The Decisive Battles of World History

Explores how warfare changes the course of historical events; the factors that make a military battle decisive, such as its role in transfers of power and its social and political effects.

The battle of Kadesh ushers in an era of peace in the ancient Near East; the strategy and tactics of the Egyptian and Hittite armies; the unusual sequence of battlefield events that lead to a remarkable treaty; a forerunner of peaceful diplomacy.

In the 479 B.C. battle of Plataea, Greek hoplite forces fighting in phalanxes meet the army of the Persian superpower; the unfolding of this dramatic engagement; how it ends the Persian threat to Greece; the flowering of Greece's cultural Golden Age.

The victory of Alexander at Gaugamela results in the spread of Greek culture throughout the Macedonian Empire; Alexander's campaign against the Persians and his confrontation with the Persian forces; how he overcomes his foe's advantages.

In 197 B.C., two rival military systems clash; the forces of Philip V of Macedon, with their phalanx system; the legacy of Alexander; the ambitious Romans with their manipular army based in flexible subunits of soldiers; the battle's consequences.

This naval battle results from conflict within republican Rome; the rivalry between Mark Antony and Octavian for Rome's domination; the fateful events of the confrontation; how it marks the end of the Roman Republic; the dawn of the Roman Empire.