Alexander the Great led one of the most successful armies in history and conquered nearly the entirety of the known world while wearing armor made of cloth. How is that possible? This title provides the answer. It presents a thorough investigation of the linothorax, linen armor worn by Greeks, Macedonians, and other ancient Mediterranean warriors.

A thorough and original study of the linothorax, the linen armor worn by Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great led one of the most successful armies in history and conquered nearly the entirety of the known world while wearing armor made of cloth. How is that possible? In Reconstructing Ancient Linen Body Armor, Gregory S. Aldrete, Scott Bartell, and Alicia Aldrete provide the answer. An extensive multiyear project in experimental archaeology, this pioneering study presents a thorough investigation of the linothorax, linen armor worn by the Greeks, Macedonians, and other ancient Mediterranean warriors. Because the linothorax was made of cloth, no examples of it have survived. As a result, even though there are dozens of references to the linothorax in ancient literature and nearly a thousand images of it in ancient art, this linen armor remains relatively ignored and misunderstood by scholars. Combining traditional textual and archaeological analysis with hands-on reconstruction and experimentation, the authors unravel the mysteries surrounding the linothorax. They have collected and examined all of the literary, visual, historical, and archaeological evidence for the armor and detail their efforts to replicate the armor using materials and techniques that are as close as possible to those employed in antiquity. By reconstructing actual examples using authentic materials, the authors were able to scientifically assess the true qualities of linen armor for the first time in 1,500 years. The tests reveal that the linothorax provided surprisingly effective protection for ancient warriors, that it had several advantages over bronze armor, and that it even shared qualities with modern-day Kevlar. Previously featured in documentaries on the Discovery Channel and the Canadian History Channel, as well as in U.S. News and World Report, MSNBC Online, and other international venues, this groundbreaking work will be a landmark in the study of ancient warfare.

Life in Rome was relentlessly public, and oratory was at its heart. Orations were dramatic spectacles in which the speaker deployed an arsenal of rhetorical tricks and strategies aimed at arousing the emotions of the audience, and spectators responded vigorously and vocally with massed chants of praise or condemnation. Unfortunately, many aspects of these performances have been lost. In the first in-depth study of oratorical gestures and crowd acclamations as methods of communication at public spectacles, Gregory Aldrete sets out to recreate these vital missing components and to recapture the original context of ancient spectacles as interactive, dramatic, and contentious public performances. At the most basic level, this work is a study of communication—how Roman speakers communicated with their audiences, and how audiences in turn were able to reply and convey their reactions to the speakers. Aldrete begins by investigating how orators employed an extraordinarily sophisticated system of hand and body gestures in order to enhance the persuasive power of their speeches. He then turns to the target of these orations—the audience—and examines how they responded through the mechanism of acclamations, that is, rhythmically shouted comments. Aldrete finds much in these ancient spectacles that is relevant to modern questions of political propaganda, manipulation of public image, crowd behavior, and speechmaking. Readers with an interest in rhetoric, urban culture, or communications in any period will find the book informative, as will those working in art history, archaeology, history, and philology.

Publisher description

This book presents a global view of the development and applications of technical textiles with the description of materials, structures, properties, characterizations, functions and relevant production technologies, case studies, challenges, and opportunities. Technical textile is a transformative research area, dealing with the creation and studies of new generations of textiles that hoist many new scientific and technological challenges that have never been encountered before. The book emphasizes more on the principles of textile science and technology to provide solutions to several engineering problems. All chapter topics are exclusive and selectively chosen and designed, and they are extensively explored by different authors having specific knowledge in each area.

Armour Never Wearies is the first volume to bring together all the hitherto scattered evidence – archaeological, literary and artistic – for the forms and uses of scale and lamellar armours in the region west of the Ural Mountains throughout the 3,500 years during which these armours were used. The interpretation of this data is informed by the author’s long practical experience as a maker of arms and armour, martial artist and horseman. It offers systematic definitions and analysis of these often misunderstood forms of armour, along with detailed diagrams and instructions that will be of great use to any who wish to turn their hands to reconstruction. Along the way, this unique synthesis of evidence and interpretation debunks some myths that have arisen in recent years.

"In this book, Hyland examines the international relations of the First Persian Empire (the Achaemenid Empire) as a case study in ancient imperialism. He focuses in particular on Persian's relations with the Greek city-states and its diplomatic influence over Athens and Sparta. Previous studies have emphasized the ways in which Persia sought to protect its borders by playing the often warring Athens and Sparta off each other, prolonging their conflicts through limited aid and shifts of alliance. Hyland proposes a new model, employing Persian ideological texts and economic documents to contextualize the Greek narrative framework, that demonstrates that Persian Kings were less interested in control of the Ionian region where Greece bordered the empire than in displays of universal power through the acquisition of Athens or Sparta as client states. On the other hand, the establishment of "Pax Persica" beyond the Aegean was delayed by Persian efforts to limit the interventions' expense, and missteps in dealing with fractious Greek allies. This reevaluation of Persia's Greek relations marks an important contribution to scholarship on the Achaemenid empire and Greek history, and has value for the broader study of imperialism in the ancient world."--Provided by publisher.

How Rome's citizen-soldiers conquered the world—and why this militaristic ideal still has a place in America today. "For who is so worthless or indolent as not to wish to know by what means and under what system of polity the Romans . . . succeeded in subjecting nearly the whole inhabited world to their sole government—a thing unique in history?"—Polybius The year 146 BC marked the brutal end to the Roman Republic's 118-year struggle for the western Mediterranean. Breaching the walls of their great enemy, Carthage, Roman troops slaughtered countless citizens, enslaved those who survived, and leveled the 700-year-old city. That same year in the east, Rome destroyed Corinth and subdued Greece. Over little more than a century, Rome's triumphant armies of citizen-soldiers had shocked the world by conquering all of its neighbors. How did armies made up of citizen-soldiers manage to pull off such a major triumph? And what made the republic so powerful? In Killing for the Republic, Steele Brand explains how Rome transformed average farmers into ambitious killers capable of conquering the entire Mediterranean. Rome instilled something violent and vicious in its soldiers, making them more effective than other empire builders. Unlike the Assyrians, Persians, and Macedonians, it fought with part-timers. Examining the relationship between the republican spirit and the citizen-soldier, Brand argues that Roman republican values and institutions prepared common men for the rigors and horrors of war. Brand reconstructs five separate battles—representative moments in Rome's constitutional and cultural evolution that saw its citizen-soldiers encounter the best warriors of the day, from marauding Gauls and the Alps-crossing Hannibal to the heirs of Alexander the Great. A sweeping political and cultural history, Killing for the Republic closes with a compelling argument in favor of resurrecting the citizen-soldier ideal in modern America.

This volume stems from an International Conference titled 'Methods of Education and Popularization in Archaeological Heritage', held in December 1-3, 2011, at the University of Warsaw, Institute of Archaeology, Poland, organized by Foundation of Friends of the Institute of Archaeology. Contents:1) Painted tombs from Viminacium and their presentation to the public (Jelena Andelkovic); 2) Amateurs and archaeology. Experimental method or madness? How do we share it all? (Spyridon Bakas); 3) Goths' Village in Maslomecz(Bartlomiej Bartecki); 4) Using virtual museums in education: tools for spreading Calabrian cultural heritage among today's youth (Francesca Bertacchini, Assunta Tavernise); 5) Communicating archaeology outside of museum walls. Spica and Congress square - case study from Slovenia (Dijana Cerovski, Irena Sinkovec); 6) Archaeology on the Web. Educating children and youth though internet portals (Roksana Chowaniec); 7) Fostering education through virtual worlds: the learning and dissemination of ancient Biskupin (Roksana Chowaniec, Assunta Tavernise); 8) Discovering archaeology by residents of a small town, or on the promotion of archaeology in Mosina near Poznań (Anna Cicha, Joanna Struwe); 9) Using social media and new technologies in the popularization and promotion of archaeology (Karolina Ciejka); 10) The 'SiciliAntica' Association and its activities in archaeology education and popularization (Marta Fitula); 11) The Viminacium Archaeological Park and Scientific and Research Centre (Snezana Golubovic, Milica Tapavicki-Ilic); 12) Museum education. Exhibitions and outdoor events as forms of integrated presentation and popularisation of archaeological heritage in Biskupin (Anna Grossman, Pawel Hildebrandt); 13) Multifarious transmission of museum lessons in Biskupin in education and popularizing of archaeological heritage (Anna Grossman, Malgorzata Starak-Juchniewicz, Pawel Hildebrant); 14) Educational activities, workshops, events or how an archaeological museum can present the past (Sabina Hryniewiecka, Marta Kalisz); 15) Who's to blame for the tabloidization of archaeology or how to sell science cheap in the Polish press (Katarzyna Jarosz); 16) Educational activities of the 'Blue Lion' archaeological education center, present and future (Monika Jodczyk); 17) Reflections on popularising Egyptology (Agnieszka Kowalska, Kamil Kuraszkiewicz); 18) Servizio Soprintendenza ai beni culturali ed ambientali - Siracusa. Education and activities in the promotion of archaeological heritage: selected examples (Rosa Lanteri); 19) Archery Tournament in Biskupin as an example of polygenic forms of implementing the promotion of archaeological heritage (Marek Lewandowski, Piotr Dmochowski); 20) Roman cultural heritage as a tourist and educational resource (Nemanja Mrdic); 21) Educational activities at the Archaeological Museum of the Middle Oder Region (Julia Orlicka-Jasnoch); 22) The archaeological f te in ludic space (Michal Pawleta); 23) Archaeological workshops to celebrate Children's Day (Joanna Popielska-Grzybowska); 24) Per aspera ad astra... Children at the University (Monika Rekowska); 25) Virtual reconstruction as an archaeological didactic tool (Karolina Rosinska-Balik); 26) Archaeology as a tool for rehabilitation of people with special needs (and vice versa) (Dario Scarpati); 27) Education, not only archaeological, in the Museum of Archaeology and History in Elblag: should we be ashamed? (Grzegorz Stasielowicz); 28) Industriae Theatrum Ex Silesia: Showing the functioning of a medieval industry in a contemporary industrial conurbation (Joanna Tokaj, Dariusz Rozmus, Magdalena Cyankiewicz); 29) Heritage for the People. Archaeology at the City Museum of Ljubljana and Visitors to the Museum (Bernarda Zupanek, Tamara Bregar)

"In The Meaning of Color in Ancient Mesopotamia, Shiyanthi Thavapalan offers the first in-depth study of the words and expressions for colors in the Akkadian language (c. 2500-500 BCE). By combining philological analysis with the technical investigation of materials, she debunks the misconception that people in Mesopotamia had a limited sense of color and convincingly positions the development of Akkadian color language as a corollary of the history of materials and techniques in the ancient Near East"--