What were ancient battles really like? What weapons, tactics, armor, training, and logistics were used? And what were the crucial factors that could turn the tide of battle, giving one side victory and consigning the other to slaughter, capture, or, at best, escape to fight another day? To answer these questions the course describes and discusses in some of the most notable battles fought in the Mediterranean region from prehistoric times to the 4th century A.D.

Contains 24 lectures in two parts on the historic battles of the ancient world. Course no. 3757. Includes lecture notes, outlines, timeline, glossary and bibilographical references.

Part 1. Disc 1. Lecture 1.Why study battles? What is war? ; -- Lecture 2. The problem of warfare's origins ; -- Lecture 3. Sumer, Akkad, and early Mesopotamian warfare ; -- Lecture 4. Egyptian warfare from the old to new kingdoms ; -- Lecture 5. The battles of Megiddo and Kadesh ; -- Lecture 6. The Trojan war and Homeric warfare -- Disc 2. Lecture 7. The Assyrian war machine ; -- Lecture 8. The sieges of Lachish and Jerusalem ; -- Lecture 9. A peculiar institution? Hoplite warfare ; -- Lecture 10. The battle of Marathon ; -- Lecture 11. The battle of Thermopylae ; -- Lecture 12. Naval warfare and the battle of Salamis -- Disc 3. Lecture 13. The Athenian expedition to Sicily ; -- Lecture 14. The march of the ten thousand ; -- Lecture 15. Macedonian military innovations ; -- Lecture 16. Alexander's conquest of Persia ; -- Lecture 17. The legions of Rome ; -- Lecture 18. The battles of Canae and Zama -- Disc 4. Lecture 19. Legion versus Phalanx, six pitched battles ; -- Lecture 20. The sieges of Alesia and Masada ; -- Lecture 21. Caesar's world war ; -- Lecture 22. The battle of the Teutoburg Forest ; -- Lecture 23. Catastrophe at Adrianople ; -- Lecture 24. Reflections on warfare in the ancient world.