The ground ran red with blood. At the Battle of Pydna, in 168 BC, how much blood was spilled on the battlefield?

15,000 litres?

30,000 litres?

45,000 litres?

Tag words: Battle of Pydna; Leo Tolstoy; War and Peace; Napoleon; Xerxes; Ten Thousand; Theban Sacred Band; Battle of Leuktra; Thermopylae; Plataea;

One great general was reported as coming off the field of battle "covered with the blood" of his enemies, "carried away by the pleasure"…. ; the commander had nearly become "blood drunk" from the killing Who was the general?

Tag words: Phalanx; panic flight; Socrates; Clive James; Keith Douglas; Anthony Kellett; Combat Motivation: The Behaviour of Soldiers in Battle; Victor Davis Hanson; Battle of Leuktra; king Kleombrotos; Epameinondas; Xenophon; S. L. A. Marshall; Men Against Fire; Battle of Cannae; Hannibal;

A truly fearsome and courageous Greek hoplite and also one of the greatest philosopher’s of all time, was described in a song as a lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he’s pissed? Who was he?

Tag words: Greek hoplite; phalanx; Anthony Kellett; Combat Motivation: The Behaviour of Soldiers in Battle; Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; Xenophon; pike; Alexander the Great; Imperial Roman legions; Agincourt; Thucydides; othismos aspidon; the push of shields; Spartans; Swiss pikemen; rout; The Philosopher’s Song – Monty Python

Which ancient battle, between Greek hoplites, was won by wrestling, and which city-state was it that won because of their wrestling skill?

Tag words: Greek hoplites; phalanx; Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; sowing disorder; Spartans; Thucydides; Diodorus; Battle of Mantineia; Battle of Plataea; Thermopylae; Plutarch; Battle of Leuktra; Xenophon;

What caused the sudden collapse of the attack by the French armoured knights, on foot, at Agincourt?

Tag words: French knights; Battle of Agincourt; John Keegan; The Face of Battle; killing zone; wall of dead;

At the Battle of Agincourt, the French knights were reluctant to fight the English longbowmen. Were the longbowmen such amazing soldiers? For a modern reader the reason, when I tell you later in this programme, might be hard to understand?

Tag words: Battle of Agincourt; English longbowmen; Battle of Plataea; Greeks, Persians; John Keegan; The Face of Battle; Richard Cohen; Making History; Sandhurst Military Academy; Max Hastings; French knights; English knights; Victor Davis Hanson;

Only 15% of American soldiers in World War II, when being attacked by Japanese troops in a suicidal banzai charge, actually fired their weapons at the enemy. True or false?

Tag words: banzai charge; phalanx; Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; John Keegan; Greeks; hoplites; SLA Marshall; Men Against Fire; Professor Roger Spiller; Vasily Grossman; A Writer at War; blood up; German Landsknecht; Swiss pikemen; Battle of Agincourt; charge;

As the two heavily armed and armoured phalanxes of Greeks finally collided to begin the decisive struggle to determine the victor, the sound made by that collision wasn’t the sound you would have expected. Very far from it. More of that later in the programme.

Tag words: Phalanx; charge; hoplite army; Victor Davis Hanson; The Western Way of War; Plutarch; Corinthian helmet; trot; Spartans; Thebans; Thucydides; History of the Peloponnesian War; Xenophon; Battle of Plataea; Persian troops; wicker shields; javelins; bows; slings; Tyrtaios;