A great account of Greek and early Roman battles, but not of the imperial period.

The first three fifths of the book cover the ancient Greek, Macedonian, and Roman Republican periods well, giving just enough detail on the political and economic situation of these periods to give the necessary context to the battles. The battles are depicted with clear maps and troop formation diagrams, although they are monochrome and so look fairly dated today. Even better are the detailed, full-color drawings of ships, siege engines, armor, and other equipment that help the reader understand the conditions in which these ancient men would have been fighting. The only downside with these illustrations is that they aren't fully integrated into the main text, and so it can feel a little disorganized as the reader switches between the text and the illustration captions.

Unfortunately, the last two fifths of the book covering the Imperial period gets bogged down in political intrigue and has very few descriptions or maps of battles. There are still good equipment diagrams, but I felt like I learned much less of Imperial tactics than I did about the earlier periods. This is particularly strange, since I would expect more accurate records to have been kept as time when on.

Still, a good book if you're looking for a coffee table book covering a long sweep of military history in fairly cohesive way.

Mr. Warry has truly challenged my reviewing skills with this book. This book was wonderful to read, yet maddening in many ways. At times I wanted to throw the book over some seriously poor editing and spelling, yet would find pages of absolute brilliance that would make me want to add this book to my "Best Books" shelves and hand it 5 Stars.

Frustrations will occur due to the nature of the book; it covers a large period of time so it can only bring into focus bits and pieces of what the author thought was critical. The material on the equipment and armies was outstanding, though battles really get limited efforts (maps when available were great though). Eclectic discussion topics like missile weapon development and ship construction were enjoyable and educational.

I enjoyed the color plates tremendously; as a wargamer, these pages are critical to aid in army construction and painting. The battle overviews provided are also quite helpful for setup and game table design.

I appreciated the chronological approach too. I think it makes sense to go forward though the period this way, so clarity occurs and the changes made more easy to see developing. I also appreciated the solid documentation of references.

I would have liked to give this book a 5 Star rating, and yet would feel justified punishing the publishers with a 2 Star for the horrible editing/spelling. Splitting the difference makes this a 3.5 Star rating, and I round up this time because what is good in the book is really well done.

I can see why students of history like Keely would appreciate this book, and clearly I should have had it at hand when I read The Conquest of Gaul. But at present, I'm just skimming, examining the illustrationsa and reading some sections. This is a good reminder that we haven't changed much in the last couple of thousand years.

An excellent read, well worth reading if military history is your thing.

A great overview of some of the key events, personalities, and military innovations spanning Troy through the declining Roman Empire. My copy was without illustrations, which would have undoubtedly added greatly to the depictions. On the editing side, more missed errors than I would expect from a published book, from spelling inconsistencies, to grammar, to words obviously omitted. Still, very educational and compelling for lovers of history.

Read most of it and skimmed the rest for a school text book. I was in love with the detailed illustrations and the intricate battle plans. Definitely a must read for any student of ancient history.

A surprisingly great book. I was expecting this one to be very limited in scope however within we find a great summary of Ancient Greece and Rome. Warry even includes bits of later Roman History missed by Scullard and Cary in their textbook.

I have an inkling that weapon and military aficionados would be disappointed with the amount of information presented here. Perhaps a misleading title then, but regardless I was unbothered by this potential shallowness and learnt a number of military related terms along the way.

What impressed me most was Warry's wisdom. His conclusion on the cast of characters and events of the period showed profound insight and I'm saddened that he doesn't appear to have many more books.

Two quotes illustrates Warry's Wisdom

"(Agesilaus') skilful command had to some extent concealed the serious decline in the fighting potential of the Spartan citizen army. The development of new forms of warfare had been itself an admission that the Supremacy of the Spartan hoplite phalanx was at an end"

"The conspirators by whose sword Caesar died at a meeting of the Senate in 44 BC were old-fashioned constitutionalists. They were extremely stupid men. They could not see that a constitution which need to be upheld entirely by military force was no constitution. It had been Pompey's weakness that he made too many concessions to constitutional appearances; Caesar was murdered because he made too few. But military power was the only real basis of authority in Rome during the first century BC. "

At the beginning of each chapter Warry includes a list of ancient sources helpfully surveying their reliability. I thought that was thoughtful feature to begin a section.

So that's a wrap for Warfare in the Classical World. Tremendous secondhand bookshop find. Time to deep dive on John Warry I think. Love his work.

Explores the art of war in the ancient world of Greeks and Romans. Looks at the armies, equipment, and tactics of these empires. This is a decent synopsis of war in the Classical Period.

Excellent way to add color to your study of the period.