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    Legion versus Phalanx: The Epic Struggle for Infantry Supremacy in the Ancient World
    Unavailable
    Legion versus Phalanx: The Epic Struggle for Infantry Supremacy in the Ancient World
    Unavailable
    Legion versus Phalanx: The Epic Struggle for Infantry Supremacy in the Ancient World
    Audiobook8 hours

    Legion versus Phalanx: The Epic Struggle for Infantry Supremacy in the Ancient World

    Written by Myke Cole

    Narrated by Alexander Cendese

    4.5/5

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    Currently unavailable

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    About this audiobook

    From the time of Ancient Sumeria, the heavy infantry phalanx dominated the battlefield. Armed with spears or pikes, standing shoulder to shoulder, and with overlapping shields, they presented an impenetrable wall of wood and metal to the enemy. It was the phalanx that allowed Greece to become the dominant power in the Western world. That is, until the Romans developed the legion and cracked the phalanx.

    In Legion versus Phalanx Cole weighs the two fighting forces against each other. Covering the period in which the legion and phalanx clashed (280—168 BC), he looks at each formation in detail — delving into their tactics, arms, and equipment, organization and the deployment. It then examines six key battles in which legion battled phalanx: Heraclea (280 BC), Asculum (279 BC), Beneventum (275 BC), Cynoscephalae (197 BC), Magnesia (190 BC), and Pydna (168 BC) — battles that determined the fate of the ancient world. Drawing on original primary sources, Myke Cole presents a highly detailed but lively history of this defining clash of military formations.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateDec 4, 2018
    ISBN9781721333462
    Author

    Myke Cole

    Following a long career in the military, intelligence, and law enforcement, Myke Cole is a fire/rescue responder in NY's Hudson Valley. He is a freelance historian and writer, and has published ten novels with publishers including Penguin Random House and Macmillan in addition to his history books for Osprey. Myke's short work has appeared in The New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine, The Daily Beast, Foreign Policy, The New Republic, McSweeney's, and Slate. He's starred on TV shows on CBS and Discovery, and has featured on NPR.

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    Reviews for Legion versus Phalanx

    4.5/5

    62 ratings8 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Title: Legion versus Phalanx: The Epic Struggle for Infantry Supremacy in the Ancient WorldAuthor: Myke ColePages: 288Year: 2018Publisher: OspreyRating: 5 out of 5 stars.Legion versus Phalanx is a good, entertaining, and insightful book about the Roman Legion and the Greek Phalanx and how these two opposing forces faced off thousands of years ago. I loved the book! I’ve always enjoyed reading military history and I liked the author’s writing style. He makes the information easy to read and follow as well as entertaining and realistic. Too often you see films on ancient warfare that while they are as close to source material as possible, filmmakers put certain things in that are just there for eye candy. For instance, you see characters wielding swords and who fight with a style that has the main idea but is not always realistic or practical I should say. I’m not saying I don’t enjoy these films myself, but I like as much accuracy as to sources and practicality in fighting styles as possible. Myke Cole uses both ancient and modern sources. He talks about how he has walked the battlefields that were examined in the book to help get his points across as to how the battles played out. He writes in a way that isn’t confusing at all and he makes fine distinctions between subjects that people may have misconceptions of or just simply don’t understand.The first three chapters of the book analyze the legion and the phalanx and how their respected cultures influenced the way that both militaries fought. The first chapter focused on telling readers to be objective about the source material, as well as gave an historical background story and a description of ancient unit formation and deployment. Chapters two and three analyzed the legion and the phalanx themselves and how the soldiers were recruited, organized, how they were deployed on the battlefield and what made these deployments effective. Support units are mentioned but are not the primary focus of the book. The next six chapters discuss six historical battles where the legion and the phalanx faced off. Each battle can be broken into three sections: 1) The historical background leading up to the battle, 2) the battle itself, and 3) the aftermath. The book ends discussing the legacy that each unit left on the world that is still relevant today.So overall, Legion versus Phalanx brings some good insight on these two iconic armies, and on their effectiveness and value during that time period. I would recommend this book to others who enjoy military history and want to learn more about ancient warfare. Note: The opinions shared in this review are solely my responsibility.
    • 5/5
      Real grognard nerding out.
    • 5/5
      Very good! Concise and on-topic, with vibrant and engrossing text as well as personal insights from the author. A must-read for the fans of ancient warfare.
    • 5/5
      I liked how the author took what he had to work with but also filled in the gaps with his best opinion. Great job of why the Roman legion won out.
    • 3/5
      Was expecting a light and fun read. It was that but also surprisingly informative. Shame about including personal politics in all this.
    • 4/5
      I'm convinced the reader was mispronouncing hoplite. We aren’t Greeks and it’s pretentious to mimic a Greek pronunciation for an English audience. Confusing, too. This is another book that is probably better in PDF or paper because of maps. We also don’t get the PDF file that came with the analog version so that might have helped, too. In his effort to be accessible to the general reader, Cole sometimes comes off as trivial. Still, it was interesting and an excellent introduction for the general reader.
    • 5/5
      Myke Cole's nonfiction reflects his deft storytelling; Legion versus Phalanx contains enough well-researched detail to appeal to scholars of history but is explained in an unpretentious manner easily parsed by newcomers to the study of this era of history. I enjoyed looking at ancient war through the lens of its infantry and hope to see more nonfiction from Cole in the future.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Title: Legion versus Phalanx: The Epic Struggle for Infantry Supremacy in the Ancient WorldAuthor: Myke ColePages: 288Year: 2018Publisher: OspreyRating: 5 out of 5 stars.Legion versus Phalanx is a good, entertaining, and insightful book about the Roman Legion and the Greek Phalanx and how these two opposing forces faced off thousands of years ago. I loved the book! I’ve always enjoyed reading military history and I liked the author’s writing style. He makes the information easy to read and follow as well as entertaining and realistic. Too often you see films on ancient warfare that while they are as close to source material as possible, filmmakers put certain things in that are just there for eye candy. For instance, you see characters wielding swords and who fight with a style that has the main idea but is not always realistic or practical I should say. I’m not saying I don’t enjoy these films myself, but I like as much accuracy as to sources and practicality in fighting styles as possible. Myke Cole uses both ancient and modern sources. He talks about how he has walked the battlefields that were examined in the book to help get his points across as to how the battles played out. He writes in a way that isn’t confusing at all and he makes fine distinctions between subjects that people may have misconceptions of or just simply don’t understand.The first three chapters of the book analyze the legion and the phalanx and how their respected cultures influenced the way that both militaries fought. The first chapter focused on telling readers to be objective about the source material, as well as gave an historical background story and a description of ancient unit formation and deployment. Chapters two and three analyzed the legion and the phalanx themselves and how the soldiers were recruited, organized, how they were deployed on the battlefield and what made these deployments effective. Support units are mentioned but are not the primary focus of the book. The next six chapters discuss six historical battles where the legion and the phalanx faced off. Each battle can be broken into three sections: 1) The historical background leading up to the battle, 2) the battle itself, and 3) the aftermath. The book ends discussing the legacy that each unit left on the world that is still relevant today.So overall, Legion versus Phalanx brings some good insight on these two iconic armies, and on their effectiveness and value during that time period. I would recommend this book to others who enjoy military history and want to learn more about ancient warfare. Note: The opinions shared in this review are solely my responsibility.