The Desolation of Smog

Posted at Amazon.com

 My review:

This review is from: Republican Roman Warships 509-27 BC (New Vanguard) (Paperback)

This book is a poorly written and presented account. The reconstructions are erroneous and at least three directly based on preexisting works. Ancient authors are directly contradicted. Modern researches are not included. I have made a lengthier critique on my blog Rams, Ravens and Wrecks. The text is so idiosycratic and has so many typos that it seems not to have been proof-read. The suggestion that an oarcrew should chant a special song is made, despite Thucydides stating a good crew was a silent one and the crew included a musician who dictated the rythm. A suggestion is made that sailors wore a specific Etruscan costume. etc.
The single star is due to the concise chronology of naval wars - material available many other places.

Andrea Salimbeti says:

Dear Sir
I am always open to criticism but constructive ones. This one is completely useless. You say that the reconstructions are erroneous. Where? It should be important to understand it. The reconstructions are directly based on ancient sources and modern books (all the modern bibliography is quoted) but of course not all the ancient authors are speaking about the same ship model neither existed only one type of Triremes or Quadriremes.
About the text has been review by Osprey, english mother-tongue people. About the mention of Thucydides, I can remember You that we are dealing not with ships of the Thucidides Greeks, but with Roman ships, and the song I reported is from an ancient source. The images of the Roman ships in the punic wars is copied from the Etruscan urnes, where sailors are dressed exactly like I have reconstructed.
At the moment, Your critics are just smog. But I am waiting for technical details, mention of the sources, etc..
Best wishes
Dr. Raffaele D'Amato

I replied:

Take a look at my blog Rams Ravens and Wrecks for detail.
Is this written by Andrea Salimbetti or Raffaele D'Amato ?

Fake Books at Osprey

Browsing Osprey's January sale . Populated by the usual old or odd titles, my eye fell on the poll for new titles.

Yes, that's right. They are asking if you want a book that compares and contrasts Athenian and Spartan triremes. Great!, think all the galley-fans. Yes, we want more of that !

But wait for a moment, Can anyone write this book and with a straight face and say it is a book comparing and contrasting Athenian and Spartan triremes ?

1) There are just two depictions of galleys from a Spartan context that I know of. OK I have not seen everything but I do trawl all ancient maritime sources extensively and regularly. One is a tiny incomplete drawing on a comb from the seventh centuery, before triremes, and the other is the Orthaia plaque also from the seventh century.

2) Nowhere have we accounts of the Spartan navy - if that is such we should call it, rather than the Peloponnesian navy. Thus we have nowhere an account of the form or operation of a Spartan trireme. Thucydides, the Athenian, is the primary source for the war and for information on triremes.

In short, I fail to see how one could honestly produce a book which describes somethiong called a 'Spartan trireme'. The fact that it seems that Osprey are going to do do just that signifies there is no editorial control of their material. No reality control, even. Has someone put in a book proposal for this title or is it one to be cobbled together from existing titles ? - a now standard Osprey marketing tactic.

Admittedly Osprey do publish total fantasy like Orc Warfare and game rules now, perhaps these areas are bleeding into the non-fiction areas?

 This title has a blurb in the present tense, with no trace of irony...

To defeat your enemy, you must understand him. This volume offers an indispensable analysis of the most vicious killers of all - orcs. Born and bred for war, they are an awful, brutish, violent species and, despite their constant infighting and backstabbing, their horde armies remain a dire threat to all races. To them, war is life. Beginning with an examination of the fighting methods of the individual orc warrior, the book expands to look at how they do battle in their small warbands and in vast armies. Using vivid, illuminating illustrations, it reveals the tactics, technology and disposition of all the orc troop types, from lightly armed archers and heavily armored shock troops to their wolf cavalry and siege engines, uncovering startling regional variations and highly specialized fighters such as beserkers and battle shamans. Finally, it will explore specific key battles that orcs have fought in to develop the fullest possible understanding of these loathsome, terrifying creatures and the ways in which they go to war.

To write a book about a 'Spartan Trireme' would be to write a fantasy book. It could only end as a book using principally Athenian sources to hypothesise about their opposition. 'We may suggest that the Spartan triremes painted their sterns bright red' , that kind of thing.

If you are going to vote for this book be well aware you are asking for something that does not exist. Something that cannot exist. You will get a fake product.

The Disease is Spreading !

A nice blog post at 'Into the Mælstrom' on card galleys ! Keep up the good work Francesc!

Click to visit

Go on...you know you want to... try it out. As Sir Thomas Beecham said ' All things are worth trying once except  incest and folk dancing'. You don't even need a sense of rhythm to cut out and paste card ships together!

Hmm.. Beecham's Rule has been broken

SALAMIS, ATHENS' HARBOUR FACILITIES and more..

 Still mourning the tetrapylon and theatre of Palmyra. Here is a little antidote.

A nice short produced by the Danish School at Athens and posted by Haaretz of all people. But Israel, of course, have the Athlit ram and lots of ancient nautical stuff along their coast. They look after our heritage.



Just time to drink a cup of coffee and have a couple of biccies. Assuming you get them ready before pressing 'PLAY'.

INSPIRATION TO GET MODELLING AND GAMING

A nice series running on a 'neighbouring' blog.

Navwar galleys - 1/1200 - coming into service at 'Geordies'..HERE

Look at the whole series.

Battle Identified

The battle in Rava's cover plate from Osprey NV244 is apparently that at Sena Gallica in 551AD.
I looked further on his FB.

This was a battle between an Italian Gothic fleet and Byzantines. The Goths lost heavily.

This is an obscure battle, mentioned only by Procopius. Quite helpful in making a fantasy-full reconstruction. My criticism of the galea-bireme-dromon ship stands. Elsewhere, Procopius clearly states that the ships of Belisarius reconquista were single-banked, cataphract, with possibly a lateen rig. (History of the Wars, Book III, xi). These were called dromon(es).

The depiction closest in time is here, from the Vatican Æneid folio 77.

A dromon of c.500AD

That the Goths had a fleet of similar vessels to the Byzantines of this time is ... debateable.

It is nice that Procopius mentions the sides engaged with arrows and lances and swords, But fire-projectiles, always a risky tactic at sea ? And super-explodey ones too.

The Gothic ship at lower right is ...odd. Why should a railing run up into the vertical on the stern ? Who is going to fall off sideways there ? And nice uniforms by the Gothic army.

A naughty detail is that the ship at the back - a galea-medieval-dromon , has the upper corne rof its mainsail colourd red. According to Procopius, Vandalic War xi - on his expedition to Africa in 533AD, Belisarius had the sails of his own and two other ships which carried his personal guard coloured red in the top third. Just a leetle tweaking to get his feature over to Sena Gallica eighteen years later.

Red sails in the sunset. (ish)

Anyway, the oncoming book is getting even more interesting.

Drom - on

A sail is sighted over the horizon! A first view of the oncoming Osprey New Vanguard 244 Imperial Roman Warship 193AD to 565AD. Giuseppe Rava has been unable to contain himself and released a view of the cover before the publisher themselves have.

The splendid view of a medieval galea equipped with personal little escape ( or ventilation ? ) doors for the rowers, a spectacular plinth for the bow-ballista near the bows which offers zero protection, a mammoth stern-castle and - a sight not seen for a couple of hundred years ...( and never seen again ..) an oarbox.

Keeping the arrows out !

This oarbox is a special one with an open top. This open top has to be covered with a tarpaulin to keep arrows out. The oars are bizarre - try to extend the angle of the upper oars into the ship and imagine how much space there is to row with the things ......They plunge into the sea at an extreme incline. The lower rank of rowers have it better, they are have little hatches to open if things get too smelly inside. They may even be naked in there ? Their oar shafts are not so steeply inclined so they have it easy. The rig is lateen, so this would argue for the vessel being a dromon but the fact that it is a bireme means it cannot be a dromon.: unless we are in the period well after the stated terminus for the book of 565AD.

Ravenna ships: big brackets for steering oars

 The steering oar is acting through a truly massive bracket stuck to the side of the vessel. Looks like a literal interpretation of a mosaic picture.

John Coates as scale for bracket on Olympias

I do not know what the scenario for the picture is  - maybe the battle of the Hellespont in 324AD where Constantinian forces defeated those of Licinius: hence the Christian emblems on the main vessel.


The bow of the ship coming into the picture from below is equipped with a forecastle mounting a torsion ballista. The planks that floor this position are something like 10 or 15 cm thick and 60cm wide. They shouldn't break in combat.

The forecast remains bleak for the third New Vanguard by the Deadly Duo, D'Amato and Rava.

Italian Blight; Hot air soon: Poor to severe becoming tragic: Low expectations, filling slowly with dubious interpretations. Text, moderate to dull.

Of course, I may be proved quite wrong.



Battle now identified HERE