The Role of Animals in Ancient Greek and Roman Military Manuals. In: Frank Jacob (ed.), War and Animals. Non-human Actors in Human Made Conflict. Paderborn 2024 (War (Hi)Stories; Bd. 14). S. 65-92. (original) (raw)

War and Animals. Non-human Actors in Human Made Conflict (War (Hi)Stories; vol. 14), 2024

Abstract

Animals played an important role in Greco-Roman antiquity: as food source, as sacrificial animals, as mounts, draught animals and pack animals, as wool suppliers, as support for hunting, as guards and protectors. Especially in war, animals were all the more important, not only for transport and care, but especially for divination, but also for tactical tasks as mounts, guard dogs or messengers. In this chapter, I examine which animals are treated in ancient military manuals in terms of their functions in war. Especially dogs, horses, cattle and mules play a role in these writings, but geese, birds and bees are also discussed in some of them. I analyze the differences in the treatment of animals according to subgenus or time and discuss the reasons for these differences. For the better understanding of a wider readership that includes not only ancient historians and classical philologists I will give a brief synopsis of the role of certain animals in antiquity – with an emphasis on military use – as well as of the genre of military writings.

Magnus Frisch hasn't uploaded this paper.

Let Magnus know you want this paper to be uploaded.

Ask for this paper to be uploaded.