Make War

Throughout history, individuals, states or political factions have gained sovereignty over regions and resources through the use of war. Warfare, regrettably a universal human experience and more specifically battle, is the essential experience of war, containing the moments when the will, the motivation, and the psychological reserves of the combatant were tested to their fullest extent.

Heroes

An egocentric pursuit of personal glory and booty is generally regarded as characteristic of so-called primitive warriors. Yet at the same time, it is the approach that creates legends and gives material to heroic epic. Heroes of outstanding physical strength or intelligence can conduct superhuman tasks to save and protect their people. Consequently, looking in detail, numerous flaws are allowed to them, they are still humans. On the other hand, the concept of heroes is intrinsically embedded in the concept of tribal mentality. Heroes, real or mythical, are ancestors of a group of individuals that consider themselves as their descendants and usually consider outsiders as dangerous and conflict against them as normal. Such mentality resulted from a dichotomy of an “us” against “them” and engendered a latent fear of the “other” or “diverse” whose culture is at odds or at least differs from one’s own.

Introduction

In all parts of the world and all civilizations the history of warfare, as well as the ironic humour of those who fight and die, can be traced back to the earliest written records. Though, the vocabulary of modern warfare derives from Greek and Latin while metaphors of conflict similarly evoke ancient times. Such phrases as “Pyrrhic victory” are common, and...

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Zavrč

In the Late Bronze Age, the world changed dramatically, perhaps this was the most dramatic transformation of human society after the adoption of agriculture. With the largescale production of bronze not only technology changed, but also long-distance trade with metals and other luxurious goods. It was not only the accumulation of wealth that changed the societies but most important the accumulation...

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Novo Mesto

Numerous modern ministries of defence sack up thousands of young men and woman each year from armed forces for homosexuality, which is mostly deemed “incompatible with military services”. The cost is immense if we consider the loss of experienced personnel, not to mention that ministries are engaged in degrading detailed investigations and surveillance of the private lives of suspected individuals. On...

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Koreshnica

In almost every medium of Greek art of the 6th century BC the hoplite and warfare feature prominently, as military service was a primary distinction of citizenship – a mark of status and often of wealth, as well as a means of attaining glory. In the hinterland of the classical world, it seemed that in this period a new aristocracy was...

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Conclusion

Fighting wars was never just about conflicts. It was about the perception of one-self and our friends and relatives, it was about controlling land and dreaming about ancestors and talking to gods. Heroes were bellowed by the gods and damned by them. They were the central pillar of society around whom legends and myths were intertwined – inhabiting the space between...

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Walls

Walls make the civilization – they create a sharp distinction between the city and the countryside, between the municipal jurisdiction, law and order and the wilderness where everything is possible. They are not only a defensive architectonic element; they are a political statement indicating that society was able to invest so much money, time and efforts into building them. Consequently, too often historians perceive the construction of urban defences as one of the hallmarks of civilization.

Introduction

Sometimes walls strike aside attackers, but sometimes they just hide what is preserved inside of them. Instead of intercepting the incoming, they restrain the diffusion of what is kept behind them. The research of city walls did not highlight only the chronological and regional variations enabling scientists to rethink how and why urban circuits were constructed and how they functioned. Looking...

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Ohrid – Gorna Porta

The necropolises of the ancient town of Lychnidos were discovered in several locations within and around the city, but due to exceptional discoveries at the beginning of this century, the Gorna Porta holds a prominent place among them. The complex was located alongside the Northern wall of the Ohrid fortress right next to its main entrance. During excavations, 147 graves were...

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Viničko Kale

The site of Viničko Kale is situated southeast of the city of Vinica in Northern Macedonia. The research of the castrum started intensively in 1977 when two intact and five fragmented terracotta icons were discovered. In years to follow, a large proportion of the site was excavated producing finds dated from Late Bronze Age to the Medieval period. The site rose...

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Piran

Piran is one of the few cities in Slovenia that kept its medieval charm – mostly due to the tightly packed urban area surrounded by the city walls. Developing and spreading from the 10th century the city occupied slowly most of the peninsula and the city walls had to be relocated three times. With the inclusion into the Venetian republic, the...

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Conclusion

Today we realise that city walls do not represent only emergency responses to unstable political circumstances and imminent threat. Moreover, their imposing dimensions and the extraordinary care with which they were assembled indicate that they were conceived as ostentatious and visually striking public monuments. They were monumental statements about power and patronage and political legitimacy – to be sure; they were...

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Fields of war

The world’s first historian, the Greek Herodotus, wrote, “No one is stupid enough to prefer war to peace; in peace, sons bury their fathers and in war fathers bury their sons. However, I suppose some god must have wanted this to happen”. However, his words, when describing Greek warfare as an almost ritual system of total fairness between identical hoplite armies, are less trustworthy and are actually moralising propaganda or deceptive lies. Warfare was never fair nor heroic – it was tragic. Evolving from conflicts between armed bands led by a warrior leader, city militia of part-time soldiers, providing their own equipment and perhaps including all the citizens of the city-state or polis, began to move warfare away from the control of private individuals and into the realm of the state. Assemblies or groups of elite citizen’s sanctioned war, and generals and other military leaders came to be accountable for their actions.

Introduction

Today the reader from the comfort of historical narrative can only hardly think and rethink the use of armed coercion as an instrument of ancient policy. Warfare was always seen as unavoidable evil of the human condition. Whether it be small frontier skirmishes between neighbouring city-states, lengthy city-sieges, civil wars, or large-scale battles between multi-alliance blocks on land and sea, the...

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Vače

One of the most fascinating items of prehistoric artistic production is the famous belt plate from Vače in Slovenia.  It was discovered on the locality Reber above Klenik in a grave, that was already robbed - inside a wooden crate were left only several bronze rings, a short sword or knife, an awl, several human bones and fragments of pottery. The...

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Marvinci

In the Valandovo valley is located one of the most impressive archaeological sites in North Macedonia. On the peak of a small hill, overlooking the valley on the southwest side of the village Marvinci is located at the site of Isar. Covering some 5 hectares it could be divided into at least two areas – the acropolis of the pre-roman settlement...

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Ptuj

Poetoviona was the most important Roman city on the territory of today’s Slovenia. Originally a Celtic centre, it was occupied in the Augustan period by the Augustus Eight Legion that remained there for almost half of the century. One of the most extraordinary documents, not illustrating only the process of Romanization, but presenting to us the life and fate of a...

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Conclusion

The actions of ancient warriors were shaped by habits and customs influenced by the socio-economic and practical military context in which they fought. They were bloody-minded pragmatists that pursued the complete destruction of the enemy – but they had very limited means at their disposal to achieve this. The training or rather the lack of it caused stubborn amateurism in most...

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