AWA355 - Did small built-up areas play a role in ancient battlefields?
Ancient Warfare Podcast
The History Network
4.4 • 631 Ratings
🗓️ 2 May 2025
⏱️ 9 minutes
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Summary
In more modern battles, small farm compounds like La Haye Sainte and Hougoumont played pivotal roles in the fighting. But in ancient warfare, we rarely see small villas or farmsteads having a similar impact on battles. Why is that? Were these features less significant in ancient combat, or are there examples where small built-up areas shaped the course of battle? Join Murray Dahm as he tackles this intriguing question on Ancient Warfare Answers!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi everyone and welcome to another episode of ancient warfare answers with me Murray, your weekly fix of ancient warfare related material where I attempt to answer questions sent in by readers, listeners and viewers. |
| 0:15.2 | You can of course ask a question, you can send us an email, a postcard, you can comment on a previous video or podcast |
| 0:21.5 | and we'll get it. And I will attempt to answer it. This happens weekly, so you can go back. |
| 0:26.4 | I think there's well over a couple of hundred of these now. You can, of course, ask, watch the |
| 0:31.7 | big podcast, the ancient warfare podcast, which comes out every month, and you can even watch |
| 0:36.7 | the ancient history podcast. You can back us on Patreon, forward comes out every month, and you can even watch the Ancient History Podcast. |
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| 0:48.1 | Okay, today's question comes from Dylan. |
| 0:50.7 | Hi, Murray, I have a question for you to answer on ancient warfare answers. |
| 0:53.7 | Well, here we are. In more modern battles, such as Waterloo, we see that small farm compounds like |
| 0:58.9 | La Haasant and Hugamon, which are much smaller than a village or a town, play a big role in the |
| 1:03.9 | fighting and how that battle turns out. A battlefield spanning a few kilometres wide will inevitably |
| 1:09.0 | have a few of these types of small built-up areas, |
| 1:11.9 | especially since any nice flat terrain is the perfect place for fields and paddocks for farming. |
| 1:17.6 | Despite this, we do not seem to see small farms or villas having a big effect in ancient battles. |
| 1:23.3 | Why do you think this is the case, or do you know of any good examples where a small built-up area played a role on ancient battlefields? |
| 1:30.0 | Oh, nice. |
| 1:31.8 | Now, probably there are, and I do have a couple of examples in mind to bring up later, the interesting thing about a lot of the ancient battles, of course, is that the narrative of the battle is about the battlefield |
| 1:47.0 | and many battlefields in the ancient world are chosen to be that because they are flat, open |
| 1:54.2 | planes and not fought in built up areas. Obviously, there are battles in built up areas. You |
| 2:00.1 | look at the battles in Sparta in the fourth century, Epaminondas, and then later into the third |
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