went to the taverns to explore the local food and drink. The freshness and succulence of the food was a welcome change to the cooking of the other soldiers back at the camp. The best part was we were finally able to drink wine. Although the wine was not of similar quality as in the city, but it would suffice as we could not have wine in camp. A lovely lady caught my attention but we had to return to camp before the camp closed for the night.

Works Cited

Cavazzi, F. The Roman Army. 2012. Web. February 2012.

Davies, Roy. Service in the Roman Army. Ed. D.J. Breeze, V. Mansfield and V. Maxfield. New York: Columbia University Press, 1989.

Elton, Hugh. “Off the Battlefield: The Civilians View of Late Roman Soldiers.” Expedition 39 (1997): 42.

MacMullen, Ramsay. “The Legion as a Society.” Historia: Zeitschrift Für Alte Geschichte (1984): 440-456. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/4435901&gt;.

Matyszak, Philip. Legionary: The Roman Soldiers Unofficial Manual. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd., 2009.

Stout, S.E. “Training Soldiers for the Roman Legion.” The Classical Journal 16.7 (1921): 423-431. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/3288082&gt;.

The Roman Army. n.d. 

As a knight, chivalry is your main mission. Stories are told of the brave knights who rescue the damsel in distress and slay the mythical dragons. When there weren’t dragons to slay or damsels to save, tournaments were your best option to demonstrate your chivalry. Even if you don’t win the tournaments you still gain respect by participating and being brave enough to get knocked off a horse by a lance. Tournaments were also a great way to keep in shape and improve your skill by having “friendly” competition with your fellow knights. Tournaments began as mock battles to keep up the the physical shape of the soldiers. Since war was scarce and many good men are lost in war, the knights developed a way to train the soldiers in a friendly yet competitive manner.

There are two kinds of tournament; jousting and melee. The joust is an individual tournament event.  By far the most popularized form of tournament (Heath Ledger in A Knight’s Tale), Jousting was done on horseback with you galloping toward your opponent and trying to either knock them off their horse in “Joust of War” or shattering your lance by hitting it against your  opponents armour in a “Joust of Peace.” In a joust you would face your opponent 3 times, each time armed with full armor including a helmet, a lance under your right arm and over the neck of the horse and a shield placed on your left should where the opponents would strike you. Very few people were actually injured during the jousts. If you would like to experience joust first hand you can play a jousting game at the royalarmouries.org http://www.royalarmouries.org/visit-us/leeds/leeds-galleries/tournament-gallery/tournament-fun/tournament-games

Melee is a team tournament fought either on foot or horseback (Tourney). This is the closest to the original tournaments but less popular and more dangerous. The melee was generally fought using blunt swords and maces which are similar to what one would use come wartime. There were more casualties and injuries associated with the melee than with jousting. William Montague, the earl of Salisbury was reported to have killed his own son in a tournament in 1382 (Prestwich).  Rules were put into place to prevent such incidents from happening but the rules weren’t always successful and tragedies happened.

Besides earning respect from the people, a chivalrous knight can win prizes from competing in the tournaments. The victorious knight can win gold, better armor, horses or even the hand of a beautiful maiden. You can also take your opponents horse if you knock him all the off and in some cases even his armor as a trophy.

Works Cited

Knights Tournaments. n.d. Web. 27 March 2012. <http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/knights-tournaments.htm&gt;.

Medieval Tournaments. n.d. 27 March 2012. <http://www.castles.me.uk/medieval-tournaments.htm&gt;.

Prestwich, Michael. Knight: The Medieval Warriors Unofficial Manual. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd., 2010. Print.

Royal Armouries. Introduction to Tournaments. n.d. Video. 27 March 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9ga0rQIX90&list=PL02602420B0F3E430&index=1&feature=plpp_video&gt;.

—. Tournament Events. n.d. Web. 27 March 2012. <http://www.royalarmouries.org/home&gt;.

Wikipedia. Tournaments (Medieval). n.d. Web. 27 March 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tournament_(medieval)&gt;.