Psychological warfare misleads, intimidates, and demoralizes the enemy. This use of threats, propaganda, and subtler strategies has been employed for millennia to influence adversaries’ thinking. Civilians and soldiers alike are targets of this cunning. Those who can control their targets’ emotions and reasoning emerge victorious over superior forces.

10 Aztec Death Whistles

Aztec death whistles sound like the “scream of 1,000 corpses.” Twenty years ago, archaeologists unearthed two of these skull-shaped instruments in Mexico. They were clutched in the hands of a sacrificed man at the temple of the wind god.

Initially believed to be toys, the whistles were used in rituals and war. Designed to sound like a human howling in pain, death whistles were reserved for rare occasions.

Some insist that death whistles were used in sacrifices and to guide the recently deceased to the land of the dead. Others believe that their main use was psychological warfare.

At the beginning of a battle, the whistles’ unnerving sound would break the resolve of the enemy. Some experts believe that these death whistles allowed listeners to enter a trance state. Aztec physicians frequently employed sound in healing.

9 36 Stratagems

The 36 Stratagems is an ancient collection of Chinese proverbs on warfare. Most are based on the art of deception and use subtle psychological techniques to undermine an enemy’s will to fight.

The work contains proverbs so universal that they have become cliches. It contains sections on “Attack Strategies,” “Chaos Strategies,” “Desperate Situation Strategies,” and many other scenarios. All modern versions of 36 Stratagems are derived from a ragged copy discovered in Szechwan at a book vendor’s stall in 1941.

The work’s author and publication date remain unknown. Most experts trace the work’s origins to the Warring States Period between 403 and 221 BC. Some of the proverbs refer to specific events as early as 35 BC. In addition, most experts now believe that there was no single author and that 36 Stratagems was compiled over centuries.

8 Sacred Shields

In 525 BC, the Battle of Pelusium marked Egypt’s decisive defeat by the Persians and a milestone of psychological warfare. Led by Emperor Cambyses II, the Achaemenid Persians swept in from the east and exploited the Egyptians’ reverence for felines.

The invaders drew cats on their shields. Some speculate that they may have pinned real cats to their protective gear. The Egyptians worshiped the feline god Bastet and refused to harm their sacred symbol. In Stratagems, Polyaenus insists that the Persian front line contained dogs, ibises, sheep, and cats—all sacred to the Egyptians.

According to Herodotus, Cambyses invaded because he had been tricked by the pharaoh. Cambyses had requested the hand of Amasis’s daughter in marriage. Assuming she would become a concubine, the Egyptian ruler disguised the daughter of the former pharaoh in her place.

When Cambyses discovered the charade, he attacked. Polyaenus believed that Cambyses’s victory was due to psychological warfare.

7 Terror Tactics Of Tamerlane

Born in 1336, Timur the Lame (aka Tamerlane) was a 14th-century Uzbek chieftain. Despite the paralysis of half his body, he conquered Central Asia, most of the Muslim world, and parts of India.

Legends of Tamerlane’s terror tactics are legion. Historians estimate that his forces slaughtered 17 million people—5 percent of the world at the time. He became infamous for building pyramids with the skulls of his vanquished. The technique was intended to spread fear in anyone who dared to oppose him.

Some say that he beheaded 90,000 residents of Baghdad and built 120 pyramids with their skulls. After he defeated Delhi, Tamerlane slaughtered the city as a lesson to India. It took nearly a century for Delhi to recover from the devastation.

After defeating the Ottoman Empire, Tamerlane took the Byzantine gates home with him. He also took the sultan in a cage, which he kept on display in his parlor.

6 Vlad The Impaler

Vlad III (aka Vlad Dracula or Vlad the Impaler) was one of the most adept students of psychological warfare in history. The 15th-century Romanian prince spent much of his youth as a political hostage of the Ottomans.

Although he was treated well, Vlad developed a bilious hatred of his captors. Some speculate that the Ottomans even taught him his favorite method of psychological warfare: impaling.

In 1462, Sultan Mehmet II invaded Vlad’s territory. Upon entering the capital, the sultan was greeted by what looked like a forest of Ottoman POWs’ festering corpses impaled on spikes.

Nearly all records of Vlad were written by his enemies. While far from factual, they provide insight into the fear he inspired. Vlad was forced to find ingenious means of fighting with limited resources. Psychological warfare offered the solution. It might seem cruel, but it was an effective tactic against a force much larger than his own.

5 Philip II Of Macedonia

Philip II of Macedonia laid the groundwork for the “greatness” of his son, Alexander. When Philip took the throne in 359 BC, Macedonia was a fractured backwater subject to the whims of foreigners. In less than a year, Philip quashed all internal threats and set up Macedonia to become an ancient superpower. He was a master of psychological warfare.

When doing battle with the Chalcidian League, Philip destroyed the city of Stagirus. According to ancient accounts, it would have been hard for a visitor to tell that the city had ever been inhabited. The remaining Chalcidian cities surrendered without resistance.

During the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC, Philip employed two strategies of psychological warfare. First, he tired out the Athenian and Theban rebels through boredom, forcing them to wait in the blistering sun. Then he made a false attack, which drew them toward a slowly retreating front line that ensnared them.

4 Genius Of Genghis Khan

Terror was Genghis Khan’s greatest tool. He destroyed cities that opposed him—slaying soldiers and civilians alike. During the siege of Merv, each Mongol soldier was ordered to decapitate 400 inhabitants before burning the city to the ground. The death toll may have been inflated tenfold, but Genghis wanted it that way.

Genghis often exaggerated the size of his forces. He placed dummies on horseback and had each soldier light a string of bonfires at night. When attacking both Samarkand and Europe, he advanced on fronts over 1,300 kilometers (800 mi), preventing the enemy from knowing his numbers.

Genghis’s feigned retreats lured pursuers into a prepared position where archers annihilated them. Without fail, Genghis knew more about his adversaries than his enemies knew of the Mongols. Genghis exploited this lack of information to create division and fear. He also terrified opponents with camel-mounted kettledrums thundering with Mongol cavalry charges.

3 Suicide Army

King Goujian of Yue reigned between 496 and 465 BC, the latter part of the Spring and Autumn Period that was marked by a conflict with the state of Wu. During this battle, Goujian had his front line decapitate themselves as a bizarre form of psychological warfare.

According to a history of ancient China called the Shiji, Goujian’s suicidal front was composed of condemned criminals. However, some believe that “criminals sentenced to death” should be read as “soldiers willing to die.” This reflects an ancient Chinese worldview that one would be compensated for sacrifices made during life.

Decapitation might be better translated as “committing suicide by cutting your throat.” This was a common technique in ancient China. However, others believe that the self-decapitating soldiers are nothing more than a legend.

Either way, after years of struggle, Goujian overcame his adversary and annexed their territory.

2 War Chariots

During the Battle of Kadesh in 1274 BC, Hittite forces used heavy chariots to crash through the lines of Ramses II’s Re division (aka Army of Re), causing chaos and terror.

In contrast, the lighter Egyptian war chariots were manned by a driver and a fighter, usually with a bow and arrow and occasionally a spear. They could maneuver more quickly than their enemies in heavier chariots, which could allow the Egyptians to dispatch their enemies before the enemies returned to their own side.

Most experts believe that the invading Hyksos introduced the chariot to Egypt in the Second Intermediate Period. By the 15th century BC, Thutmose III had over 1,000 chariots at his command. These were used against infantry and had an enormous psychological impact on untrained and inexperienced soldiers. By 1000 BC, mounted cavalry replaced the war chariot.

1 Hannibal’s Folly

Carthaginian General Hannibal Barca drove the Romans mad with his psychological warfare techniques in the Second Punic War (218–201 BC). During the Battle of Trebia in 218 BC, Hannibal lured the Roman forces across the Trebia River with an attack of Numidian horsemen.

Hannibal lay in ambush on the other side and slaughtered the Romans, who emerged disorganized, tired, and freezing. At the Battle of Lake Trasimene the following year, he goaded Flaminus into battle by exploiting the Roman general’s headstrong nature.

Hannibal’s name is almost synonymous with his march over the Alps with war elephants. Curiously, this bold attempt at psychological warfare was actually a blunder. Elephants were not adapted to the cold environment. Those that survived the trek were weak and ineffective.

Abraham Rinquist is the executive director of the Winooski, Vermont, branch of the Helen Hartness Flanders Folklore Society. He is the coauthor of Codex Exotica and Song-Catcher: The Adventures of Blackwater Jukebox.

Until recently, international conflict was fought on the ground, in the sky, and across the seas. But now, warfare has found a new battleground: cyber space. The virtual world is becoming increasingly weaponized. In the online arena, assailants can deploy malware, paralyze digital systems, and steal sensitive information from behind a computer screen.

The techniques involved in cyber warfare are evolving at alarming rates. Here are ten sinister facts about the realm of computerized combat.

Top 10 Ways You Didn’t Know You Could Get Hacked

10 US Government Encouraged To Invest In AI Weapons

In armed conflict, decisions need to be made quickly. Reaction times are paramount when people’s lives are on the line. If military leaders want to compete in the age of technological warfare, they need to develop AI weapons systems. Otherwise, they risk being “paralysed by the complexity of battle.”

So says the National Security Commission on AI. In a 2021 report, they advised the US government to invest in algorithm-led weapons. The AI commission is made up of a handful of top political and technological experts. It includes former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and future Amazon CEO Andy Jassy.

For many years, the main focus of the US military has been hardware. They have specialized in tanks, planes, and ships. But soon, the security experts claim, the US may find itself technologically inferior to its rivals. If this happens, they run the risk of being overwhelmed by countries like China or Russia. Both countries are said to be working on advanced autonomous weapons.

But critics say the US government is veering towards an AI arms race. The consequences of which could be disastrous. Prof Noel Sharkey from the Campaign To Stop Killer Robots called the report “shocking and frightening.” He warned that the commission’s advice “could lead to the proliferation of AI weapons making decisions about who to kill.”

9 Stuxnet, The Digital Weapon That Paralyzed Iran

In the summer of 2010, IT workers in Iran were perplexed by the behavior of their computers. The devices kept crashing and restarting, over and over. No one could figure out why. Then a security firm from Belarus uncovered hidden malware lurking on the system.

The Iranian computers had fallen victim to Stuxnet, the world’s first digital weapon. Cyber security experts had never seen anything like it. Instead of just harming the computers’ software, Stuxnet was able to inflict damage on physical equipment. It wormed its way inside the system and caused the machines to go haywire.

The devastating cyber weapon is widely believed to have been created by US and Israeli officials. As well as damaging Iran’s IT systems, it had a severe impact on the country’s nuclear development. In 2009, Stuxnet infected the Natanz nuclear plant in central Iran. It sabotaged the equipment, causing the centrifuges to repeatedly break down. A centrifuge is a large, high-speed spinning tube used to treat uranium gas. It took Iranian officials months to figure out what was going on. In total, the plant lost 984 machines.

8 Islamic State’s United Cyber Caliphate

Islamic State is alarmingly Internet-savvy for a terrorist group. The extremists are known to wreak chaos online. Several Western figures have found themselves targets of pro-ISIS cyber-attacks. In 2014, hackers hijacked the Twitter accounts of US defense force CENTCOM. They used the account to spread propaganda and threaten military officials.

A year later, the high-tech wing of ISIS – the United Cyber Caliphate – claimed to have stolen the personal details of 2,000 people. Most of them, they said, lived in the US. Later that year, they boasted that they had hacked into a sensitive government database. The caliphate released what they claimed were the names, locations, and contact details of nearly 1,500 government personnel. They also stole the credit card information of several senior officials.

7 Ukraine Is A Live-Fire Space For Russian Cyber Weapons

For years now, Ukraine has been in the crosshairs of Russian cyber attackers. The country faces a daily barrage of malware from neighboring developers. Tech experts have described it as “a live-fire space for hackers.” In the conflict-ridden world of cyberspace, Ukraine is a key battleground.

The country is under constant fire. Government and legal officials are most likely to be targeted. The digital assailants are a mix of Kremlin experts, criminals, and keen amateurs.

As well as the long-running conflict between the two countries, Ukraine is rife with pirated software. The country’s cyber security is often lacking, which makes it vulnerable to attack. Ukraine also offers a digital passage into Europe. If hackers can access Ukrainian systems, they may be able to worm their way into the rest of the continent.

They do receive help with security from the US and Europe. By defending Ukraine’s IT systems, Western intelligence agencies can collect intel on the Kremlin’s activities.

6 French Hospitals Vulnerable To Ransomware Attacks

Cyber warfare can paralyze essential institutions. In February 2021, two hospitals in France fell victim to crippling cyber attacks in less than a week. On February 9, the staff at Dax Hospital in Landes had to work at reduced levels after their IT network became infected with malware. Hackers blocked hospital workers from accessing the computer system. They refused to leave until they were paid a ransom. The attack prevented some of the staff from using their computers. But, according to the hospital’s medical commission, none of the patients were affected.

Days later, the Villefranche-sur-Saône complex in Rhone suffered a similar attack. Staff were forced to transfer some patients to a different facility. Fortunately, none of the covid-19 patients were affected. A third hospital in the Dordogne narrowly avoided infection by cutting off their IT network.

In France, it is increasingly common for hackers to target hospitals. In the last year, hospitals in eight cities and communes have suffered similar attacks.

5 The Syrian Electronic Army

The Syrian Electronic Army thrives on fake news and misinformation. The group is said to be made up of young, tech-savvy supporters of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. They are known for hacking news websites. The Electronic Army target what they call a “distortion of facts” from Western media.

The Electronic Army first emerged in 2011, lambasting enemies of the Syrian government on social media. Their early actions included spamming the Facebook pages of the then-presidents of the US and France, Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy. In 2013, the Middle Eastern hackers started a rumor on Twitter that there had been an explosion in the White House. This caused a temporary fall in the US stock market. More recently, the Electronic Army has been accused of hiding spyware in coronavirus-themed mobile apps.

4 WannaCry, The Ransomware Attack That Struck The NHS

WannaCry was the global cyber attack that struck over 200,000 computers back in 2017. The far-reaching malware had a severe impact on Britain’s National Health Service (NHS), along with Spanish businesses, and IT systems around the world. Similar to the Dax Hospital attack in France, hackers blocked computers and demanded payment for their release. The creators behind WannaCry asked for $300 (£230) in Bitcoin before they unlocked the sabotaged systems.

In total, WannaCry is said to have cost Britain’s state healthcare system $121 million (£92 million). The attack locked down IT systems in more than 80 NHS hospital trusts. During the week of the attack, 19,000 appointments had to be canceled. At the time, the NHS lost $26 million (£20 million) through lost services. Afterward, they had to spend a further $95 million (£72 million) to restore their IT systems. The British government had been warned about the dire consequences of an NHS cyber attack a year earlier. The public health department was condemned for failing to take sufficient security measures.

3 Hackers Target Microsoft Email Servers

In 2021, Microsoft email servers were targeted by what one cyber security expert described as “literally the largest hack I’ve seen.” Hafnium, a hacking group with links to the Chinese government, is said to have infiltrated the messaging servers of hundreds of thousands of companies. The hackers used unprecedented techniques to force their way into systems.

Microsoft announced the hack on March 2, 2021. The company released software updates to protect users from attacks. But even before Microsoft had brought out their updates, a second wave of hackers sprung up keen to get in on the action. Experts estimate that ten hacking groups are exploiting weaknesses in Microsoft’s system. Cyber criminals are hacking every email group they can, regardless of what that institution is or where they are based. Companies, schools, hospitals, even cities have found themselves at the receiving end of the stealthy attackers.

At the time of writing, this attack is still ongoing. The aims of the hackers are unclear, and thousands of servers are still vulnerable. Cyber security experts have described it as a “very rare” display of power.

2 The Yemen Cyber Army

Yemen is a country ravaged by years of violent conflict. The long-running battle between the Saudi regime and the Houthi rebels has resulted in a crippling humanitarian crisis.

In 2015, the confrontation spilled onto the Internet. On April 14, the Yemen Cyber Army infiltrated the website of the pro-Saudi newspaper Al Hayat. The hackers displayed a message threatening Saudi Arabia if it continued to interfere in Yemen. A month later, they hacked the Saudi foreign ministry. That summer, they published almost a million diplomatic messages via Wikileaks. These included cables for the funding of radical extremists, and a message from Osama bin Laden’s son asking for his father’s death certificate.

1 Israel’s Alarming Cyber Capabilities

In the field of cyber warfare, Israel is said to be head and shoulders above any other country. The Middle Eastern aggressor has developed a vast arsenal of digital weapons. Israeli organizations are behind some of the most advanced cyber systems in the world today.

The country receives around 20% of all cyber security investment. Unit 8200, the intelligence unit of the Israel Defense Forces, is thought to have launched some of the most damaging cyber attacks in history. In 2017, Israel Aerospace Industries collaborated with US engineers to create a navigation system that can shake off GPS jammers. And in 2019, officials eased restrictions on cyber weapon exports, a decision that flew in the face of human rights campaigners.

The Israeli government is acutely aware of the dangers of cyber warfare. “Today, warfare has changed again, dramatically,” prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu explained at a recent conference. “It’s moving very rapidly to a situation where, with the click of a button, you can bring down nations to their knees.”

10 Times Hackers Hacked Live Television

Warfare has been around for a very long time. As ancient mass graves have shown us, interactions between various groups of human beings haven’t always been peachy—if anything, they’ve often been nothing shy of horrific. And sometimes, horrific is actually the point of some forms of warfare, tactics intended to intimidate and scare the other side. Such is the nature of psychological warfare, and it, too, has been around since humanity’s inception, beginning way back in prehistoric times when the first group of Paleolithic men decided to scream before charging an enemy in an attempt to startle and cause a deep, primal fear within their opponents before they struck.

Psychological warfare is a blend of propaganda and actual tactics that can create a firestorm of terror in the mind of the enemy, long before the first arrow is shot or the first bomb is dropped. Carl von Clausewitz remarked in his work On War that the goal of warfare is to disarm the enemy and make them submit to the will of those conducting the war.^[1] Sometimes, through the use of psychological warfare, this can happen easily, without a fight. Long before the use of newspapers and digital media, cultures had to conduct psychological warfare using more organic and rudimentary tools, the only things that they had at their disposal at the time. Here are ten brutal methods of psychological warfare from the ancient world.

10 Occupation

Alexander the Great employed psychological warfare in ways that were quite novel at the time, and the results were outstanding, as the massive empire he forged shows us. What most people think about when they think of psychological warfare is purely intimidation, but as von Clausewitz said, all warfare is political.

Alexander used a new tactic that he invented to expand his empire, one the Romans would later use as they became a powerful military force, and that tactic contained a beautiful mixture of friendly alliances and intimidation. See, before Alexander, military leaders would march through a city, plunder the goods, often execute the men and keep the women, and then burn it to the ground. Alexander changed this by leaving a certain amount of his troops and forces behind, leaving the cities standing, and making friends with the social elites of each conquered culture so that those defeated foes could then adopt Greek culture and become assimilated into the empire.^[2]

The tactic relied on political genius, mutual friendliness, and, of course, the implied threat of having a very powerful group of soldiers occupying your hometown that could smother any dissent that came about. Alexander’s brutal method was occupation, and while it was sometimes friendly on the surface, imagine the soldiers of a foreign nation standing on your street corners, in your homes, forcing you to adopt their ways at the threat of killing you. This tactic wasn’t all nice—it was more deeply psychologically disturbing.

9 Timing

Cyrus the Great was a military leader and conqueror who would rise to become the leader of the Achaemenian (or Achaemenid) Empire, also known today as the Persian Empire. Initially, Cyrus conquered many local cities in the area of modern-day Iran, and then he set his sights on a bigger prize—the city of Babylon—and he successfully took it by employing psychological warfare. Cyrus showed through psychological warfare that if you show up at just the right time, you can win a war and claim a city with a minimal fight.

Cyrus waited until things were ripe in Babylon, an ancient city with very powerful and respected priests, who the nation’s leader, Nabonidus, had seriously pissed off right before Cyrus showed up.^[3] The Babylonians had come to believe that their leader had disowned their major god, Marduk. The priests of the Babylonian religion saw this as a major transgression, and to top all of this off, Nabonidus had been on a military conquest for 11 years, hoping to control and dominate trade routes in the area. It seems he’d been gone for so long that his own people began to dislike him, though he’d left his son in his place to hold down the fort. Cyrus not only capitalized on this but had instigated it all along, sending representatives into the city to slowly spread propaganda until the people were totally fed up with their king. This process took years.

When the timing was right, Cyrus showed up and won over the already angry, elite class of the priests of Babylon and turned them against their leader. He was also able to make nearby armies who had sworn alliances to Babylon defect and join the fight against Nabonidus. Together, these smaller towns helped Cyrus in his campaign as his Persian army rolled through the ancient city.

8 Political Clout

When it comes to a shining, lovable, political image put forth by a political and/or military leader, very few, if any, people in history come close to the political savvy displayed by Julius Caesar. From the First Triumvirate to the treatment of the Gallic tribes north of Rome at the time, Caesar was a master manipulator in the name of furthering his political and military aspirations.^[4]

The Celtic warriors of Gaul had conquered the city of Rome after laying siege to it in 390 BC. Now, in 58 BC, Caesar wanted payback after centuries of skirmishes between the loose-knit band of ethnically and culturally similar tribes that composed the unofficial nation of Gaul, and he got it by starting with a smile. Initially, Caesar was trying to attack a nearby resource-rich nation and not actually Gaul, though Gaul was always on the back burner. At first, Caesar took it upon himself to go make friends with the Gallic tribes in the area. He became well-liked among the local tribes and was welcome in the area. But little did the Gauls know that Caesar was planning on totally dominating the unofficial nation at a later point.

By 52 BC, the Gauls had grown weary of Caesar, and a lot of the tribes turned against Rome, eventually culminating in an attack by the Belgian Gauls from the north, who would consolidate Gallic military might and lead a charge against the expanding Rome. But Caesar had already been perfecting his strategy for years—his plan was laid out, and his Roman legions crushed the Gauls and pushed them far back into the territories of Northern and Western Europe.

7 Impalement

It’s quite obvious how a mass of impaled human bodies might intimidate and dissuade an invading army, making it reconsider its effort in your territory. Even if it did not, it would serve to strike fear into the hearts of the combatants who sought to conquer your land and take your riches. Thousands of years before Vlad the Impaler came on the scene, there was Assyria. Assyria was unanimously agreed upon as a violent culture, something that’s even mentioned in the Holy Bible.

Ancient depictions show us that the Assyrians not only used to impale people like Vlad did, but they took it a step further by stabbing the stake through the victim’s abdomen.^[5] All this would leave a grisly and horrifying sight for any passersby who might have considered taking on the ancient Assyrians. This no doubt terrified both criminals and foreign armies alike.

6 Gifts Of Flesh

When it comes to psychological warfare in the form of sheer brutality, impalement wasn’t the only thing the ancient Assyrians turned to—they had other methods of scaring the life out of their neighbors. Ashurbanipal was the king of Assyria from 668 to 627 BC, and he was apparently quite gifted intellectually. Ashurbanipal would use his intellect sometimes for torturous ploys which would turn out to be genius military strategies.

See, Ashurbanipal seemed to take tremendous joy in removing the flesh of his victims and rivals, but he did this for a calculated reason—to terrify others. He is quoted as saying, “I will hack up the flesh and then carry it with me, to show off in other countries.”^[6] Can you imagine the looks on the faces of today’s leaders if one nation’s highest chief met with another toting a bag of well-preserved flesh which had been systematically carved off his enemies? Needless to say, the message was loud and clear.

5 Flaying And Staking

Another notable tactic of highly intimidating psychological warfare from ancient Assyria, the real ancient kings of brutality, was called flaying and staking. Flaying and staking is mentioned in the Holy Bible, and other surviving works depict this gruesome process, which was a horrific style of execution in the name of intimidation. It began with flaying the offender, usually a provincial governor of a conquered territory who refused to bow to the mighty Assyrian rule. The Assyrians would skin the person alive but not quite until death, just enough to make them suffer and to gather enough skin to place around the walls of wherever they were in order to scare off any rival armies.

Staking was similar to impalement, but the executioner would slowly shove the stake up through the anus of the condemned, taking great care to only move the vital organs aside so as to not kill the offender.^[7] Then, in traditional impalement-like fashion, they would sometimes hoist the stake up by burying the butt end of it into the ground to put on display before their cities. The reason for the tedious process was to keep the person alive as long as possible, and sometimes, these poor condemned persons would live for several days on end.

4 Crucifixion

Crucifixion could almost be likened to cultures erecting skyscrapers of their enemies, both living and dead, to stand tall and tower, terrifying their enemies and potential adversaries—such a sight of a group of crucified, helpless victims would be enough to make anyone reconsider a challenge to the people doing the crucifying. Crucifixion was actually pretty widespread throughout the ancient world. The Persians, the Carthaginians, and other cultures practiced it as both a military and criminal deterrent.

There were many different methods of crucifixion to terrify an enemy with, and some cultures used various versions of the practice over time. In Rome, for instance, nails weren’t always driven through the intended victim, so as to prolong the suffering in the air rather than risk the offender bleeding to death.^[8] In these cases, the victim would be simply tied to the cross or T-shaped wooden crucifix. Then the bones would be bent and misshaped and often broken to increase suffering, and the victim would be erected into the air for all to see. Many people died slowly as birds ate their flesh over a series of days.

Nails were also employed in various ways. Sometimes, the victim would have their legs bent around the sides of the wooden log, and then the nail would be driven through the side to fasten the legs in a much more uncomfortable position than the one we’re most familiar with. When nails were used on the upper body and driven through the arms, the weight of the body would cause the shoulders and other bones to break or dislocate, further adding to the pain of the condemned. This definitely scared away many of far-off armies who may have sent a traveler abroad and also made occupied cultures think twice about an insurrection.

3 Siege

Siege warfare relied on extremely powerful psychological tactics to force the enemy into submission. Siege warfare still remains a potent tool in the military commander’s toolbox that is often dug out even today. A war of attrition is where the forces of one military attempt to wear down the forces and supplies of another army and has long been a very powerful weapon, trading a quick conquest for the slow and certain collapse of decay. The side with the greatest access to resources over time intentionally prolongs the war to wear down the other side’s supplies.

Laying siege to a city often meant surrounding it in the form of a blockade, to cut off all supplies inbound and outbound, and then simply waiting . . . slowly waiting . . . for the enemy within the city limits to burn through all of their available resources, such as food and fresh water.^[9] As people began to slowly starve and resemble skeletons, they more often than not became much more willing to negotiate a peaceful solution, and if they wanted to fight, their weakened, starved armies didn’t pose a very serious threat. In the most extreme of cases, cities under siege often turned to cannibalism as a last resort if their leaders refused to concede to the army surrounding them. The psychological effects of such tactics are as obvious as they are terrifying.

From beginning to end, the Romans were the masters of siege warfare in ancient times, starting with the Siege of Veii, a city which belonged to their culturally similar yet long-rivaled neighbors to the north, the Etruscans. After being beaten in many fights, the infant Roman nation fortified their army and moved to lay siege to Veii in 405 BC. They successfully implemented a long siege but were pushed back in 402 BC by reinforcements and continued their stronghold nearby. It should be noted here that siege warfare back then took a long time—a very long time. In 396 BC, after years of siege, the Romans devised a plan to take the weakened city and dug under the walls that surrounded it and took it from within. This was the beginning of many Roman sieges laid upon the ancient world, with devastating results for anyone and everyone on the receiving end.

2 The Helepolis

And then there came the Helepolis—the taker of cities. This ancient marvel was a terrifying sight to behold, a massive, mobile tower that could effectively take any city by giving the persons on board a higher vantage point from which to fight downward while they climbed over the walls of the enemies they fought. This mobile skyscraper would be rolled into battle on its eight wheels by hand, pushed slowly and intently toward the enemy.

Imagine that it’s the fourth century BC, and suddenly, approaching upon the horizon, you see the largest chariot you’ve ever seen, the size of a modern-day high-rise building, slowly creeping toward you as you hold out at your fortification. The terrifying sight must have been an absolute nightmare to behold, as those on the receiving end of the slow-moving Helepolis knew their city walls that they’d relied on their entire lives were absolutely useless.

The Greeks made more than one siege tower over the years, but the Helepolis was the grandest of all, with an iron exterior that couldn’t be set on fire like other siege towers, but it ultimately proved a failure in the Siege of Rhodes in 305 BC.^[10] At 40 meters (130 ft) tall and 20 meters (65 ft) wide, the Helepolis was a behemoth, but as it approached Rhodes, the people inside the city had a genius idea. Using the cover of night, they built a large pool of mud and sewage near where they thought the Helepolis was likely to make its assault—and they were exactly right. The massive machine ended up becoming stuck and was eventually abandoned.

1 The Brazen Bull

The brazen bull was a torture device used in ancient Greece. (Note that some historians believe its existence was a tall tale; others say there is sufficient evidence that it was real.) The ancient Greeks didn’t often venture into the outside world to conquer aside from Alexander the Great, a period of unification, as the various city-states were typically fighting among themselves. The brazen bull was developed in the sixth century BC for the ruler Phalaris as a method for executing criminals, all while sending a clear and tyrannical signal to any would-be rivals.

Perillos of Athens was the man who invented it, creating a brass bull that had a striking resemblance to the real thing.^[11] This brass bull was hollow on the inside, with an opening in the side of it that could be shut and locked from the outside. The carved out nostrils and mouth were the only ventilation from the inside of the bull. After someone was convicted and condemned, they would be placed inside the bull, and a fire would be set beneath it. Because metal transmits heat quite well, the brass would heat up and cook the person inside alive. The screams and cries of the condemned surely sent a clear message—don’t mess with Phalaris.

In a stunning betrayal, when Perillos of Athens presented the brazen bull to Phalaris, the king decided that Perillos would be the very first man that the bull would be tested on. Perillos was placed inside the bull but was taken out before he died. This wasn’t a reprieve, though; Phalaris is said to have then thrown Perillos off a hill. In the end, however, the people of Athens, who had long been subjected to Phalaris’s cruelty, became tired of the tyrannical ruler and turned against him, killing him with nothing other than the brazen bull.

I like to write about the dark, the deranged, the twisted, history, true crime, and macabre stuff.

Video games, TV shows, and films all portray modern-day warfare in a variety of ways, but which ones are the most realistic?

When it comes to the war and military genre, the field is ripe for the picking. Oversaturation in various media forms provides a litany of portrayals—some accurate and some a complete departure from the realities and horror that is combat. The following is a compilation of video games, movies, and TV shows that provide an accurate (okay, let’s go for mostly accurate) depiction of the realities of war. No documentaries were included on this list—for obvious reasons.

Related: 10 Facts Everyone Forgets About World War II

10 Blackhawk Down (Movie)

Based on the United States mission to Somalia amid its civil war in 1993, Black Hawk Down is a cinematic masterpiece that reflects the courage and heroism of soldiers when faced with the worst situation. Revolving around a task force comprised of the Army Rangers (Third Battalion, 75th Regiment), CAG (Delta Force), and the 160th SOAR, this is more than just a war movie. The heroism depicted is based on true events, including the medals of honor awarded to Gary Gordon and Randy Shughart for sacrificing themselves to protect an injured pilot in a downed helicopter.

However, the movie’s realism can be distilled into a singular moment in which a Ranger, James Smith, is shot in his thigh, which severs his femoral artery, causing a vast amount of blood loss. The ensuing struggle for Smith’s life and his passing is one of the most visceral and bloody moments portrayed on the big screen.^[1]

9 Lone Survivor (Movie)

The 2005 mission to kill or capture Ahmad Shaw in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan became highly publicized due to the book Lone Survivor and the movie of the same name. A four-man U.S. Navy SEAL reconnaissance element was sent into the mountains to locate and identify a Taliban leader responsible for the death of a number of American servicemen. During their stay in the mountains, the four-man recon team was discovered by shepherds, who, when let go, informed the Taliban of the SEAL team and their location.

The ensuing firefight left three of the four men dead, badly wounding the final member. A rescue attempt was shot down, killing another 16 Special Operators. It was several days before the lone survivor, Marcus Luttrell, was located and rescued. The singular most heart-wrenching moment of the film’s 121-minute runtime is when Lieutenant Michael Murphy places the needs of his men above his own, putting himself in harm’s way and exposing himself to enemy fire—which mortally wounds him—to place a call to command for a rescue party. Murphy was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his selfless act, which saved his teammate’s life.^[2]

8 Medal of Honor (Video Game)

Based on real-life missions, Medal of Honor centers around the initial push into the Shai Khot Valley in Afghanistan in 2002. Operation Anaconda was a cooperative effort between SEAL Team 6, Delta Force, the 24th STS, the Rangers, and other infantry units.

The game reflects many real events with members of 6 being thrown out of helicopters on the way to an observation post, gunfights on the mountain, helicopter crashes, and the military hierarchy structure interfering with the on-the-ground decision making, causing the loss of service members lives. The brutal gunfight that ensued after a member of SEAL Team 6, Neil Roberts, was thrown from the helicopter is depicted in great detail in the game.^[3]

7 SEAL Team (TV Show)

A handful of TV shows have done justice to the special mission unit world, and even fewer had technical advisers that have been there, done that. SEAL Team distances itself from the rest with its technical competency, real-world situations, and attention to detail. The show’s lead technical advisor and supporting actor—Tyler Grey, a former member of CAG’s A Squadron—does an excellent job of ensuring the believability of the members of the Bravo team’s portrayal of DEVGRU operators.

Having switched over to the streaming platform, Paramount+, the gore and language have ratcheted up several notches, but the quality of plot and gritty realism have remained the same.^[4]

6 The Hurt Locker (Movie)

Kathryn Bigelow’s 2008 film The Hurt Locker is a quick study of the high-octane world of Explosive Ordinance Disposal Specialists who disarm IEDs and other explosive devices with a hands-on approach. Critics loved the crisp narrative filled with emotional gut punches and resounding victories of yet another bomb taken off the streets.

The fluctuation of highs and lows inside a war zone accentuated by an adrenaline junkie disposal expert and his team, set against the backdrop of mid-GWOT Iraq, make for an explosive mix—pun intended. From suicide vests and buried mines to snipers and rowdy fraternal bonding, the movie is a rollercoaster of emotion and an in-depth look into a different kind of warrior.^[5]

5 Sicario (Movie)

Denis Villeneuve’s 2015 titan of an action thriller comes in at number five on the list. Starring Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro, and Josh Brolin, the film—written by Taylor Sheridan—delves deeply into the drug war on the U.S. southern border and the multitude of U.S. agencies and faculties involved.

The brutality displayed by the cartels and returned by paramilitary operatives working in conjunction with U.S. forces is gut-wrenching. The non-stop thrill ride opens with the discoveries of bagged, decaying corpses in the wall of a house and fails to slow down through the entirety of its journey. From underground gun battles, shootouts with gang members and special activities division officers, and extermination of entire families, Sicario is hailed by many as an accurate depiction of the war on drugs.^[6]

4 Band of Brothers (Miniseries)

Beginning as a book written by Stephen Ambrose, Band of Brothers recounts the tale of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment in the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division. This true story is filled with tales of heroism, true leadership, cowardice, heartbreak, and fearlessness in the face of overwhelming odds. In a singular engagement, Easy Company sustained 47% casualties, nearly half of its effective fighting force wounded or killed.

From Normandy, Bastogne, and Operation Market Garden, Band of Brothers tells a tale of tightly knit warriors who suffer unspeakable horrors together in foxholes, trenches, and parachute sticks, wearing a purple heart as a membership badge rather than an award. The mortar attack scenes in the Bastogne forest, causing several of the toughest men to mentally break as they watch their friends killed, depicts the helplessness and chaos of war best.^[7]

3 SIX (TV series)

Rarely will you find a series in the military or action genre that is deeply rooted in a unit’s culture and persona. SIX is a deep dive into the culture of the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group, DEVGRU for short, or SEAL Team. The team culture, the war crimes, the in-house coverups, the hierarchy amongst the boys, and PTSD are all topics on the table in this high-intensity manhunt-centric series.

From the jungles of Africa to the mountainous regions of Eastern Europe, the series is filled with gun battles, explosions, debilitating injuries, and inside jokes that show the realism of a tight-knit community of tier 1 professional soldiers.

As a viewer, we sympathize with trying to be father and team leader Joe Graves, laugh at carefree Caulder’s antics, and respect the quiet professionalism of Buddha. Traumatic brain injury, gunshot wounds, post-traumatic stress, and drug addiction all face these warriors on the homefront, making it one of the few series to bring the war home with the boys. No matter how hard these men train, they aren’t invincible to the ravages of war on the battlefield and the homefront.^[8]

2 Full Metal Jacket (Movie)

I would be remiss if I did not bring up the 1987 Vietnam-era classic Full Metal Jacket. Directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick, it follows a platoon of U.S. Marines from boot camp all the way through the Tet Offensive. Mental health plays a massive part in the movie’s theme, initially demonstrated by an overweight private in boot camp being bullied until he commits atrocities during a mental breakdown.

The movie then proceeds to take darker and darker turns, as members of the squad are killed off during deployment through booby traps, snipers, and other enemy tactics. Members of the marine squad succumb to their darker sides and join the base inhumane level of warfare. The violence and gore of the movie are truly chilling, then add the pack mentality of young men thrown into the violence of epic proportion that is on full display. The execution of a sniper is a pivotal moment in the movie as the executioner is now considered a man for this act.^[9]

1 Saving Private Ryan (Movie)

Though this tends to be at the top of most lists regarding most realistic war movies, it remains the pinnacle and standard. The opening sequence of the assault on Omaha beach displays the raw carnage and chaos of combat on a spectrum that is impossible to fathom. Set amid true events, the epic saga of a squad of men looking to bring one of their own home is heart-wrenching in its emotional depth and beautiful in its cinematographic storytelling.

Tom Hanks’s character, a captain of a squad who was a school teacher prior to enlisting, must lead a squad of various personalities across Western Europe searching for a young man who has lost all of his siblings to war. Between the gore and violence of many of the battle scenes to the sheer and utter sensory overload of combat, veterans cite it as the most realistic and accurate war movie. It even resulted in the need for a veteran’s PTSD hotline for those experiencing symptoms while watching the movie. A cinematic masterpiece with a cross-over into the tangible.^[10]

Visual media tends to be an outlet or way of escapism, for fantastical journeys we as individuals can take without having to leave the comfort of our homes. However, the media sources listed portray some of the most horrific occurrences in mankind combatted with heroism on a scale to match. These movies, TV shows, and video games are not real but do an excellent job portraying what many of us hope never to face ourselves.

What do you think of when you imagine spending time in the garden? For some of us, it’s a place to relax in the sunshine, read a book, and maybe do a few exercises. For others, a garden is a place to invite friends, have picnics outside, fire up the barbecue, and socialize.

At ground level, though, gardens can look like battlefields- with plants, insects, small birds and mammals all jostling for space and for food. To survive in the garden ‘jungle’, you have to make use of anything at your disposal- including some targeted chemical weapons.

Top 10 Places You Don’t Want To Visit

10 Tree-killing fungi

We do associate many fungi with poison, which is entirely fair because a lot of toadstools and mushrooms contain highly toxic chemicals (and they have associated scary names, like the ‘Death cap’ and ‘Satan’s bolete’). These poisons are a defence mechanism, discouraging insects and mammals from eating the fungus.

Some fungi, however, are a bit more proactive in their use of chemical warfare. An example is the bracket fungus (Fomitopsis betulina), which grows on birch trees. If the tree is weakened for any reason, the fungus starts to produce digestive enzymes that break down the material inside the tree; the fungus itself can then feed on the broken-down tissue material.

It’s not all bad, though; some of the other chemicals found in the ‘brackets’ (the disc-shaped structures that sprout out from the infected tree) are actually useful for humans, being antiseptic and anti-inflammatory. This type of fungus has been used in some alternative medicines, and was found among the possessions of a 5000 year-old mummy in the Alps, leading to speculation that he used the fungus for medicinal purposes.

9 Insects as a weapon of attack

Another example of a fungus that actively influences its environment is the sac fungus (Ascomycota), which affects elm trees. This fungus makes use of elm bark beetles, which lay eggs in dying elm trees. If the fungus is present, it creates a lot of spores which stick to the young beetles, which then carry it to other trees. As the young beetles feed on healthy trees, the fungus spores get lodged into the tree, especially infecting the system that the tree uses to transport water and nutrients up the tree from its roots. This is fatal; as the tree can no longer sustain itself, its leaves begin to turn yellow and shrivel all year round (not just in autumn) and its shoots begin to die back. This ‘Dutch elm disease’ is now widespread across Europe and North America and has killed a large percentage of the world’s elm trees (the name is actually a nod to the fact that it was first identified and studied in the Netherlands).

The story does not end there, however; some trees seem to have resistance to the disease, such as the European White Elm (Ulmus laevis), which synthesises a chemical called Alnulin in its bark. The elm bark beetles appear to dislike the bark of trees that contain Alnulin, so these elms escape infection. Natural chemical defences may be the key to resisting Dutch Elm disease.

8 The wood-wide web

Despite the previous two items on this list, fungi are not all bad for garden and woodland plants, in fact in most cases they are beneficial. The mushroom or toadstool that you see above ground is actually only a small part of the fungus; a large part of its mass is actually a big network of thin root-like structures underground. This network is called a mycelium, and is very favourable for plants in its vicinity, doing good work such as helping to decompose dead leaves and wood, enriching the soil, and even enhancing trees’ immune systems by triggering the production of defensive chemicals. Recently, however, researchers have found that the mycelium is even more useful than this, sometimes in some quite strange ways; it can be used as a sort of communications network (hence the nickname, the ‘wood-wide web’. This communication can be a simple transfer of nutrients from one tree to the next, but more complex interactions are possible- if some plants in the network are under attack (for example, by aphids) other plants will automatically produce defensive chemicals to fend off a potential predator. The full extent of chemical signalling that can take place is still not fully understood.

7 Insects that are good at manufacturing chemical weapons

Chemical warfare in the garden is not limited to fungi and trees, however; there are a wide variety of insects that are good at producing toxic substances to kill or annoy their predators. Ants are an obvious example of a type of insect that does this; there are over 12000 species of ants in the world, spread across most of the continents, and between them they have an array of interesting chemical defences. Some of the more exotic ones are found in Central America, including the bullet ant (Paraponera clavata) which is said to have an intensely painful sting as it injects poneratoxin into the wound (this chemical is a fairly powerful neurotoxin). However, it isn’t just the exotic species that have chemical means to defend themselves; the common black garden ant (Lasius Niger) uses formic acid as a weapon.

6 Plants manufacture natural insecticides

Left to themselves, insects will munch through a huge quantity of plant matter. Most plants can’t move to defend themselves or kill the insects (with the exception of a few carnivorous plants like the venus flytrap…) so it is no surprise that some plants have evolved chemical defenses. Of course there are the obvious candidates like deadly nightshade and poison ivy, which do contain some very intense toxins, but actually even some of our more unassuming species of garden plants can produce chemicals that are toxic enough to deter insect predators. An example is the humble mint plant- for humans, it makes a tasty sauce to go with your lamb roast, but from the point of view of an insect it produces a cocktail of toxic chemicals. The most powerful of these is a chemical called pulegone that can damage the nervous system of creatures that come into contact with it.

5 Survival strategies of aphids

Aphids are interesting little critters that are generally not favoured by gardeners- they can weaken plants by feeding on their sap, damage new growth, and spread viruses from plant to plant. They are part of the food chain though, so there are a number of natural aphid predators (such as ladybirds and wasps); however, in some situations the number of aphids can become uncontrolled and then considerable damage can be done to the plants they are feeding on. The aphids have quite a nifty chemical tactic, which is to excrete honeydew; this is a sugary liquid made from the plant sap that they are feeding on. The honeydew attracts ants, which like the honeydew so much that they display really protective behaviour towards the aphids- they have been known to fend off aphids’ natural predators, and even to move aphids from wilting plants on to fresh new plants so that they can feed.

4 Aphids don’t have it all their own way

However, despite their symbiotic relationship with ants, aphids do face some chemical dangers in the garden. Strong-smelling plants, such as garlic and onions, seem to affect certain species of aphids. Alliums such as garlic contain a complex mixture of sulphur-containing chemicals, and it seems likely that these change the aphids’ behaviour by e.g. masking the smell of the plants that the aphids would prefer to feed on.

Some plants, though, take a different tack and instead of producing chemicals to repel the aphids themselves, they produce chemicals to attract creatures that are natural predators of aphids. For example, chamomile flower buds produce a volatile compound that is attractive to ladybirds. Selecting the correct plant to attract aphid predators is a complex task, and there is some debate on whether this is an effective method of pest control.

3 The protein chemistry of spiders

Spiders are good at protein chemistry- the silk that makes up their webs is basically made up of very long protein molecules that are packed together to make a fibre. Proteins themselves are made up of many small molecules (amino acids) and the spider is able to vary which amino acids predominate in one particular strand of silk. In this way, they can make some of the strands of silk tough (to hold the web together) while other strands are more stretchy (to effectively capture and hold prey after it flies into the web).

2 Do birds rely on chemical signals?

If small birds are attracted to your garden, that’s a good sign, because it means there are plenty of bugs for them to eat. It used to be assumed that birds had no use for a sense of smell; surely they sense both prey and predators by vision and hearing only? However, more recently researchers have suggested that in some birds, smell is in fact a useful sense. Starlings and blue tits have been known to add the leaves of aromatic plants to their nests, and it is suggested that they select which plants to use based on their sense of smell; but are these plants useful to deter predators or because chemicals in these plants keep bacteria in the nest under control?

1 Venomous mammals

Very few mammals manufacture poisons, because they more usually disable their prey with claws or teeth; however, there are a few examples of venomous mammals. One of the more surprising is the European mole, which is often thought of as a pest when it arrives in a garden (somewhat unfairly, because it does do some valuable jobs in the garden, such as aerating the soil as it digs). We think of moles as cute furry little creatures that eat earthworms and other bugs, but their eating habits are actually far more interesting (and gruesome). Their saliva contains a toxin that can paralyse their prey. The mole then takes its still-living, incapacitated prey down into its underground tunnel network and stores it in a kind of earthworm larder to eat later. The European mole is the only one so far known to display this behaviour, although certain types of shrews can also deliver venomous bites to prey species.

Short of going back in time, the best way most of us have to get a feel for what battle was like back in the day is by watching TV and movies. Unfortunately, both of these have bred a number of misconceptions about what went on in ancient warfare. Such as…

10. Spartans Were Great Warriors

The sword and sandal genre of film that brought popularity to many a Greek epic is also in part responsible for the modern belief that  Spartans were exceptional warriors on the battlefield. And no film has done more to cement this belief than 300.

In real life, while the Spartans were no doubt capable on the battlefield, they certainly did not have a reputation among the rest of the Greek States as being formidable or even noteworthy for their battle prowess. In fact, in one story, some people from Aigiai  went to the Oracle at Delphi to ask who were the best of all the Greeks. The oracle served them a pretty wicked burn by suggesting that they were arguably the worst of all the Greeks, but in listing who were the best the only nod that the Spartans got was for the quality of their women. It was the people of Argos who got mentioned for being skilled on the battlefield.

At the Battle of Champions in 550 BCE, 300 Spartans took on 300 Argives and the end result was that one Spartan survived while two of their enemies lived. If nothing else that indicates they were evenly matched, with a slight edge to the Argives. 

As for the famous battle that the movie 300 depicted, it’s true that King Leonidas of Sparta led an army of 300 Spartans to face off against  a massive force of Persians. He also led about six or seven thousand other Greeks from numerous other city-states, and for two days they held off the Persians at a mountain pass. However, the forces of Xerxes were able to circle around the Greek army and while most of them fled, the Spartans stayed behind. The Persians removed Leonidas’ head after he was killed. It was certainly an act of remarkable bravery on behalf of the Spartans, but the fact is they were not victorious in battle, and did not prevent the Persians from continuing on through Greece.

9. Knights Were Honorable

Most of us think of knights as being honorable people, given that’s where the very concept of chivalry comes from. This myth has often been reinforced in books and film, in particular as it relates to anything from Arthurian legends. Sir Lancelot, Sir Galahad, Sir Gawain, and all the rest were courteous and honorable men. But the reality was that knights were often just men with swords. They were hired muscle that had the skill and desire to hurt other people if you wanted them to. An armored man on horseback in medieval times was not too much different from a tank today.

In reality, the code of knightly conduct that we think of as it relates to how knights are meant to behave, and the rules they should follow, actually did exist and it came about in direct response to the fact that so many knights were lawless, savage individuals.

The church developed the chivalric code after the attack on Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade. That battle, and many before it, saw knights brutally laying waste to civilians. They would kill, they would steal, and they would rape with impunity because no one could stop them. And that is the only reason why the church sought to create rules in an effort to curtail their behavior.

8. Medieval Armor was Incredibly Heavy

It’s been a long-standing belief for some that a knight in a full suit of plate-armor would be extremely weighted down and clunky. There’s a scene in Laurence Olivier’s version of Henry V in which a crane is used to lift a knight in full armor onto his horse. This gave rise to a modern belief that knights were so bogged down by the weight of their armor that they could barely move, and had to be hoisted onto their horses in order to become mobile again.

In reality, a suit of armor typically weighed somewhere between 45 and 55 pounds. A modern Marine is going to carry anywhere between 60 and 100 pounds worth of gear with them into combat. Even a modern firefighter carries somewhere between 30 and 40 pounds worth of gear when they’re at work. 

7. Boiling Oil Was a Common Castle Defense

Castles were highly fortified and nearly impenetrable when it came to ancient warfare. They giant boxes made of stone, after all. Still, they needed to be defended, and what better way to eliminate a small mass of enemies attempting to storm the gates than by dumping a cauldron of boiling oil on them from above? It seems entirely possible when you say it like that, and odds are you’ve seen it once or twice in a film as well. However, it may not have actually gone down like that in real life.

Oil is no cheap substance, and it was much harder to come by back in the day. Modern technology has made the process of refining oil much easier, but in ancient times getting enough oil together to fill a cauldron and then boil it was going to take quite a bit of time and money.

There is little evidence to suggest this was a common practice in defending castles. More likely was boiling a pot of water and dumping that over the side on some enemies. Failing that, hot sand was also something that could be dumped on enemies, as finding extremely hot sand filtering through your armor was likely to burn skin pretty badly. But oil was simply not in plentiful enough supply to make this a practical weapon by any means.

6. Knightly Combat Was Highly Skilled

It seems like a knight should have been a highly skilled fighter and in many cases that was true. But not in every case. And even if a knight had spent years fine-tuning their combat readiness, in the heat of the moment it wasn’t necessarily practical that you go toe to toe with perfect sparring technique against your foe.

In many cases the combat between knights was less about finesse in battle and more about who could thump the other guy over the head the hardest. Given that both of these people could have been heavily armored, your skill with swordplay wasn’t always of the utmost importance.In fact, military historian Robin Neillands was quoted as saying that ‘knightly warfare as involving no great skill, being simply a matter of bludgeoning one’s opponent to the ground.’

5. Knights Were Always Killed in Battle When they Lost

War is generally a brutal affair, and there’s not a lot of mercy to be seen on a battlefield. That kind of defeats the purpose of war in the first place. However, it’s also not unheard of for there to be times when killing is not the be-all, end-all of war.

When knights met on the battlefield in war it was not always a kill-or-be-killed situation, simply because of financial reasons. A knight that survived a battle is worth more than one that did not. Not only could you loot the gear from a knight that you defeated in battle, you could also ransom them to whatever lord they may have served. At the Battle of Brémule in the year 1119, three knights lost their lives and 140 others were taken prisoner. This would certainly be in part because knights who considered themselves Christian didn’t want to spill the blood of other knights, but the fact that they were worth so much money was definitely a consideration as well.

4. All Battles Started with Charges

The charge is a staple of battle that most of us have seen time and again in movies. Two enemy forces on opposite sides of the field of battle, and then at just the right moment both sides rush together like absolute madmen, weapons drawn, meeting in the middle in a clash of steel and gore. It makes for a hell of a scene on film, and it makes absolutely no sense in real life.

That’s not to say a charge is a maneuver that’s never been done before. It certainly has, and cavalry charges have a long history in warfare. But if you are looking to actually win battles,  an intelligent general is absolutely not letting his soldiers run roughshod over the enemy with no  order whatsoever. Part of the reason the Roman armies were so successful in battle is because they had made good use of the phalanx. That is an ordered unit of soldiers working together in formation. Breaking formation is what ended up losing battles. When soldiers stay in formation, they are in a far better position to defend against the enemy.

The problem with formation battle maneuvers is they don’t particularly look exciting on film.

3. There Were No Real Female Warriors (like Amazons)

One of the most popular tales from Greek history and mythology involves the warrior tribe known as the Amazons. This is thanks, in no small part, to Wonder Woman. When conflated with other tales from Greek mythology like those of Hercules, it’s a common belief that the idea of Amazons was purely fictional. In fact, that’s not true at all.

Evidence from burial sites found around Russia has shown that Scythian women, whom Herodotus believes were descendants of the Amazons after the two peoples came together, were very much warrior women. Unearthed grave sites show women that were buried alongside their weapons. Their skeletons show that they were bow-legged, indicating they spent a lot of time on horseback, and they were also unusually tall for the time period in which they lived. So, in fact, they truly were giant warrior women. At least, as far as some Greek warriors may have been concerned.

2. Swords Were Heavy

Undoubtedly you have seen at least one movie in which a character moves to pick up a broadsword that another character had just been holding, and collapses under the weight of the thing. It’s almost unquestioned by modern standards that a sword had to be a big, brutish weapon that was incredibly unwieldy, except for in the hands of the most highly skilled and powerful knights of old.

The truth of the matter is that swords were not unwieldy at all. When you think about it, how could they have been? If a sword was hard to move, then it was no good in battle. It doesn’t matter how strong you are, the momentum created by swinging a massive, heavy piece of metal would have made it almost impossible to use in battle.

The average sword used by people in medieval times would have been between two and a half and three and a half pounds. A hand and a half war sword would probably be around four and a half pounds. Even the largest two-handed swords used by the most powerful fighters rarely weighed more than three kilograms, which is only about six and a half pounds.

1. Blood Grooves Were to Bleed an Enemy

There is a line down the center of many swords that you may have noticed if you’ve taken the time to look at one.  This shallow groove extends nearly from the hilt to the point of a blade. You’ll see them on bayonets, some Japanese blades, and even some combat knives as well. The proper name for this groove is a fuller, but they’re also known as blood grooves and blood gutters.

The name blood groove has given rise to the belief that the point of a fuller was to allow blood to seep out of the wound after you stabbed an enemy, causing them to die more quickly. If there was no blood groove in the blade then theoretically the blade itself could plug the wound and the victim would not bleed very much at all. The groove ensured that blood would be spilled, and your victim would soon die; if not from the wound itself, then from blood loss.

The truth of the matter is that a blood groove has nothing to do with blood. Instead, the fuller is included in the design of the blade when a blacksmith is making it as a way to reduce the overall weight of the weapon. A blade with a properly designed fuller can be upwards of 35% lighter than an otherwise identical blade that does not have a fuller in it. There’s no sacrifice in the integrity of the blade itself, or its ability to function.

summarize in a paragraph, starting with “In summary,” Short of going back in time, the best way most of us have to get a feel for what battle was like back in the day is by watching TV and movies. Unfortunately, both of these have bred a number of misconceptions about what went on in ancient warfare. Such as… 10. Spartans Were Great Warriors The sword and sandal genre of film that brought popularity to many a Greek epic is also in part responsible for the modern belief that  Spartans were exceptional warriors on the battlefield. And no film has done more to cement this belief than 300. In real life, while the Spartans were no doubt capable on the battlefield, they certainly did not have a reputation among the rest of the Greek States as being formidable or even noteworthy for their battle prowess. In fact, in one story, some people from Aigiai  went to the Oracle at Delphi to ask who were the best of all the Greeks. The oracle served them a pretty wicked burn by suggesting that they were arguably the worst of all the Greeks, but in listing who were the best the only nod that the Spartans got was for the quality of their women. It was the people of Argos who got mentioned for being skilled on the battlefield. At the Battle of Champions in 550 BCE, 300 Spartans took on 300 Argives and the end result was that one Spartan survived while two of their enemies lived. If nothing else that indicates they were evenly matched, with a slight edge to the Argives.  As for the famous battle that the movie 300 depicted, it’s true that King Leonidas of Sparta led an army of 300 Spartans to face off against  a massive force of Persians. He also led about six or seven thousand other Greeks from numerous other city-states, and for two days they held off the Persians at a mountain pass. However, the forces of Xerxes were able to circle around the Greek army and while most of them fled, the Spartans stayed behind. The Persians removed Leonidas’ head after he was killed. It was certainly an act of remarkable bravery on behalf of the Spartans, but the fact is they were not victorious in battle, and did not prevent the Persians from continuing on through Greece. 9. Knights Were Honorable Most of us think of knights as being honorable people, given that’s where the very concept of chivalry comes from. This myth has often been reinforced in books and film, in particular as it relates to anything from Arthurian legends. Sir Lancelot, Sir Galahad, Sir Gawain, and all the rest were courteous and honorable men. But the reality was that knights were often just men with swords. They were hired muscle that had the skill and desire to hurt other people if you wanted them to. An armored man on horseback in medieval times was not too much different from a tank today. In reality, the code of knightly conduct that we think of as it relates to how knights are meant to behave, and the rules they should follow, actually did exist and it came about in direct response to the fact that so many knights were lawless, savage individuals. The church developed the chivalric code after the attack on Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade. That battle, and many before it, saw knights brutally laying waste to civilians. They would kill, they would steal, and they would rape with impunity because no one could stop them. And that is the only reason why the church sought to create rules in an effort to curtail their behavior. 8. Medieval Armor was Incredibly Heavy It’s been a long-standing belief for some that a knight in a full suit of plate-armor would be extremely weighted down and clunky. There’s a scene in Laurence Olivier’s version of Henry V in which a crane is used to lift a knight in full armor onto his horse. This gave rise to a modern belief that knights were so bogged down by the weight of their armor that they could barely move, and had to be hoisted onto their horses in order to become mobile again. In reality, a suit of armor typically weighed somewhere between 45 and 55 pounds. A modern Marine is going to carry anywhere between 60 and 100 pounds worth of gear with them into combat. Even a modern firefighter carries somewhere between 30 and 40 pounds worth of gear when they’re at work.  7. Boiling Oil Was a Common Castle Defense Castles were highly fortified and nearly impenetrable when it came to ancient warfare. They giant boxes made of stone, after all. Still, they needed to be defended, and what better way to eliminate a small mass of enemies attempting to storm the gates than by dumping a cauldron of boiling oil on them from above? It seems entirely possible when you say it like that, and odds are you’ve seen it once or twice in a film as well. However, it may not have actually gone down like that in real life. Oil is no cheap substance, and it was much harder to come by back in the day. Modern technology has made the process of refining oil much easier, but in ancient times getting enough oil together to fill a cauldron and then boil it was going to take quite a bit of time and money. There is little evidence to suggest this was a common practice in defending castles. More likely was boiling a pot of water and dumping that over the side on some enemies. Failing that, hot sand was also something that could be dumped on enemies, as finding extremely hot sand filtering through your armor was likely to burn skin pretty badly. But oil was simply not in plentiful enough supply to make this a practical weapon by any means. 6. Knightly Combat Was Highly Skilled It seems like a knight should have been a highly skilled fighter and in many cases that was true. But not in every case. And even if a knight had spent years fine-tuning their combat readiness, in the heat of the moment it wasn’t necessarily practical that you go toe to toe with perfect sparring technique against your foe. In many cases the combat between knights was less about finesse in battle and more about who could thump the other guy over the head the hardest. Given that both of these people could have been heavily armored, your skill with swordplay wasn’t always of the utmost importance.In fact, military historian Robin Neillands was quoted as saying that ‘knightly warfare as involving no great skill, being simply a matter of bludgeoning one’s opponent to the ground.’ 5. Knights Were Always Killed in Battle When they Lost War is generally a brutal affair, and there’s not a lot of mercy to be seen on a battlefield. That kind of defeats the purpose of war in the first place. However, it’s also not unheard of for there to be times when killing is not the be-all, end-all of war. When knights met on the battlefield in war it was not always a kill-or-be-killed situation, simply because of financial reasons. A knight that survived a battle is worth more than one that did not. Not only could you loot the gear from a knight that you defeated in battle, you could also ransom them to whatever lord they may have served. At the Battle of Brémule in the year 1119, three knights lost their lives and 140 others were taken prisoner. This would certainly be in part because knights who considered themselves Christian didn’t want to spill the blood of other knights, but the fact that they were worth so much money was definitely a consideration as well. 4. All Battles Started with Charges The charge is a staple of battle that most of us have seen time and again in movies. Two enemy forces on opposite sides of the field of battle, and then at just the right moment both sides rush together like absolute madmen, weapons drawn, meeting in the middle in a clash of steel and gore. It makes for a hell of a scene on film, and it makes absolutely no sense in real life. That’s not to say a charge is a maneuver that’s never been done before. It certainly has, and cavalry charges have a long history in warfare. But if you are looking to actually win battles,  an intelligent general is absolutely not letting his soldiers run roughshod over the enemy with no  order whatsoever. Part of the reason the Roman armies were so successful in battle is because they had made good use of the phalanx. That is an ordered unit of soldiers working together in formation. Breaking formation is what ended up losing battles. When soldiers stay in formation, they are in a far better position to defend against the…,