Joseph Roisman

This book uniquely looks at the many facets of Greek art of command in the Classical Age through the individual careers of some of the best-known Greek commanders. They include the Spartan king Leonidas, the Athenian leaders Themistocles, Pericles, and the general Demosthenes, the Spartan Lysander, Dionysius I of Syracuse, and Epaminondas and Pelopidas of Thebes. The book describes the different nature of these leaders' generalship and the mark they left on Greek history and warfare. It describes the military challenges that each of these generals encountered and compares and contrasts their careers so to account for their successes and failures. The book draws attention to the important role that personality played in their leadership, which justifies investigating the Greek art of command through the individual careers of generals. In addition, the book looks at how far generalship changed during the Classical Age, and how adaptable it was to different military circumstances. Other questions involve the extent to which a general was a mere leader of the charge, a battle director or a strategist, and what made both ancient and modern authorities regard the aforementioned generals outstanding shapers of Greek military history.

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