Beginning with an extermination of the legal aspects of war in antiquity--the rules of warfare, rights of conquest, and peace treaties--Professor Yvon Garlan goes on to consider military manpower, dealing with such topics as military aristocracies, the soldier-citizen, mercenaries, slaves and barbarians in the army and the navy. A third section describes military organization, including pay, methods of recruitment and training, the quartermaster system, and military command. In the final section, Professor Garlan discusses war and politics.

Although the book is concerned with both the Greeks and the Romans over a vast period of time, from Homeric society to the later Roman Empire, it is neither strictly chronological no purely abstract. The author has selected key points for detailed study that, with the aid of contemporary accounts, illuminate the subject as a whole.

This book will be of interest not only to classicists and historians, but also to all those interested in the part played by war in the evolution of society.