Siege Warfare
In the Hellenistic period, development in science was incredibly noteworthy and that could not but reflect on siegecraft. Archimedes developed machines, which terrified the Roman assailants of Syracuse, Demetrius Poliorcetes was notorious for the incredible size of the siege machines employed in his exploits, especially against the city of Rhodes. Yet, most sieges were realized in more traditional ways, relying on speed, surprise and traitors rather than long lasting preparations and exhausting battering. Livius is very descriptive regarding the harassing manner of military campaigns, a complicated game of continuous attacks, moving of forces and constant patrols.
Read more about this topic: Hellenistic Armies
Famous quotes containing the words siege and/or warfare:
“One likes people much better when they’re battered down by a prodigious siege of misfortune than when they triumph.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
“The chief reason warfare is still with us is neither a secret death-wish of the human species, nor an irrepressible instinct of aggression, nor, finally and more plausibly, the serious economic and social dangers inherent in disarmament, but the simple fact that no substitute for this final arbiter in international affairs has yet appeared on the political scene.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)