Ancient Warfare Podcast · The History Network

Revolutions in Warfare

February 13, 2026·45 min·4 clips

Sometimes an old technology, used brilliantly, defeats a new technology that isn't yet mature.

Jos Bortes opens the conversation with Murray Dahm, Mark DeSantis, Lindsay Powell, and Mark McCaffrey in a full-panel discussion. They do not treat revolution as one clean, dramatic moment. Instead, they ask how military systems actually shift over time. One thread asks whether innovation is really technological at all. Another keeps returning to whether the more important change is in how power is organized and used. The panel comes back several times to the Roman army. Augustus extends military service from 16 years to 20 and eventually 25. That longer commitment becomes part of a wider restructuring. The discussion also brings in the evocatus, reservists called back into service. Auxiliaries get similar attention. The panel sees their expansion under Augustus as a major development. That leads into a broader argument about how Rome drew in Germans, Gauls, and other peoples. The hosts frame that as a way of building manpower and lowering the chance of internal upheaval. The army becomes more national in scope, and the fleets do too. One speaker points out that Augustus also inherited and formalized a naval structure that had not existed in peacetime on that scale. The conversation then widens beyond Rome. The panel considers whether the late Bronze Age saw a revolution when infantry discovered that chariots could be beaten by light throwing spears. That idea depends less on a single weapon than on a change in battlefield role and vulnerability. The hosts keep circling back to the problem of labels. A revolution may be no more than a better way to recruit, pay, or employ people. It may also be a shift in which class of warrior dominates the field. They are comfortable with that ambiguity. They also use modern analogies to make the point, including a comparison to credit terms and market share. The episode ends by widening the question again. If revolutions are so varied, then the real task is choosing one and following it carefully. The panel suggests there are many more worth arguing over later.

As heard by us

A wide-ranging look at how ancient armies changed through service terms, manpower, auxiliaries, and fleets.

Ancient Warfare Podcast frames revolutions as shifts in how armies are built and sustained, not just neat turning points. The episode links military change to service terms, manpower, auxiliaries, and fleets, and the sweep from the late Bronze Age to Rome gives it a broad,…

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Want ancient warfare treated as a revolution of systems, not just a parade of battles?

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