I keep coming across the claim that the Romans would get dogs to carry fire on their backs and send them against cavalry. Apparently it is in Polybius but I can't find it at all (I'm not sure it is real). Any ideas? @amayor @DrJEBall @BretDevereaux?
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True, but I think there's actually more to this. Following Azar Gat, for most of our history, societies that were the most warlike were the most successful. That changes with the industrial revolution, making war so destructive that it no longer pays to be bellicose.
Consequently, our values have begun to shift as 'being a good war-monger' no longer seems like quite so grand an idea to us. So we're now unpacking the legacy of a few thousand years of written history and records which glorify behaviors that have now become maladaptive.
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Consequently, reevaluating Napoleon and Alexander, I think, can be seen as part of the leading edge of a society-wide reevaluation of the value of war and bellicosity itself.
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In that context, it's really striking to me how often the reevaluation of these ancient, medieval or early modern figures happens in the shadows of the 'conquerors' of the post-industrial period.
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