Notice bibliographique
- Notice
Type(s) de contenu et mode(s) de consultation : Texte noté : sans médiation
Auteur(s) : Levithan, Josh (1976-....)
Titre(s) : Roman siege warfare [Texte imprimé] / Joshua Levithan
Publication : Ann Arbor (Mich.) : University of Michigan Press, 2013
Description matérielle : viii, 247 p. ; 24 cm
Note(s) : Includes bibliographical references (pages 229-238) and index
"Roman siege warfare had its own structure and customs, and expectations both by the
besieged and by the attacking army. Sieges are typically sorted by the techniques
and technologies that attackers used, but the more fruitful approach offered in Roman
Siege Warfare examines the way a siege follows or diverges from typical narrative
and operational plotlines. Author Josh Levithan emphasizes the human elements--morale
and motivation--rather than the engineering, and he recaptures the sense of a siege
as an event in progress that offers numerous attitudes, methods, and outcomes. Sieges
involved a concentration of violent effort in space and the practical challenge posed
by a high wall: unlike field battles they were sharply defined in time, in space,
and in operational terms. Chapters examine motivation and behavior during a siege
and focus on examples from both the Roman Republic and the Empire: Polybius, Livy,
Julius Caesar, Flavius Josephus, and Ammianus Marcellinus. Levithan examines the "gadgetary
turn," during which writers began to lavish attention on artillery and wall-damaging
techniques, fetishizing technology and obscuring the centrality of the assault and
of human behavior. This volume speaks to classicists and historians of all stripes.
All passages are translated, and references are accessible to nonspecialists. Military
historians will also find much of interest in the volume, in its treatment both of
Roman military conduct and of wider military practice"
Sujet(s) : Guerre de siège -- Rome -- Histoire
Art et science militaires -- Rome
Histoire militaire -- Rome
Identifiants, prix et caractéristiques : ISBN 9780472118984 (hbk.) (alk. paper). - ISBN 0472118986 (hbk.) (alk. paper). - ISBN
9780472029495 (e-book). - ISBN 0472029495 (e-book)
Identifiant de la notice : ark:/12148/cb43787120b
Notice n° :
FRBNF43787120
(notice reprise d'un réservoir extérieur)