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
- 3000 Years of Combat with Sword and Shield – New
- Acquiring Coup d’oeil, the Generals’ Discerning Glance
- Advantages of Swords Over Pistols in Dueling
- An All-Around Mounted Warrior
- Ancient Fortifications
- Anticipating Surprise
- Apex of Western Cavalry
- Archer-Pair in Assyrian and Persian Warfare
- Art of Japanese Spear Fighting
- Assaulting Cities is the Oldest Expression of Warfare
- Assyria Was Unstrategically Located
- Assyrian Army of the Sargonid Period
- Assyrian Warfare: Iron, Organization, and Espionage
- Assyrians Were Ancient Masters of the Siege
- Assyrians: the Pioneers with Iron
- Backstabbing Assassins, Not Knights of the Air
- 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
- Bronze: the Plastic of Its Age
- Byzantine Cavalry Basics
- Capacities of Commanders
- Cavalry Replaces Chariots in Chinese Art of War
- Chariot Tactics
- The Combat of the Thirty
- Compound Bows Were Superior But Expensive
- The Cost Of War
- Courage, Not Manners, Was the Hallmark of a Gentleman
- Covering a Withdrawal
- Cuirass Versus Lamellar Armor
- Deception in War
- Decline of Cavalry in Western Europe
- The Despised Foot Soldier
- Disease, the Wild Card of History
- Dueling and the God of Peer Opinion
- Early Firearm Tactics: Pike and Arquebus
- Early Iron Age Armies
- Eight Kinds of Decadence in Generalship
- Elephants in War
- European Military Ranks
- Fame Was More Important Than Life
- Few Pitched Battles But Many Sieges
- The Fickle Deity, Pan
- First Principle of War: the Objective
- Five Skills And Four Desires of Generalship
- For Byzantines, Strategy Was All-Important
- From Ghazi to Sipahi
- From Hunters to Warriors
- From Jousting for Glory to Dueling for Honor
- Greek Missile Tactics
- Hand-to-Hand Combat Was Rare in Ancient Warfare
- 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
- Looking At The Enemy
- Material Cost Versus Psychological Benefit of Sieges
- 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
- 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 is a More Perfect Peace
- The Rapier Was the Blade of Choice
- Rarity of the Set-Piece Battle – New
- Redefinition of Courage
- Regimental Proprietary System
- Religious Rituals of War
- The Riddle of Steel
- Romans Made War As Much Business As Art
- Silk Shirts Lessen Arrow Wounds
- Soldiers of Greece and Rome
- Steppe Ponies, Not Horses
- Stone Age of Command
- The Subject of Heroic Poetry is the Hero
- Such A Reputation
- Tactical Capabilities of Medieval Weapon Systems
- Ten Uses For Cavalry
- 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
- Akkadian Conception of the Supernatural
- Alchemists Want to Change the World
- Alchemy Had an Unscientific Method
- Ancient Asiatic Spiritual Traditions
- Ancient People Were Deeply Religious
- An Arsenal of Magic Implements
- Astrolabe: Gift Of The Arabs
- Babylonian Divination
- The Basic Logic of Alchemy is Relationship – New
- Beginning of Science
- Birth of the Alphabet
- Concept of a Manifest Deity
- Contrasting Demonologies in the Ancient World
- Cult of the Hero
- Demons Fight in Vain Against the Order of Nature
- 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
- Magic Armor in the Iliad
- 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
- 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
- Public Versus Private Sorcery
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Confucian Mandate of Heaven
- Damascus
- Decline of Iraq
- Fear Was the Fountainhead of Government Control
- Flirting with Deification
- A God of the State Not the People
- Heroic Code Says the Younger Generation is Inferior
- House of Succession
- Ideology Of Monarchy
- The Immense Wealth of the Persian Kings
- Insuperable Problems
- Justice With Common Sense
- Landlords Were The Elite of the Preindustrial Elites
- Libraries as Vessels of Political Power
- Medieval English Currency
- Monasteries and their Patrons
- Money in Ptolemaic Egypt
- A More Varied Diet Means a Healthier Population
- Of Its Kind, the Last
- Of Princedoms
- Only Gentlemen Had Honor
- Ottoman Nobility: Pashas, Begs, and Beglierbegs
- Parthian Feudalism
- Perpetuated Monopolies of the Aristocracy
- The Persian Court
- Persian Spirit, Skill, and Resourcefulness
- Pervasiveness of Warfare In Early States
- Princes and their Realms
- The Rights-Based System of Medieval Society – Updated
- Rise and Fall of the Temple
- Roman Worldview
- Seljuk Fiefs Were Not Hereditary
- 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
- Three-Tier System of Administration for Military Orders
- To Undermine His Own Legitimacy
- Traditional Princely Activity
- War As a Lawsuit Before the Gods
- A Weak King Was Not a King
- Written Language and Political Legitimacy
