About our staff
Dr Roel Konijnendijk
Teaching Fellow in Greek History
- Email: roel.konijnendijk@ed.ac.uk
- School of History, Classics and ArchaeologyUniversity of EdinburghTeviot PlaceEH8 9AG
Biography
I went to study History at Leiden University in the Netherlands in 2004. I was immediately captivated by the ancient world and decided to specialise in Ancient History. After a Research MA at Leiden and a year in Taiwan, I came to London to pursue a PhD in Greek warfare at UCL, which I completed in 2015. Since then, I have held teaching and research roles at Birkbeck, the Institute of Historical Research, Warwick, Leiden, and Oxford.
Summary of research interests
Places:- Mediterranean
- Near East
- Ancient Civilisations
- Imperialism
- Society
- War
- Antiquity
Research interests
I am interested in the many forms of war in the Greek world and the way they are shaped by social, political and cultural forces. I study Classical Greek military thought and practice as well as the encounters between the Greek and Persian military systems. I have written about Greek tactics, Athenian democracy, Spartan traditions, Persian kingship, Herodotus, and the way modern scholarship has shaped our understanding of Greek warfare.
Research projects
- Ideals and Pragmatism in Greek Military Thought, 490-338 BC (UCL, 2011-15)
- The Prussian Fathers of Greek Military History (Leiden, 2018-20)
Knowledge Exchange and Impact
I am a moderator of AskHistorians, the largest public history platform on the internet.
I have written articles for Ancient Warfare Magazine, Ancient History Magazine, Ancient World Magazine, BadAncient, and Desperta Ferro.
I have written a number of scripts for Invicta History's YouTube series on Greek warfare and the history and society of Sparta.
I have been interviewed twice by Insider to comment on ancient warfare in modern movies and TV: Ancient Warfare Expert Rates 10 Battle Tactics in Movies and TV and Ancient Warfare Expert Rates 10 More Battle Tactics in Movies and TV
Undergraduate teaching
Subhonours 2021-22
Greek World 1a (Semester 1)
Ancient History 2a (Semester 1)
Greek World 1b (Semester 2)
Ancient History 2b (Semester 2)
Honours 2021-22
Ancient Greek Warfare (Semester 1)
Ancient Persia: The Achaemenid Dynasty (Semester 2)
Postgraduate teaching
2021-22
Ancient Greek Warfare
Publications
Books
2021. (ed. with C. Kucewicz and M. Lloyd) A Companion to Greek Land Warfare Beyond the Phalanx (Brill)
2018. Classical Greek Tactics: A Cultural History (Brill)
Journal articles
2022. (with F. Echeverría) ‘Max Weber, the rise of the polis, and the hoplite revolution theory’, Journal of the History of Ideas (in press)
2021. ‘Playing dice for the polis: pitched battle in Greek military thought’, TAPA 151.1, 1-33
2020. ‘Risk, chance and danger in Classical Greek writing on battle’, Journal of Ancient History 8.2, 175-186
2020. ‘Who wrote Kromayer’s survey of Greek warfare?’, History of Classical Scholarship 2, 1-17
2016. ‘Mardonios’ senseless Greeks’, Classical Quarterly 66.1, 1-12
2012. ‘“Neither the less valorous nor the weaker”: Persian military might and the battle of Plataia’, Historia 61.1, 1-17
Book chapters
2022. ‘Ancient Greece: strategy of the city-states’, in I. Duyvesteyn, B. Heuser (eds.), The Cambridge History of the Practice of Strategy I (CUP, in press)
2022. ‘The eager amateur: unit cohesion and the Athenian hoplite phalanx’, in L. Rawlings, G. Lee, J.R. Hall (eds.), Unit Cohesion in the Ancient World: Military and Social Approaches (Routledge, in press)
2022. (with P.M. Bardunias) ‘The Face of Battle at Plataiai’, in A. Konecny, N. Sekunda (eds.), The Battle of Plataiai 479 BC (Phoibos), 211-242
2021. (with C. Kucewicz and M. Lloyd) ‘Introduction: beyond the phalanx’, in Konijnendijk, Kucewicz, Lloyd (eds.), Beyond the Phalanx, 1-16
2021. ‘Cavalry and the character of Classical warfare’, in Konijnendijk, Kucewicz, Lloyd (eds.), Beyond the Phalanx, 169-204
2021. (with C. Kucewicz and M. Lloyd) ‘“Not many bows”? Light-armed fighters of the tenth through fourth centuries’, in Konijnendijk, Kucewicz, Lloyd (eds.), Beyond the Phalanx, 205-235
2021. ‘Legitimization of war’, in B. Jacobs, R. Rollinger (eds.), A Companion to the Achaemenid Persian Empire (Wiley-Blackwell), 1139-1150
2019. ‘Democracy as protection against intra-communal violence in Classical Greece’, in Violence and Democracy (The British Academy), 44-47
2019. ‘Commemoration through fear: the Spartan reputation as a weapon of war’, in M. Giangiulio, E. Franchi, G. Proietti (eds.), Commemorating War and War Dead: Ancient and Modern (Steiner Verlag), 257-269
2014. ‘Iphikrates the innovator and the historiography of Lechaion’, in N. Sekunda, B. Burliga (eds.), Iphicrates, Peltasts and Lechaeum (Akanthina), 84-94
Reviews
2022. T.R. Henderson, The Springtime of the People: The Athenian Ephebeia and Citizen Training from Lykourgos to Augustus. Journal of Hellenic Studies 142 (in press)
2020. D.M. Pritchard, Athenian Democracy at War. Classical World 113.3, 374-375
2020. C. Pelling, Herodotus and the Question Why. Ancient World Magazine (online)
2019. M.A. Sears, Understanding Greek Warfare. Ancient World Magazine (online)
2019. J.H. Clark, B. Turner (eds.), Brill’s Companion to Military Defeat in Ancient Mediterranean Society. Classical Review 69.1, 163-165
2019. T. Ñaco del Hoyo, F. López Sánchez (eds.), War, Warlords and Interstate Relations in the Ancient Mediterranean. H-Soz-Kult (online)
2017. G. Lee, H. Whittaker, G. Wrightson (eds.), Ancient Warfare: Introducing Current Research, Volume I. Latomus 76.3, 648-650
2017. A. Blaineau, Le Cheval de Guerre en Grèce Ancienne. Classical Review 67.1, 162-164
2016. C. Mann, Militär und Kriegführung in der Antike. KLIO 98.1, 300-301
2015. S.B. Ferrario, Historical Agency and the ‘Great Man’ in Classical Greece. Journal of Hellenic Studies 135, 218-219
2015. H. Roche, Sparta’s German Children: The Ideal of Ancient Sparta in the Royal Prussian Cadet-Corps, 1818-1920, and in the National Socialist Elite Schools (the Napolas), 1933-1945. Journal of Hellenic Studies 135, 302-303
2014. C.A. Matthew, A Storm of Spears: Understanding the Greek Hoplite at War. Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 127.1, 132-134
Popular history
2021. ‘Less danger, more profit: why the Classical Greeks avoided pitched battle’, Ancient Warfare Magazine 15.2, 46-49
2020. ‘Did 300 Spartans try to put a halt to the Persian advance at Thermopylae?’, BadAncient
2020. (with J.R. Hall) ‘Why abandon the phalanx? Problems from Rome’, Ancient World Magazine
2020. (with J. Brouwers) ‘The Chigi vase: ceci n’est pas une phalange’, Ancient World Magazine
2020. ‘Aspis contra spara: las formas de combate griego y persa contrastadas’, Desperta Ferro Historia Antigua y Medieval 57, 38-44
2019. ‘The Spartans at war: myth vs reality’, Ancient World Magazine
2019. ‘Greeks fighting dirty: warfare in Classical Greece’, Ancient World Magazine
2017. ‘Athens’ wayward son: the life and times of Xenophon the Athenian’, Ancient History Magazine 9, 9-11
2016. ‘The ruins of empire: Xenophon’s encounter with the remains of Nineveh’, Ancient History Magazine 7, 38-41
2016. ‘Las tácticas de Epaminondas’, Desperta Ferro Historia Antigua y Medieval 37, 30-37
2016. ‘Clash of the Titans: the battle for supremacy in the Peloponnese, 420-418 BC’, Ancient Warfare Magazine 10.1, 40-44
2015. ‘On the dancing floor of Ares: the battle of Leuctra’, Ancient Warfare Magazine 9.2, 26-33