Excerpts
I am in the habit of taking excerpts, indeed entire passages, from books I read. I do this primarily for role-playing ideas. Thus my notes are heavy with history, mythology, philosophy, and the supernatural. I convey some of these passages here for your enjoyment. All works cited in this section can be found on the Works Cited page.
Do not forget to read my Book Recommendations.
On War
- Acquiring Coup d’oeil, the Generals’ Discerning Glance
- Advantages of Swords Over Pistols in Dueling
- Ancient Fortifications
- Ancient Masters of the Siege
- Anticipating Surprise
- Apex of Western Cavalry
- Archer-Pair in Assyrian and Persian Warfare
- Art of Japanese Spear Fighting
- Assyria Was Unstrategically Located
- Assyrian Army of the Sargonid Period
- Assyrian Warfare: Iron, Organization, and Espionage
- Assyrians: the Pioneers with Iron
- Backstabbing Assassins
- Battle Casualties in the Ancient World
- Battle of Leuctra
- Before the Fencing Master
- Birth of Cavalry
- The Bow Was the Chief Weapon in Japanese Warfare
- Bronze Age Greek Art of War – New
- Bronze: the Plastic of Its Age
- Byzantine Cavalry Basics
- Capacities of Commanders
- Cavalry Has Ten Advantages
- Cavalry in China
- Chariot Tactics
- The Combat of the Thirty
- Compound Bows Were Superior But Expensive – New
- The Cost Of War
- Costly Sieges
- Courage, Not Manners, Was the Hallmark of a Gentleman
- Covering a Withdrawal
- Cuirass Versus Lamellar Armor – New
- Decadence in Generals
- Deception in War
- The Decline of Cavalry
- The Despised Foot Soldier
- Disease, the Wild Card of History
- Dueling and the God of Peer Opinion
- Dueling for Honor
- Early Firearm Tactics
- Early Iron Age Armies
- Elephants in War
- European Military Ranks
- Fame Was More Important Than Life
- The Fickle Deity, Pan
- First Principle of War: the Objective
- From Ghazi to Sipahi
- From Hunting to Warring
- Greek Missile Tactics
- Heavy Infantry With a Vengeance: the Greek Phalanx
- Heroic Honor Trophies in Homeric Greece
- Hoplite Shield Was an Engineering Marvel
- How Great Generals Win
- Hunnic Bow and Mongolian Release
- Hunting as War Training
- The Iliad is Not Just a Glorious Poem
- Imagining the Centaur
- In Every Army There is a Mob Waiting to Escape
- Inner Factors of Bujutsu
- Inside the Greek Phalanx
- Iron Age Logistics
- Japanese Spears: Yari and Naginata
- Javelins versus Chariots
- King’s Armiger
- Lack of Shock Infantry
- Late Roman Cavalryman
- Looking At The Enemy
- Medieval Strategy
- Militant Clergy
- The Military Genius of Alexander the Great
- Military Systems
- Mission Tactics: Knowing When Not to Obey Orders
- Money and Manpower Wins Wars
- More on Hunting as War Training
- No Last-Minute Maneuvers
- No Match for a Well-Trained Aristocrat
- Not Quite a Chessboard: the Plain as Battlefield
- Not a General’s Affair
- On Dragoons
- On Sieges
- Origins of European Army Ranks
- Outpouring from the Steppe
- Parthian Cavalry
- Prepared to Die But Not to Kill
- Prerequisite For A Military Career
- The Purpose of War
- The Rapier Was the Blade of Choice
- Redefinition of Courage
- Regimental Proprietary System
- The Riddle of Steel
- Rituals Of War
- Romans Made War As Much Business As Art
- Silk Shirts Lessen Arrow Wounds
- Skills of Generals
- Soldiers of Greece and Rome
- Steppe Ponies, Not Horses
- Stone Age of Command
- Strategy Was All-Important
- Subject of Heroic Poetry
- Such A Reputation
- Tactical Capabilities of Medieval Weapon Systems
- There Are Nine Types of Generals
- To Sleep Forever Among His Own: The Unknown Soldier
- Transformation of the Hoplite Phalanx
- A Vast Encampment
- Versatility of the Napoleonic Army Corps
- War Became an End in Itself: Assyria
- War’s Appetite for Bronze
- Warrior or Hired Killer?
- Warriors for War’s Sake: the Horse Peoples
- Web of Interdependence
- You And Your Enemy
- Zenith of the Castle
On Magic
- Alchemy Had an Unscientific Method
- Ancient Asiatic Spiritual Traditions
- Ancient People Were Deeply Religious – New
- An Arsenal of Magic Implements
- Astrolabe: Gift Of The Arabs
- Babylonian Divination
- Beginning of Science
- Birth of the Alphabet
- Concept of a Manifest Deity
- Contrasting Demonologies in the Ancient World
- Cult of the Hero
- Distinction Between Shamans, Magicians, and Priests
- Earth and the Heavens
- Exorcism in Babylonia & Assyria
- Experienced the Sacred in Catastrophe
- Find Trickster At The Boundaries
- Fire, the First Enshrined Divinity
- Forgetful Gods
- Gods from the Bicameral Mind
- Greek Gods’ Relations With Man
- Greek View of the Cosmos
- Holiness in the Ancient Middle East
- Legal and Illegal Sorcery
- Magic Is More Tolerant of Failure
- Magic at the Inbetween Places
- Magic is Not Supernatural
- Magic of Metallurgy
- Magicians as Intellectuals
- Maintaining the Diversity Within the Divine
- More on Demons
- Mystics and Magicians
- Not Superior To Man
- On Man’s Side
- Oracles Work
- Performing Miracles
- Perilous Journeys into the Mind
- Practices of Divination
- Prophecy Concerns Eternal Truths
- Ritual Sacrifice: Establishing Beneficial Relations With Blood
- Sacred Power Spots
- Seeing the Gods
- Shamanic Paraphernalia
- Shamans and Their Inner Journeys
- The Spiritual Hunt and Spiritual Warfare
- Stage of Undecided Combat
- Stay Awake to Death
- There Is a Disruptive Element in Shamanism
- Trickster Stories As Parodies of Shamanism
- Vulnerability of Demigods
- Written On My Heart
On Rulership
- Administration of a Military Order
- Amir Grades of Rank
- Assyrian Bureaucracy
- Birth of the Caliphate
- Birth of the Persian Empire
- Breeding Ground of Honor
- Chiefdoms Are Powerful But Fragile
- Codex Books Supplant Scrolls
- Condottieri Usurpation of the Princely States
- Damascus
- Decline of Iraq
- End of the Medieval System
- Flirting with Deification
- Fountainhead of Government
- God of the State
- Heroic Code: the Younger Generation is Inferior – New
- House of Succession
- Ideology Of Monarchy
- Insuperable Problems
- Justice With Common Sense
- Landlords Were The Elite of the Preindustrial Elites
- Libraries as Vessels of Political Power
- Mandate of Heaven
- Medieval English Currency
- Monasteries and their Patrons
- Money in Ptolemaic Egypt
- More Varied Crops
- Of Its Kind, the Last
- Of Princedoms
- The Old Order
- Only Gentlemen Had Honor
- Parthian Feudalism
- Pashas and Begs
- The Persian Court
- Persian Spirit, Skill, and Resourcefulness
- Princes and their Realms
- Rise and Fall of the Temple
- Roman Worldview
- Seljuk Fiefs
- Silver and Gold Coinage
- Slavery in the East
- Slavery in the Ottoman Empire
- Successors to the Caliphate in Muslim Spain
- Theme of a Warrior Culture
- Three Checks to Autocracy
- Three-Fold Root of Monarchy
- To Undermine His Own Legitimacy
- Traditional Princely Activity
- War As a Lawsuit Before the Gods – New
- Warfare In Early States
- A Weak King Was Not a King
- The Wealth of the Persian Kings
- Written Language and Political Legitimacy
