Roel Konijnendijk
@roelkonijn.bsky.social
Ancient historian (Greece, Persia, war, history-writing). Darby Fellow in Ancient History at Lincoln College, Oxford. Moderator at r/AskHistorians. Ditch guy on YouTube.
Bloody Stupid Johnson would have put the bricks across the ditch to make neat little walkways
November 3, 2025 at 10:08 AM
Bloody Stupid Johnson would have put the bricks across the ditch to make neat little walkways
True... I meant to add that it's usually a feature of landscape gardens rather than fortified positions. I shouldn't post on my phone
November 2, 2025 at 9:18 PM
True... I meant to add that it's usually a feature of landscape gardens rather than fortified positions. I shouldn't post on my phone
@schmidtv.bsky.social is there a web page or plain text version of the announcement?
October 26, 2025 at 2:49 PM
@schmidtv.bsky.social is there a web page or plain text version of the announcement?
The seeming paradox of AI experts advocating against AI highlights the need to distinguish clearly and consistently between actual artificial intelligence/machine learning and "generative AI" (garbage engines). The tech may overlap but one is a real research field and the other is a hype bubble.
October 25, 2025 at 11:00 AM
The seeming paradox of AI experts advocating against AI highlights the need to distinguish clearly and consistently between actual artificial intelligence/machine learning and "generative AI" (garbage engines). The tech may overlap but one is a real research field and the other is a hype bubble.
Yep! There is a critical flight from the centre in this thing: nothing on battle, march, siege, mercenaries or naval warfare. Many of the chapters are valuable but it is passing strange to have an entire volume on Greek warfare that never once discusses, say, agonal warfare or othismos
October 15, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Yep! There is a critical flight from the centre in this thing: nothing on battle, march, siege, mercenaries or naval warfare. Many of the chapters are valuable but it is passing strange to have an entire volume on Greek warfare that never once discusses, say, agonal warfare or othismos
*Classical Greek World
October 15, 2025 at 8:33 AM
*Classical Greek World
Many of us use this series in our teaching. I have contributed to the one on Achaemenid Persia and the one on Cities in the Greco-Roman World. I also heavily use Hellenistic World (ed. Erskine), Classical World (ed. Kinzl), Sparta (ed. Powell), Macedonia (eds. Roisman & Worthington)...
October 15, 2025 at 8:32 AM
Many of us use this series in our teaching. I have contributed to the one on Achaemenid Persia and the one on Cities in the Greco-Roman World. I also heavily use Hellenistic World (ed. Erskine), Classical World (ed. Kinzl), Sparta (ed. Powell), Macedonia (eds. Roisman & Worthington)...
This one is the exception. It was put together by an editorial team that doesn't work on Archaic or Classical Greek warfare at all, and it shows. The Companion to Archaic Greece, on the other hand, is excellent - one of the outstanding examples of why these volumes are worth having.
October 15, 2025 at 8:29 AM
This one is the exception. It was put together by an editorial team that doesn't work on Archaic or Classical Greek warfare at all, and it shows. The Companion to Archaic Greece, on the other hand, is excellent - one of the outstanding examples of why these volumes are worth having.
It's been great to see some of Rémi Saou's work. It seems like he is (persuasively!) pushing a lot of revisionist ideas even further, like mine on the skittishness of hoplites. "Our" side definitely does not want for fresh insights.
October 15, 2025 at 8:22 AM
It's been great to see some of Rémi Saou's work. It seems like he is (persuasively!) pushing a lot of revisionist ideas even further, like mine on the skittishness of hoplites. "Our" side definitely does not want for fresh insights.
The problem is that he was always going to write a more historiographical analysis of the hoplite, and the editors didn't bother to also solicit a technical/tactical survey. The other problem is that the editors made heavy-handed unilateral changes to chapters - Fernando disavows the printed version
October 15, 2025 at 8:18 AM
The problem is that he was always going to write a more historiographical analysis of the hoplite, and the editors didn't bother to also solicit a technical/tactical survey. The other problem is that the editors made heavy-handed unilateral changes to chapters - Fernando disavows the printed version
Fernando was an obvious choice for a chapter like this, since he has written directly about hoplite battle tactics (in Ancient Society 2011), and his piece is one of the most thoughtful in the volume; the editors may have made some really bad choices for contributors, but this is not one of them!
October 15, 2025 at 8:16 AM
Fernando was an obvious choice for a chapter like this, since he has written directly about hoplite battle tactics (in Ancient Society 2011), and his piece is one of the most thoughtful in the volume; the editors may have made some really bad choices for contributors, but this is not one of them!
I pulled some punches in my review for JHS, but it gives a sense of the problems. It has some useful chapters but much of it is not comprehensive, consistent or current.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
(W.) HECKEL, (F.S.) NAIDEN, (E.E.) GARVIN and (J.) VANDERSPOEL (eds) A Companion to Greek Warfare. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2021. Pp. xx + 474. £175.95. 9781119438816. | The Journal of Hellenic...
(W.) HECKEL, (F.S.) NAIDEN, (E.E.) GARVIN and (J.) VANDERSPOEL (eds) A Companion to Greek Warfare. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2021. Pp. xx + 474. £175.95. 9781119438816. - Volume 144
www.cambridge.org
October 15, 2025 at 8:10 AM
I pulled some punches in my review for JHS, but it gives a sense of the problems. It has some useful chapters but much of it is not comprehensive, consistent or current.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
On that note, I should get back to my Key Themes book on Greek warfare...
October 14, 2025 at 9:09 PM
On that note, I should get back to my Key Themes book on Greek warfare...
Unfortunately the Blackwell Companion to Greek warfare (2021) is... not gonna do that
October 14, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Unfortunately the Blackwell Companion to Greek warfare (2021) is... not gonna do that
However, I wouldn't say that heretics/new heterodox scholars have thereby "won". Rather frustratingly, it seems like the debate has simply died, and people are quietly returning to orthodoxy because they assume you don't need to read more than one thing about Greek warfare.
October 14, 2025 at 7:06 PM
However, I wouldn't say that heretics/new heterodox scholars have thereby "won". Rather frustratingly, it seems like the debate has simply died, and people are quietly returning to orthodoxy because they assume you don't need to read more than one thing about Greek warfare.
There are still some orthodox voices in academia (Adam Schwartz, Greg Viggiano), but they haven't produced any new arguments. Defence of some parts of orthodoxy now largely comes from reenactors, who find it hard to let go of a treasured bloodless way to simulate massed infantry combat.
October 14, 2025 at 7:04 PM
There are still some orthodox voices in academia (Adam Schwartz, Greg Viggiano), but they haven't produced any new arguments. Defence of some parts of orthodoxy now largely comes from reenactors, who find it hard to let go of a treasured bloodless way to simulate massed infantry combat.
There was, of course, also a castle, with a stone keep - but, according to the signage there, only a double palisade and ditch to fortify the circuit
October 11, 2025 at 11:44 PM
There was, of course, also a castle, with a stone keep - but, according to the signage there, only a double palisade and ditch to fortify the circuit
Thanks very much! I never played any of the God of War games so I don't really know how they "do" the Greek gods. But games are definitely kind of a next frontier. I'm waiting for Echoes of History to release the deep dive I recorded with them on AssCreed Odyssey
October 3, 2025 at 8:38 PM
Thanks very much! I never played any of the God of War games so I don't really know how they "do" the Greek gods. But games are definitely kind of a next frontier. I'm waiting for Echoes of History to release the deep dive I recorded with them on AssCreed Odyssey
Kyroupaideia is also dripping with it. Gosh if only we could be ruled by the best man ever, it would be so ace, we would conquer the world.
September 24, 2025 at 8:24 AM
Kyroupaideia is also dripping with it. Gosh if only we could be ruled by the best man ever, it would be so ace, we would conquer the world.