Roel Konijnendijk
Biographic Data
| ID | 2789083 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Roel Konijnendijk |
| GIVEN NAMES | Roel |
| FAMILY NAME | Konijnendijk |
| SIGNATURE | KONIJNENDIJK R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Museum of London |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3746-1655 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 13 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
First-hand experience
The Cambridge History of Strategy
Volume I of The Cambridge History of Strategy offers a history of the practice of strategy from the beginning of recorded history, to the late eighteenth century, from all parts of the world. Drawing on material evidence covering two-and-a-half millennia, an international team of leading scholars in each subject examines how strategy was formulated and applied and with what tools, from ancient Greece and China to the Ottoman and Mughal Empires an…
Ancient Greece
The warfare of the Greek city states was limited by their means, lacking military academies, professional officers and standing forces. Small communities fought local wars with levies of citizens, often highly motivated, but precious to the polity, which could not be kept in the field for long. Fruits of victory were modest, and defeat could put the survival of the whole state at risk. Fortification as a passive defensive policy was essential. In…
Max Weber, the Rise of the Polis, and the "Hoplite Revolution" Theory
With his essay "Agrarverhältnisse im Altertum," Max Weber pushed the scholarly narrative of the rise of the Ancient Greek polis closer to what was to become the paradigm of the twentieth century: that the unique political development of Greece followed from the rise of a new kind of warrior, the hoplite. But the scholars who would enshrine this "hoplite revolution" theory seem to have been ignorant of Weber. His prescient work is never cited on t…
‘Not Many Bows’
Greek light-armed forces have been the subject of numerous studies, but they are poorly integrated into the full narrative of Greek warfare. In this chapter, we look specifically at the role of light-armed fighters from the tenth to the fourth century, the social status of those who fought with light arms, and, where possible, their significance on the battlefield
Introduction
Greek warfare has long been understood to be ‘hoplite warfare’, focusing on the armoured spearmen who fought in the tight-knit phalanx formation. In introducing this volume, we trace the idea of the ‘hoplite’ and his essential ‘Greekness’ in popular media and modern scholarship, while also showing this understanding of the hoplite is distinct from that of the ancient world. We explore why, and how, this focus came about and how we aim to move bey…
Legitimization of War
Playing Dice for the Polis
Recent scholarship has repeatedly challenged the notion that Greek warfare was ever characterized by rule-bound battles in open ground. This article builds on those challenges by asking to what extent a morality that favored pitched battle affected military thinking at all. Some appeals to such values survive from the Classical period, but they are ambiguous, ineffectual, and often contested. There is much more consistent evidence for the opposit…
Brill's Companion to Greek Land Warfare Beyond the Phalanx
After decades of controversy, there is now a growing consensus that Greek warfare was not singular and simple, but complex and multiform. In this volume, emerging and established scholars build on this consensus to explore Greek warfare beyond its traditional focus on hoplites and the phalanx. We expand the chronological limits back into the Iron Age, the geographical limits to the central and eastern Mediterranean, and the operational limits to …
Risk, chance and danger in Classical Greek writing on battle
This article highlights two aspects of the language used in Classical Greek literary sources to discuss pitched battle. First, the sources regularly use unqualified forms of the verb kinduneuein , “to take a risk,” when they mean fighting a battle. They do so especially in contexts of deliberation about the need to fight. Second, they often describe the outcome of major engagements in terms of luck, fate, and random chance, at the explicit expens…
Athenian Democracy at War by David M. Pritchard
Reviewed by: Athenian Democracy at War by David M. Pritchard Roel Konijnendijk David M. Pritchard. Athenian Democracy at War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. Pp. xxiv, 287. $105.00. ISBN 978-1-108-42291-8. In this work, Pritchard brings together the fruits of fifteen years of research on Classical Athens. The result is a loose collection of chapters based on his earlier publications—some of them summarised, some reprinted, some subst…
Conclusion
‘The Finest, Flattest Piece of Land’
In Classical Greek Tactics: A Cultural History, Roel Konijnendijk presents a new, revisionist interpretation of battle tactics and tactical thought in Greece in the 5th and 4th centuries BC.
The Prussian Model of Hoplite Battle
‘Utterly Outmatched in Skill’
‘Improvisers in Soldiering’
‘Deployed to Fit the Need’
‘No Shortage of People to Kill’
Indexes
Classical Greek Tactics
What determined the choices of the Greeks on the battlefield? Were their tactics defined by unwritten moral rules, or was all considered fair in war? In Classical Greek Tactics: A Cultural History, Roel Konijnendijk re-examines the literary evidence for the battle tactics and tactical thought of the Greeks during the 5th and 4th centuries BC. Rejecting the traditional image of limited, ritualised battle, Konijnendijk sketches a world of brutally …
Mardonius' Senseless Greeks
In Herodotus' royal council scene, where Xerxes decides whether or not to punish the Greeks, the king's cousin and adviser Mardonius is made to say these famous lines (Hdt. 7.9β.1): καίτοι [γε] ἐώθασι Ἕλληνες, ὡς πυνθάνομαι, ἀβουλότατα πολέμους ἵστασθαι ὑπό τε ἀγνωμοσύνης καὶ σκαιότητος. ἐπεὰν γὰρ ἀλλήλοισι πόλεμον προείπωσι, ἐξευρόντες τὸ κάλλιστον χωρίον καὶ λειότατον, ἐς τοῦτο κατιόντες μάχονται, ὥστε σὺν κακῷ μεγάλῳ οἱ νικῶντες ἀπαλλάσσονται·…
Classical Greek Tactics
What determined the choices of the Greeks on the battlefield? Were their tactics defined by unwritten moral rules, or was all considered fair in war? In Classical Greek Tactics: A Cultural History, Roel Konijnendijk re-examines the literary evidence for the battle tactics and tactical thought of the Greeks during the 5th and 4th centuries BC. Rejecting the traditional image of limited, ritualised battle, Konijnendijk sketches a world of brutally …
Mardonius' Senseless Greeks
In Herodotus' royal council scene, where Xerxes decides whether or not to punish the Greeks, the king's cousin and adviser Mardonius is made to say these famous lines (Hdt. 7.9β.1): καίτοι [γε] ἐώθασι Ἕλληνες, ὡς πυνθάνομαι, ἀβουλότατα πολέμους ἵστασθαι ὑπό τε ἀγνωμοσύνης καὶ σκαιότητος. ἐπεὰν γὰρ ἀλλήλοισι πόλεμον προείπωσι, ἐξευρόντες τὸ κάλλιστον χωρίον καὶ λειότατον, ἐς τοῦτο κατιόντες μάχονται, ὥστε σὺν κακῷ μεγάλῳ οἱ νικῶντες ἀπαλλάσσονται·…
Mardonius' Senseless Greeks
In Herodotus' royal council scene, where Xerxes decides whether or not to punish the Greeks, the king's cousin and adviser Mardonius is made to say these famous lines (Hdt. 7.9β.1): καίτοι [γε] ἐώθασι Ἕλληνες, ὡς πυνθάνομαι, ἀβουλότατα πολέμους ἵστασθαι ὑπό τε ἀγνωμοσύνης καὶ σκαιότητος. ἐπεὰν γὰρ ἀλλήλοισι πόλεμον προείπωσι, ἐξευρόντες τὸ κάλλιστον χωρίον καὶ λειότατον, ἐς τοῦτο κατιόντες μάχονται, ὥστε σὺν κακῷ μεγάλῳ οἱ νικῶντες ἀπαλλάσσονται·…
Conclusion
‘The Finest, Flattest Piece of Land’
In Classical Greek Tactics: A Cultural History, Roel Konijnendijk presents a new, revisionist interpretation of battle tactics and tactical thought in Greece in the 5th and 4th centuries BC.
The Prussian Model of Hoplite Battle
‘Utterly Outmatched in Skill’
‘Improvisers in Soldiering’
‘Deployed to Fit the Need’
‘No Shortage of People to Kill’
Indexes
Classical Greek Tactics
What determined the choices of the Greeks on the battlefield? Were their tactics defined by unwritten moral rules, or was all considered fair in war? In Classical Greek Tactics: A Cultural History, Roel Konijnendijk re-examines the literary evidence for the battle tactics and tactical thought of the Greeks during the 5th and 4th centuries BC. Rejecting the traditional image of limited, ritualised battle, Konijnendijk sketches a world of brutally …
Risk, chance and danger in Classical Greek writing on battle
This article highlights two aspects of the language used in Classical Greek literary sources to discuss pitched battle. First, the sources regularly use unqualified forms of the verb kinduneuein , “to take a risk,” when they mean fighting a battle. They do so especially in contexts of deliberation about the need to fight. Second, they often describe the outcome of major engagements in terms of luck, fate, and random chance, at the explicit expens…
Athenian Democracy at War by David M. Pritchard
Reviewed by: Athenian Democracy at War by David M. Pritchard Roel Konijnendijk David M. Pritchard. Athenian Democracy at War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. Pp. xxiv, 287. $105.00. ISBN 978-1-108-42291-8. In this work, Pritchard brings together the fruits of fifteen years of research on Classical Athens. The result is a loose collection of chapters based on his earlier publications—some of them summarised, some reprinted, some subst…
‘Not Many Bows’
Greek light-armed forces have been the subject of numerous studies, but they are poorly integrated into the full narrative of Greek warfare. In this chapter, we look specifically at the role of light-armed fighters from the tenth to the fourth century, the social status of those who fought with light arms, and, where possible, their significance on the battlefield
Introduction
Greek warfare has long been understood to be ‘hoplite warfare’, focusing on the armoured spearmen who fought in the tight-knit phalanx formation. In introducing this volume, we trace the idea of the ‘hoplite’ and his essential ‘Greekness’ in popular media and modern scholarship, while also showing this understanding of the hoplite is distinct from that of the ancient world. We explore why, and how, this focus came about and how we aim to move bey…
Legitimization of War
Playing Dice for the Polis
Recent scholarship has repeatedly challenged the notion that Greek warfare was ever characterized by rule-bound battles in open ground. This article builds on those challenges by asking to what extent a morality that favored pitched battle affected military thinking at all. Some appeals to such values survive from the Classical period, but they are ambiguous, ineffectual, and often contested. There is much more consistent evidence for the opposit…
Brill's Companion to Greek Land Warfare Beyond the Phalanx
After decades of controversy, there is now a growing consensus that Greek warfare was not singular and simple, but complex and multiform. In this volume, emerging and established scholars build on this consensus to explore Greek warfare beyond its traditional focus on hoplites and the phalanx. We expand the chronological limits back into the Iron Age, the geographical limits to the central and eastern Mediterranean, and the operational limits to …
Max Weber, the Rise of the Polis, and the "Hoplite Revolution" Theory
With his essay "Agrarverhältnisse im Altertum," Max Weber pushed the scholarly narrative of the rise of the Ancient Greek polis closer to what was to become the paradigm of the twentieth century: that the unique political development of Greece followed from the rise of a new kind of warrior, the hoplite. But the scholars who would enshrine this "hoplite revolution" theory seem to have been ignorant of Weber. His prescient work is never cited on t…
The Cambridge History of Strategy
Volume I of The Cambridge History of Strategy offers a history of the practice of strategy from the beginning of recorded history, to the late eighteenth century, from all parts of the world. Drawing on material evidence covering two-and-a-half millennia, an international team of leading scholars in each subject examines how strategy was formulated and applied and with what tools, from ancient Greece and China to the Ottoman and Mughal Empires an…
Ancient Greece
The warfare of the Greek city states was limited by their means, lacking military academies, professional officers and standing forces. Small communities fought local wars with levies of citizens, often highly motivated, but precious to the polity, which could not be kept in the field for long. Fruits of victory were modest, and defeat could put the survival of the whole state at risk. Fortification as a passive defensive policy was essential. In…
First-hand experience
History (16 works) · Classical Antiquity Studies (12 works) · Ancient history (11 works) · Political science (11 works) · Law (8 works) · Battle (7 works) · History (7 works) · Art (6 works) · Literature (6 works) · Philosophy (6 works)