Two Notes on Human Consciousness: Nationalism and Sociopathy.
Quick overview of the rise and fall of empires as they affect the middle east - the cradle of civilization.
Early warfare and the line of battle.
Documentary: "First Armies."
3700 BC. Babylon, Assyria, Sumer.
A documentary. TimeLife: Lost Civilizations. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6.
Disclaimer: Secular assumptions are being made, one of which is that the Bible was entirely written during the Babylonian captivity. This is contradicted by more recent archaeological finds.
2525 B.C Sumerian Warfare (Lagash versus Umma) "Around 4000 B.C. city-states began to develop in ancient Mesopotamia. With their growth, conflicts developed among them." Do tell.
Movie images: Conan the Barbarian. Trailer. Montage.
The Conan the Barbarian saga is not historical at all, being the sword and sorcery fantasy work of Robert E. Howard. But the stories and the imagery are very much in the spirit of the early Sumerian legends that became the Epic of Gilgamesh. Both they, and Gilamesh, point out the the re-occurring theme of civilized societies becoming so civilized that they become prey to the barbarians who can organize enough to make an attack. This was the constant fear of early civilizations and why their cities were always walled. Their second constant fear was being attacked by a civilized society.
The riddle of steel. Early paganism as imagined by Robert E. Howard. Again, in spirit with the Epic of Gilgamesh, even if completely bogus. But later on there was an early arms race to get from Bronze Age weapons to Iron Age weapons, as portrayed in the 1954 film, The Egyptian. Conan's fictional advantage was being the first to have a steel weapon.
ca. 1696 – 1654 BC. The Babylonian Empire. Babylon the Great, as portrayed in D.W. Griffith's "Intolerance." Hmmm, not bad for 1916.
1810-609 BC Assyrian Empire. Documentary: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. A tribute to the Assyrian army. A tribute for genocidal maniacs?
1457 BC? The Battle of Megiddo. The original Armageddon (Hebrew: har məgiddô) Egyptians vs. a Canaanite coalition.
Documentary. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5. Part of it focuses on one Egyptian draftee. A humane view point.
1391–1353 BC. The reign of Amenhotep III. Movie: The Egyptian. Jean Simmons, Victor Mature.
1274 BC. The Battle of Kadesh (or Qadesh) the Egyptian Empire versus the Hittite Empire.
(Additional background on Egyptian warfare).
1250-1210 BC The Trojan War. (Homer's Iilad) The Battles of Aloessa? Hittites vs. Mycenaeans (early Greeks) Documentary on the truth of Troy. Obviously, there's the Brad Pitt epic. And a mash up - er, tribute - that mixes the Brad Pitt epic with Mihalis Kakogiannis' film version (Kathrine Hepburn, Vanessa Redgrave) of Euripides' play The "Trojan Women." Funny how we can only see things from our enemy's perspective only after centuries have gone by. But here we can see "love thy neighbor as thyself" beginning to creep into Greek culture.
1029 BC. The Career of King David of Israel. Documentary: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6.
Disclaimer: This documentary takes a cynical, secular view (to say the least!) of the Biblical source materials. Yes, King David had once worked for the Phillistines, but that was not treason because nationalism didn't exist yet. Yes, David contrived to have Uriah the Hittite murdered by proxy, but the prophet Nathan confronts him with a story about a man who did the equivalent of what he did, and David immediately wants that man put to death. Nathan tells him "You are that man!" And David takes this! He's learned yet anew who his neighbor really is, even if it has slipped his mind for a time. This is the reason why the Bible calls David a man after God's own heart. He's close to the truth and getting closer. There's many a person who never is.
The Spartans.
490 BC Battle of Marathon. Greece versus Persia.
480 BC. The Battle of Thermopylae. Greeks vs. The Persians.
September, 480 BC. The Battle of Salamis. After the Greek army is routed, the Persian navy in lured into Salamis bay, where the Greek navy is waiting to destroy it. Excellent overview montage, ruined only by brief clips of Roman soldiers. Musical montage of the Greek fleet. The Brilliance of Themistocles
476–221 BC. Sun Tzu writes The Art of War. It will not come to the attention of the West until about 2,000 years later. And more's the pity. "For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill." If the Europeans had know Sun Tzu earlier, the population of Europe would be a lot higher today.
415-413 BC. The Siege of Syracuse. an entertaining, but not very historical movie with the Tina Louise of Gilligan's Island. The things one finds on youtube!
338 BC Battle of Chaeronea. Phillip II of Macedon and Alexander the Great vs. Athens and Thebes.
334 BC. Battle of Granicus. Alexander the Great vs. The Persians.
332 BC. Siege of Tyre by Alexander the Great.
331 BC Battle of Gaugamela. Alexander the Great.
Montage and overview of Roman History from 753 BC to 1453AD.
218 BC to 453 AD. The age of the Roman Legions. Montage from many films.
218 to 201 BC The Second Punic War (Carthage vs. Rome) The career of Hannibal. Documentary. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6.
216 BC The Battle of Cannae. Carthage versus Rome.
October 19, 202 BC. The Battle of Zama. An excellent amateur documentary using video game software to explain the battle.
73 to 71 BC. Third Servile War.
Sparticus vs. Crassus. The Kirk Douglas movie. A BBC documentary.
58 – 51 BC Conquest of Gaul (France) by Julius Caesar.
Documentary: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6.
Movie from the viewpoint of the Gauls: "Druids." Christopher Lambert as Vercingetorix. The movie contains the battle below:
September 52 BC. The Battle of Alesia. One documentary.
Caesar's legionaires at work in Gaul. From the TV series "Rome." Note the discipline and method in what should be a chaotic mess.
Tribute to HBO's "Rome." The series portrays Rome's transition from republic to empire.
53 BC. The Battle of Carrhae. Romans vs. the Persians. Crassus gets it.
49 BC to 9 August 48 BC. Julius Caesar: from the crossing of the Rubicon to the battle of Pharsalus. British TV series. (some parts are missing). Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7.
9 August 48 BC The Battle of Pharsalus. Caesar's army does in Pompey's army.
March 15 (the Ides of March) 44 BC. Caesar, now dictator of Rome, is assassinated in office. Version according to Wm. Shakespeare and Joseph Mankiewicz, circa 1953. A little know fact: Caesar had a "hobby" of seducing the wives of his political opponents. It was his little way of letting them know how little he thought of them. So there was a lot of personal heat behind all those daggers that went into him.
Octavian (adopted nephew of Caesar) takes over.
October 3 and 23, 42 BC. The Battle of Philippi.
Roman generals Marc Anthony and Octavian (Augustus)Caesar vs. Roman senators Brutus and Cassius. After this battle, the Roman Republic is gone in all but name. The battle as portrayed in the TV series "Rome."
2 September 31 BC. The Battle of Actium. Now Octavian does in Marc Anthony. He gets a declaration of war against Anthony. Actium scene from the movie "Cleopatra." Richard Burton as Marc Anthony. Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra. DeMille's 1934 version.
9 AD. Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. The Romans vs. the Germans. Rome's advance into central Europe is checked by Herman the German.
The BBC's "I, Claudius" portrays the first Roman emperors from Augustus to Claudius.
101-102 & 105-106 AD. Trajan's Dacian Wars.
The 1966 Romanian movie, "Dacii" One documentary.
28 October 312. Battle of the Milvian bridge. Constantine I becomes emperor. British TV series. Part1. Part2. Part3. Constantinople later becomes the capital of the eastern Roman Empire. Christianity becomes the state religion of the Roman empire and the new polity called Christendome is born. It will be the one peice of glue that holds european civilization together after the Roman empire gradually dies.
378 AD. Battle of Adrianople. The Eastern Roman Empire versus the Goths.
August 24, 410 - The Visigoth sack of Rome by Alaric I. Excellent movie/documentary.
451 AD. Battle of Chalons. The Defeat of Attila the Hun.
Old Roman military titles will become the ranks of peerage in the Medieval era.
between 490 and 517 AD, the Battle of Mons Badonicus.
And here is an example as given by the movie King Arthur. The movie is fiction, but you do see a Roman dux becoming a early British king. In other instances, the dux's became dukes.
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