The Persian Empire grew in the vacuum left by Assyria's destruction of the Kingdom of Elam (648 BC). Prince Teispes captured Anshan, once a stonghold of the Elamites. His father, Achaemenes is the per
The death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC threw the Macedonians into confusion; there was no capable heir, and no clear successor among the senior figures in Alexander's circle. Initial attempts to p
The Greek hoplite, the archetypal spear-armed warrior, is perhaps the most prevalent figure in our view of the 'Golden Age' of Ancient Greek civilisation. It was during this period that the state bega
The cradle of western civilisation, the ancient Greek world, consisted of a series of independent city states some of which, such as Athens and Sparta, became major world powers. This authoritative vo
Osprey's study of the first Persian invasion of Greece in 490 BC. The story of the Marathon campaign is an epic of the Ancient World. When the Ionian Greeks revolted against their Persian overlords in
The principal source of information on the Roman Republican Army is the sixth book of the Histories of the Greek historian Polybius, written a little before 150BC. This engaging text by Nicholas Sekun
Although Sparta's early history is not clear, by the end of the 8th century most of the other cities of Lakedaimon had been reduced to subject status. The Lakedaimonians were the only full time army i
When Philip II ascended the throne in 359 BC, Macedonia was in danger of being engulfed by wild barbarian tribes to the north and wily Greek cities to the south. Philip had to expand the power of the
Fully illustrated story of the army of the Greek king who fought both Rome and Carthage in the 280s--270s BC, and gave the world the phrase "a Pyrrhic victory" for a success so costly that it counts a
