The Byzantines had a remarkably sophisticated approach to politics and military strategy. Unlike most of their contemporaries, they learnt very early in their history that winning a battle did not necessarily win a war, and they frequently bought off their enemies with treaties and bribes rather than squander men and materiel in potentially fruitless campaigns. The Byzantine army of the 10th and early 11th centuries, at the height of its power and efficiency, was the best-organised, best-trained, best-equipped and highest-paid in the known world. This splendid book by Ian Heath examines the...

The Reformation in England further distanced the Irish, as the majority of Irishmen adhered stubbornly to their Catholicism. Eventually, in Elizabeth's reign, both sides resorted to the use of force on a large scale in a series of bloody wars and rebellions that were to culminate in the Earl of Tyrone's "Great Rebellion" of 1595-1603. This text by Ian Heath looks at the history, organization and tactics of the armies of the Irish Wars (1485-1603), armies which included such troops as the fearsome Irish Galloglasses, who bore a deadly axe six feet long with a blade that was one foot broad

Despite the fact that it was events on the North-West Frontier which perennially awed and captivated Victorian audiences, British India's North-East Frontier saw at least as much military activity. Even the heroid 11-day defence of the isolated outpost of Kohima against overwhelming odds fewer than 200 British-officered troops against perhaps 6,000 Nagas failed to capture the public imagination. Today, after the passage of another century, Britain's numerous campaigns and conquests in Assam and the surrounding hills have faded even further into the mists of obscurity. This fascinating text by...