That’s the thing with ancient wisdom. Over thousands of years, it either stands true and turns into common sense, or is replaced with better modern wisdom.
It’s also because it was meant to be read by lords and nobles to teach them the basics of war. A lot of them were EXTREMELY disconnected with reality and didn’t even fathom basic shit like “Oh yeah your troops need food. They can’t just forage mid war like animals would”
Also many lords of that time were superstitious, and thought that things like ‘honour’ and ‘glory’ were more important than the lives of soldiers.
That’s a very good point, Sheeple.
Don’t forget the timeless pearl of wisdom, “Don’t fight if you’re gonna lose that fight.”
For a time period where esteem and ego ruled decision making, yeah that’s some solid advice.
Not only that. People used stars and other predictive technics to navigate their lives, warfare included. Methodical collection of the basics made it the ABC of war. Man invented it as the science.
There are a few nuggets that are still only obvious when you actually think about it. Like don’t fight with a hill behind you because you might need to retreat, do fight with a forest behind you for the same reason.
You can retreat through the forest only if you scouted and secured it.
Quintilius Varus, give me back my legions!
Or ‘fight with the sun behind you’ or ‘leave enemy soldiers an obvious escape route’ or ‘be careful with marshy terrain where logistics will become a nightmare’.
It’s funny that this is common sense, but attacking in anger/revenge without a considered plan is still a common staple in history.
Common sense: ironically, not that common.
Emotions exist.
The fact that it’s common sense now is proof it worked.
It still blows my mind that for a large part of human history wars were literally just two giant armies marching towards each other.
Or that castle sieges were much more boring than made to seem and would last months
Or that castle sieges were much more boring than made to seem and would last months
Huh, what media are you talking about? Might just be the generes I enjoy but I’ve never seen anything suggest that castle sieges didn’t last ages. Wouldn’t that kinda go against the point of a siege?
Maybe it’s got to do with a confusion of language. Not every attack on a fortified structure is a siege. Like the battles at Helm’s Deep or Minas Tirith in Lord of the Rings could be confused with a siege because they are battles around forts and cities. But the intention was to destroy these places, not make the inhabitants surrender.
It was even more boring than that. The amount of food you need vs is available plus roads mean your pretty limited in what you can even try to do until engines.
https://acoup.blog/2022/07/15/collections-logistics-how-did-they-do-it-part-i-the-problem/
“He who has dial-up internet is easily taken by surprise.” --10 year old me playing Age Of Empires
