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118-513: A battle with only light, relatively indecisive combat is often called a skirmish even if heavier troops are sometimes involved. Skirmishers can be either regular army units that are temporarily detached to perform skirmishing or specialty units that are specifically armed and trained for such low-level irregular warfare tactics. Light infantry, light cavalry, and irregular units often specialize in skirmishing. Skirmishers' open formations and smaller numbers can give them superior mobility over

236-577: A Roman character sarcastically suggests that he and his partner "chalk our faces so that Gaul may claim us as her own" in the midst of a rant outlining the problems with his partner's plan of using blackface to impersonate Aethiopians . This suggests that Gauls were thought of on average to be much paler than Romans. Jordanes describes the physical attributes of the Gauls as including "reddish hair and large loose-jointed bodies." All over Gaul, archeology has uncovered many pre-Roman gold mines (at least 200 in

354-400: A Roman province by the time of Caesar, Latin was the language spoken since at least the previous century. Gaulish is paraphyletically grouped with Celtiberian , Lepontic , and Galatian as Continental Celtic . Lepontic and Galatian are sometimes considered dialects of Gaulish. The exact time of the final extinction of Gaulish is unknown, but it is estimated to be around or shortly after

472-654: A battle in which the Seleucid war elephants shocked the Galatians. Although the momentum of the invasion was broken, the Galatians were by no means exterminated, and continued to demand tribute from the Hellenistic states of Anatolia to avoid war. Four thousand Galatians were hired as mercenaries by the Ptolemaic Egyptian king Ptolemy II Philadelphus in 270 BC. According to Pausanias , soon after arrival

590-428: A certain number of years, probably after spending time in an afterlife, and noted they buried grave goods with the dead. Gallic religious ceremonies were overseen by priests known as druids , who also served as judges, teachers, and lore-keepers. There is evidence that the Gauls sacrificed animals , almost always livestock . An example is the sanctuary at Gournay-sur-Aronde . It appears some were offered wholly to

708-624: A decisive battle can cause the losing side to surrender, while a Pyrrhic victory such as the Battle of Asculum can cause the winning side to reconsider its goals. Battles in civil wars have often decided the fate of monarchs or political factions. Famous examples include the Wars of the Roses , as well as the Jacobite risings . Battles affect the commitment of one side or the other to the continuance of

826-437: A father god, who was often a god of the tribe and of the dead ( Toutatis probably being one name for him); and a mother goddess who was associated with the land, earth and fertility ( Matrona probably being one name for her). The mother goddess could also take the form of a war goddess as protectress of her tribe and its land. There also seems to have been a male celestial god—identified with Taranis —associated with thunder,

944-470: A gradual decline of Gallic power during the 2nd century BC. The Romans eventually conquered Gaul in the Gallic Wars (58–50 BC), making it a Roman province , which brought about the hybrid Gallo-Roman culture . The Gauls were made up of many tribes ( toutās ), many of whom built large fortified settlements called oppida (such as Bibracte ), and minted their own coins . Gaul was never united under

1062-534: A level of planning and execution known as operational mobility . German strategist Carl von Clausewitz stated that "the employment of battles ... to achieve the object of war" was the essence of strategy . Battle is a loanword from the Old French bataille , first attested in 1297, from Late Latin battualia , meaning "exercise of soldiers and gladiators in fighting and fencing", from Late Latin (taken from Germanic) battuere "beat", from which

1180-570: A minor sapper role by placing cheval de frise to deter cavalry. A skirmish force screening the main body of infantry became so important to any army in the field that eventually, all major European powers developed specialised skirmishing infantry. Examples included the German Jäger , the French voltigeurs and the British riflemen . Muskets were the predominant infantry weapon of

1298-511: A minor raid or a big offensive, nor is it likely that he anticipates the future course of the battle; few of the British infantry who went over the top on the first day on the Somme , 1 July 1916, would have anticipated that the battle would last five months. Some of the Allied infantry who had just dealt a crushing defeat to the French at the Battle of Waterloo fully expected to have to fight again

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1416-495: A new kind of spear, the iklwa . Forces with inferior weapons have still emerged victorious at times, for example in the Wars of Scottish Independence . Disciplined troops are often of greater importance; at the Battle of Alesia , the Romans were greatly outnumbered but won because of superior training. Battles can also be determined by terrain. Capturing high ground has been the main tactic in innumerable battles. An army that holds

1534-493: A new type of naval warfare. The ironclad , first used in the American Civil War , resistant to cannons, soon made the wooden ship obsolete. The invention of military submarines , during World War I , brought naval warfare to both above and below the surface. With the development of military aircraft during World War II , battles were fought in the sky as well as below the ocean. Aircraft carriers have since become

1652-442: A part of a day. (The Battle of Preston (1648) , the Battle of Nations (1813) and the Battle of Gettysburg (1863) were exceptional in lasting three days.) This was mainly due to the difficulty of supplying armies in the field or conducting night operations . The means of prolonging a battle was typically with siege warfare . Improvements in transport and the sudden evolving of trench warfare , with its siege-like nature during

1770-490: A role in gender shifts of words in Early French, whereby the gender would shift to match the gender of the corresponding Gaulish word with the same meaning. Like other Celtic peoples, the Gauls had a polytheistic religion . Evidence about their religion is gleaned from archaeology and Greco-Roman accounts. Some deities were venerated only in one region, but others were more widely known. The Gauls seem to have had

1888-628: A single ruler or government, but the Gallic tribes were capable of uniting their armies in large-scale military operations , such as those led by Brennus and Vercingetorix . They followed an ancient Celtic religion overseen by druids . The Gauls produced the Coligny calendar . The ethnonym Galli is generally derived from a Celtic root * gal - 'power, ability' (cf. Old Breton gal 'power, ability', Irish gal 'bravery, courage'). Brittonic reflexes give evidence of an n-stem * gal-n- , with

2006-556: A term stemming from the Gallic ethnonym Volcae that came to designate more generally Celtic and Romance speakers in medieval Germanic languages (e.g. Welsh , Waals , Vlachs ). Gaulish culture developed over the first millennium BC. The Urnfield culture ( c.  1300 –750 BC) represents the Celts as a distinct cultural branch of the Indo-European-speaking people . The spread of iron working led to

2124-514: A time ( Battle of Leipzig ) or operations ( Battle of Wuhan ). The space a battle occupies depends on the range of the weapons of the combatants. A "battle" in this broader sense may be of long duration and take place over a large area, as in the case of the Battle of Britain or the Battle of the Atlantic . Until the advent of artillery and aircraft , battles were fought with the two sides within sight, if not reach, of each other. The depth of

2242-448: A traditional manner were destroyed by an Anglo-Egyptian force equipped with Maxim machine guns and artillery. On some occasions, simple weapons employed in an unorthodox fashion have proven advantageous; Swiss pikemen gained many victories through their ability to transform a traditionally defensive weapon into an offensive one. Zulus in the early 19th century were victorious in battles against their rivals in part because they adopted

2360-623: A war, for example the Battle of Inchon and the Battle of Huế during the Tet Offensive . Gauls The Gauls ( Latin : Galli ; Ancient Greek : Γαλάται , Galátai ) were a group of Celtic peoples of mainland Europe in the Iron Age and the Roman period (roughly 5th century BC to 5th century AD). Their homeland was known as Gaul ( Gallia ). They spoke Gaulish , a continental Celtic language . The Gauls emerged around

2478-566: Is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force commitment. An engagement with only limited commitment between the forces and without decisive results is sometimes called a skirmish . The word "battle" can also be used infrequently to refer to an entire operational campaign, although this usage greatly diverges from its conventional or customary meaning. Generally,

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2596-403: Is blond, and not only naturally so, but they make it their practice to increase the distinguishing color by which nature has given it. For they are always washing their hair in limewater, and they pull it back from their forehead to the top of the head and back to the nape of the neck... Some of them shave their beards, but others let it grow a little; and the nobles shave their cheeks, but they let

2714-739: Is mostly geometric and linear, and is best seen on fine metalwork finds from graves. Animals, with waterfowl a particular favorite, are often included as part of ornamentation, more often than humans. Commonly found objects include weapons, in latter periods often with hilts terminating in curving forks ("antenna hilts"), and jewelry, which include fibulae , often with a row of disks hanging down on chains, armlets, and some torcs . Though these are most often found in bronze, some examples, likely belonging to chieftains or other preeminent figures, are made of gold. Decorated situlae and bronze belt plates show influence from Greek and Etruscan figurative traditions. Many of these characteristics were continued into

2832-407: Is no longer tied to the navy. A good example of an ancient naval battle is the Battle of Salamis . Most ancient naval battles were fought by fast ships using the battering ram to sink opposing fleets or steer close enough for boarding in hand-to-hand combat. Troops were often used to storm enemy ships as used by Romans and pirates . This tactic was usually used by civilizations that could not beat

2950-503: Is no mention of them in his account of the fighting. Often, Greek historians ignored them altogether, but Xenophon distinguished them explicitly from the statary troops. It was far cheaper to equip oneself as lightly armed than a fully-armed hoplite. Indeed, it was common for the lightly armed to go into battle equipped with stones. The low status of skirmishers reflected the low status of the poorer sections of society that made up skirmishers. Additionally, hit-and-run tactics went against

3068-595: The Aedui , Helvetii and others, had enjoyed stable political alliances with Rome. They imported Mediterranean wine on an industrial scale, evidenced by large finds of wine vessels in digs all over Gaul, the largest and most famous of which being the one discovered in Vix Grave , which stands 1.63 m (5′ 4″) high. Gallic art corresponds to two archaeological material cultures : the Hallstatt culture (c. 1200–450 BC) and

3186-675: The American Revolutionary War was assisted by such irregular troops, such as the Minutemen , who engaged in skirmishing tactics by firing from cover, rather than in the open-field engagements that were customary at the time. Their tactics were influenced by experiences in fighting Native Americans . Militia in a skirmish role was particularly effective in the Battle of Cowpens . The character of Natty Bumppo in James Fenimore Cooper 's novel The Last of

3304-722: The Battle of Britain and the Battle of Midway . Another important use of aircraft came with the development of the helicopter , which first became heavily used during the Vietnam War, and still continues to be widely used today to transport and augment ground forces. Today, direct engagements between aircraft are rare – the most modern fighter-interceptors carry much more extensive bombing payloads, and are used to bomb precision land targets, rather than to fight other aircraft. Anti-aircraft batteries are used much more extensively to defend against incoming aircraft than interceptors. Despite this, aircraft today are much more extensively used as

3422-563: The First World War in the 20th century, lengthened the duration of battles to days and weeks. This created the requirement for unit rotation to prevent combat fatigue , with troops preferably not remaining in a combat area of operations for more than a month. The use of the term "battle" in military history has led to its misuse when referring to almost any scale of combat, notably by strategic forces involving hundreds of thousands of troops that may be engaged in either one battle at

3540-569: The French Revolution imposed the modern departmental system . Though the tribes were moderately stable political entities, Gaul as a whole tended to be politically divided, there being virtually no unity among the various tribes. Only during particularly trying times, such as the invasion of Caesar, could the Gauls unite under a single leader like Vercingetorix . Even then, however, the faction lines were clear. The Romans divided Gaul broadly into Provincia (the conquered area around

3658-792: The Germanic Cimbri and Teutones in the Cimbrian War , where they defeated and killed a Roman consul at Burdigala in 107 BC, and later became prominent among the rebelling gladiators in the Third Servile War . The Gauls were finally conquered by Julius Caesar in the 50s BC despite a rebellion by the Arvernian chieftain Vercingetorix . During the Roman period the Gauls became assimilated into Gallo-Roman culture and by expanding Germanic tribes . During

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3776-621: The Greek coalition army at Thermopylae , but helped by the Heracleans they followed the mountain path around Thermopylae to encircle the Greek army in the same way that the Persian army had done at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC, but this time defeating the whole of the Greek army. After passing Thermopylae, the Gauls headed for the rich treasury at Delphi , where they were defeated by

3894-534: The Hallstatt culture in the 8th century BC; the Proto-Celtic language is often thought to have been spoken around this time. The Hallstatt culture evolved into La Tène culture in around the 5th century BC. The Greek and Etruscan civilizations and colonies began to influence the Gauls, especially in the Mediterranean area. Gauls under Brennus invaded Rome circa 390 BC. By the 5th century BC,

4012-570: The La Tène culture (c. 450–1 BC). Each of these eras has a characteristic style, and while there is much overlap between them, the two styles recognizably differ. From the late Hallstatt onwards and certainly through the entirety of La Tène, Gaulish art is reckoned to be the beginning of what is called Celtic art today. After the end of the La Tène and from the beginning of Roman rule, Gaulish art evolved into Gallo-Roman art . Hallstatt decoration

4130-538: The Mithridatic Wars , in which they supported Rome. In the settlement of 64 BC, Galatia became a client state of the Roman empire, the old constitution disappeared, and three chiefs (wrongly styled "tetrarchs") were appointed, one for each tribe. But this arrangement soon gave way before the ambition of one of these tetrarchs, Deiotarus , a contemporary of Cicero and Julius Caesar , who made himself master of

4248-541: The Passchendaele , Pearl Harbor , the Alamo , Thermopylae and Waterloo . Military operations , many of which result in battle, are given codenames , which are not necessarily meaningful or indicative of the type or the location of the battle. Operation Market Garden and Operation Rolling Thunder are examples of battles known by their military codenames. When a battleground is the site of more than one battle in

4366-553: The Soviet Army routinely deployed more lightly armed motorized rifle regiments as skirmishers on the flanks or secondary sectors of a motorized rifle division on the offensive, and the heaviest units, backed by the heaviest armour, would fight in the division's main effort. The modern US military has light rapid-deployment Stryker brigade combat teams working with heavy-mechanized and armored units, with tracked M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and M1 Abrams tanks forming

4484-497: The Spanish Civil War and especially World War II. Aircraft design began specializing, primarily into two types: bombers, which carried explosive payloads to bomb land targets or ships; and fighter-interceptors, which were used to either intercept incoming aircraft or to escort and protect bombers (engagements between fighter aircraft were known as dog fights ). Some of the more notable aerial battles in this period include

4602-458: The battlefield has also increased in modern warfare with inclusion of the supporting units in the rear areas; supply, artillery, medical personnel etc. often outnumber the front-line combat troops. Battles are made up of a multitude of individual combats, skirmishes and small engagements and the combatants will usually only experience a small part of the battle. To the infantryman , there may be little to distinguish between combat as part of

4720-680: The crisis of the third century , there was briefly a breakaway Gallic Empire founded by the Batavian general Postumus . First-century BC Roman poet Virgil wrote that the Gauls were light-haired, and golden their garb: Golden is their hair and golden their garb. They are resplendant in their striped cloaks and their milk white necks are circled in gold. First-century BC Greek historian Diodorus Siculus described them as tall, generally heavily built, very light-skinned, and light-haired, with long hair and mustaches: The Gauls are tall of body, with rippling muscles, and white of skin, and their hair

4838-443: The electromagnetic spectrum . Battles are decided by various factors, the number and quality of combatants and equipment, the skill of commanders and terrain are among the most prominent. Weapons and armour can be decisive; on many occasions armies have achieved victory through more advanced weapons than those of their opponents. An extreme example was in the Battle of Omdurman , in which a large army of Sudanese Mahdists armed in

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4956-440: The heavy cavalry in particular. The Seven Years' War and American Revolutionary War were two early conflicts in which the modern rifle began to make a significant contribution to warfare. Despite its lower rate of fire, its accuracy at long range offered advantages over the smoothbore musket , then commonly used by regular armies. In both wars, many American frontiersmen served in the militia . The Continental Army during

5074-607: The regular development * galn - > gall - (cf. Middle Welsh gallu , Middle Breton gallout 'to be able', Cornish gallos 'power'). The ethnic names Galátai and Gallitae , as well as Gaulish personal names such as Gallus or Gallius , are also related. The modern French gaillard ('brave, vigorous, healthy') stems from the Gallo-Latin noun * galia - or *gallia- ('power, strength'). Linguist Václav Blažek has argued that Irish gall ('foreigner') and Welsh gâl ('enemy, hostile') may be later adaptations of

5192-487: The 2nd century that the powerful Greek colony of Massilia had to appeal to the Roman Republic for defense against them. The Romans intervened in southern Gaul in 125 BC, and conquered the area eventually known as Gallia Narbonensis by 121 BC. In 58 BC, Julius Caesar launched the Gallic Wars and had conquered the whole of Gaul by 51 BC. He noted that the Gauls (Celtae) were one of the three primary peoples in

5310-749: The 4th and 3rd centuries BC, the Gauls expanded into Northern Italy ( Cisalpine Gaul ), leading to the Roman–Gallic wars , and into the Balkans , leading to war with the Greeks . These latter Gauls eventually settled in Anatolia (contemporary Turkey ), becoming known as Galatians . After the end of the First Punic War , the rising Roman Republic increasingly put pressure on the Gallic sphere of influence . The Battle of Telamon (225 BC) heralded

5428-585: The 5th century BC as bearers of La Tène culture north and west of the Alps . By the 4th century BC, they were spread over much of what is now France , Belgium , Switzerland , Southern Germany , Austria , and the Czech Republic , by virtue of controlling the trade routes along the river systems of the Rhône , Seine , Rhine , and Danube . They reached the peak of their power in the 3rd century BC. During

5546-659: The American Civil War, the primary role of the infantry skirmish line was to screen the advance of a parent force and to disrupt the enemy's own reconnaissance efforts. With the mechanization of modern warfare , the role of infantry skirmishers was more or less combined with those of light cavalry , as mounted scouts in specialized reconnaissance vehicles took over the responsibility of screening large formations during maneuvers, in addition to conducting their own probing actions. Some modern military units still use light and heavily armed units in conjunction. For example,

5664-752: The Belgae; it borders, too, on the side of the Sequani and the Helvetii, upon the river Rhine , and stretches toward the north. The Belgae rises from the extreme frontier of Gaul, extend to the lower part of the river Rhine; and look toward the north and the rising sun. Aquitania extends from the Garonne to the Pyrenees and to that part of the Atlantic ( Bay of Biscay ) which is near Spain : it looks between

5782-642: The Celts plotted “to seize Egypt”, and so Ptolemy marooned them on a deserted island in the Nile River . Galatians also participated at the victory at Raphia in 217 BC under Ptolemy IV Philopator , and continued to serve as mercenaries for the Ptolemaic dynasty until its demise in 30 BC. They sided with the renegade Seleucid prince Antiochus Hierax , who reigned in Asia Minor . Hierax tried to defeat king Attalus I of Pergamum (241–197 BC), but instead,

5900-454: The English word battery is also derived via Middle English batri . The defining characteristic of the fight as a concept in military science has changed with the variations in the organisation, employment and technology of military forces. The English military historian John Keegan suggested an ideal definition of battle as "something which happens between two armies leading to

6018-804: The First World War, the British Battles Nomenclature Committee was formed to decide on standard names for all battles and subsidiary actions. To the soldiers who did the fighting, the distinction was usually academic; a soldier fighting at Beaumont Hamel on November 13, 1916, was probably unaware he was taking part in what the committee named the Battle of the Ancre . Many combats are too small to be battles; terms such as "action", "affair", "skirmish", "firefight", "raid", or "offensive patrol" are used to describe small military encounters. These combats often take place within

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6136-495: The Gauls believed they all descended from a god of the dead and underworld, whom he likened to Dīs Pater . Some deities were seen as threefold , like the Three Mothers . According to Miranda Aldhouse-Green , the Celts were also animists , believing that every part of the natural world had a spirit. Greco-Roman writers say the Gauls believed in reincarnation . Diodorus says they believed souls were reincarnated after

6254-614: The Gauls from the Aquitani; the rivers Marne and Seine separate them from the Belgae. Of all these, the Belgae are the bravest, because they are furthest from the civilisation and refinement of (our) Province, and merchants least frequently resort to them, and import those things which tend to effeminate the mind; and they are the nearest to the Germani, who dwell beyond the Rhine, with whom they are continually waging war; for which reason

6372-539: The Gauls raided the Greek mainland twice. At the end of the second expedition, the Gallic raiders had been repelled by the coalition armies of the various Greek city-states and were forced to retreat to Illyria and Thrace , but the Greeks were forced to grant safe passage to the Gauls who then made their way to Asia Minor and settled in Central Anatolia . The Gallic area of settlement in Asia Minor

6490-406: The Gauls tribes, perhaps with Germanic elements. Julius Caesar , in his book, Commentarii de Bello Gallico , comments: All Gaul is divided into three parts, one of which the Belgae inhabit, the Aquitani another, whereas those who in their own language are called Celts and in ours Gauls, the third. All these differ from each other in language, customs and laws. The river Garonne separates

6608-531: The Greek civil wars in ancient times. In the Punic Wars , despite the Roman and Carthaginian armies' different organisations, both had the role for skirmishers as screening the main armies. The Roman legions had a specialised infantry class, Velites , which acted as skirmish troops who engaged the enemy before the Roman heavy infantry made contact, and the Carthaginians recruited their skirmishers from

6726-633: The Greek ideal of heroism. Plato gives the skirmisher a voice to advocate "flight without shame" but only to denounce it as an inversion of decent values. Nevertheless, skirmishers then chalked up significant victories, such as the Athenian defeat at the hands of the Aetolian javelin men in 426 BC and, during the same war, the Athenian victory at the Battle of Sphacteria . Skirmisher infantry gained more respect in subsequent years, as their usefulness

6844-644: The Hellenized cities united under Attalus's banner, and his armies inflicted a severe defeat upon the Galatians at the Battle of the Caecus River in 241 BC. After this defeat, the Galatians continued to be a serious threat to the states of Asia Minor. In fact, they continued to be a threat even after their defeat by Gnaeus Manlius Vulso in the Galatian War (189 BC). Galatia declined and at times fell under Pontic ascendancy. They were finally freed by

6962-468: The Helvetii also surpass the rest of the Gauls in valour, as they contend with the Germani in almost daily battles, when they either repel them from their own territories, or themselves wage war on their frontiers. One part of these, which it has been said that the Gauls occupy, takes its beginning at the river Rhône ; it is bounded by the river Garonne , the Atlantic Ocean , and the territories of

7080-595: The Mediterranean), and the northern Gallia Comata ("free Gaul" or "wooded Gaul"). Caesar divided the people of Gaulia Comata into three broad groups: the Aquitani ; Galli (who in their own language were called Celtae ); and Belgae . In the modern sense, Gallic tribes are defined linguistically, as speakers of Gaulish. While the Aquitani were probably Vascons , the Belgae would thus probably be counted among

7198-834: The Mohicans was notably called La Longue Carabine by the French because of his skill with the long rifle , which was common among the Colonials. During the Napoleonic Wars , skirmishers played a key role in battles; they attempted to disrupt the main enemy force by firing into their close-packed ranks and to prevent enemy skirmishers from doing the same to friendly troops. Because skirmishers generally fought in open order, they could take cover behind trees, houses, towers and similar items, thereby presenting unrewarding targets for small arms and artillery fire. Such tactics often made them vulnerable to cavalry. Some skirmishers had

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7316-484: The Pyrenees), suggesting they were very rich, also evidenced by large finds of gold coins and artifacts. Also there existed highly developed population centers, called oppida by Caesar, such as Bibracte , Gergovia , Avaricum , Alesia , Bibrax , Manching and others. Modern archeology strongly suggests that the countries of Gaul were quite civilized and very wealthy. Most had contact with Roman merchants and some, particularly those that were governed by Republics such as

7434-460: The Romans called them (singular: pagus ; the French word pays , "country", comes from this term) were organized into larger super-tribal groups that the Romans called civitates . These administrative groupings would be taken over by the Romans in their system of local control, and these civitates would also be the basis of France's eventual division into ecclesiastical bishoprics and dioceses , which would remain in place—with slight changes—until

7552-460: The Romans, the internal division between the Gallic tribes guaranteed an easy victory for Caesar, and Vercingetorix 's attempt to unite the Gauls against Roman invasion came too late. After the annexation of Gaul, a mixed Gallo-Roman culture began to emerge. After more than a century of warfare , the Cisalpine Gauls were subdued by the Romans in the early 2nd century BC. The Transalpine Gauls continued to thrive for another century, and joined

7670-468: The Second World War, along with indirect combat through the use of aircraft and missiles which has come to constitute a large portion of wars in place of battles, where battles are now mostly reserved for capturing cities. One significant difference of modern naval battles, as opposed to earlier forms of combat is the use of marines , which introduced amphibious warfare. Today, a marine is actually an infantry regiment that sometimes fights solely on land and

7788-447: The Western World ) and B.H. Liddell Hart ( Decisive Wars of History ), among many others, have written books in the style of Creasy's work. There is an obvious difference in the way battles have been fought. Early battles were probably fought between rival hunting bands as unorganized crowds. During the Battle of Megiddo , the first reliably documented battle in the fifteenth century BC, both armies were organised and disciplined; during

7906-410: The area, along with the Aquitanians and the Belgae . Caesar's motivation for the invasion seems to have been his need for gold to pay off his debts and for a successful military expedition to boost his political career. The people of Gaul could provide him with both. So much gold was looted from Gaul that after the war the price of gold fell by as much as 20%. While they were militarily just as brave as

8024-444: The central unit in naval warfare, acting as a mobile base for lethal aircraft. Although the use of aircraft has for the most part always been used as a supplement to land or naval engagements, since their first major military use in World War I aircraft have increasingly taken on larger roles in warfare. During World War I, the primary use was for reconnaissance, and small-scale bombardment. Aircraft began becoming much more prominent in

8142-433: The clash of the opposing main forces. The aims of skirmishing were to disrupt enemy formations by causing casualties before the main battle and to tempt the opposing infantry into attacking prematurely, thus throwing their organization into disarray. Skirmishers could also be effectively used to surround opposing soldiers in the absence of friendly cavalry . Once preliminary skirmishing was over, skirmishers participated in

8260-429: The commands of their leaders with conviction in its success invariably has a higher morale than an army that doubts its every move. The British in the naval Battle of Trafalgar owed its success to the reputation of Admiral Lord Nelson . Battles can be fought on land, at sea, and in the air. Naval battles have occurred since before the 5th century BC. Air battles have been far less common, due to their late conception,

8378-427: The complicated brew of influences include Scythian art as well as that of the Greeks and Etruscans, among others. The Achaemenid occupation of Thrace and Macedonia around 500 BC is a factor of uncertain importance. Gaulish society was dominated by the druid priestly class. The druids were not the only political force, however, and the early political system was complex. The fundamental unit of Gallic politics

8496-478: The crossbowmen contributed greatly to the Portuguese victory at the Battle of Aljubarrota . Similarly, English archers played a key role in the English victory over French heavy cavalry at the Battle of Crécy . In the next century, they largely repeated that feat at the Battle of Agincourt . Such disasters have been seen as marking the beginning of the end of the dominance of medieval cavalry in general and of

8614-499: The date on which they took place, such as The Glorious First of June . In the Middle Ages it was considered important to settle on a suitable name for a battle which could be used by the chroniclers . After Henry V of England defeated a French army on October 25, 1415, he met with the senior French herald and they agreed to name the battle after the nearby castle and so it was called the Battle of Agincourt . In other cases,

8732-522: The enemy with continuous maneuvering to compensate for their inferiority in firepower when they were faced with Angolan and Cuban forces during the South African Border War . The innovative use of South African reconnaissance units to throw Angolan tank formations into disarray before it lured them into ambushes, effectively deploying the units as skirmishers, was another consistent feature of that conflict. Battle A battle

8850-485: The enemy with ranged weaponry. Another invention in the late Middle Ages was the use of Greek fire by the Byzantines, which was used to set enemy fleets on fire. Empty demolition ships utilized the tactic to crash into opposing ships and set it afire with an explosion. After the invention of cannons, naval warfare became useful as support units for land warfare. During the 19th century, the development of mines led to

8968-593: The ethnic name Galli that were introduced to the British Isles during the 1st millennium AD. According to Caesar (mid-1st c. BC), the Gauls of the province of Gallia Celtica called themselves Celtae in their own language, and were called Galli in Latin. Romans indeed used the ethnic name Galli as a synonym for Celtae . The English Gaul does not come from Latin Galli but from Germanic * Walhaz ,

9086-575: The first Gallic invasion of Greece (279 BC), they defeated the Macedonians and killed the Macedonian king Ptolemy Keraunos . They then focused on looting the rich Macedonian countryside, but avoided the heavily fortified cities. The Macedonian general Sosthenes assembled an army, defeated Bolgius and repelled the invading Gauls. In the second Gaulish invasion of Greece (278 BC), the Gauls, led by Brennos , suffered heavy losses while facing

9204-589: The high ground forces the enemy to climb and thus wear themselves down. Areas of jungle and forest, with dense vegetation act as force-multipliers, of benefit to inferior armies. Terrain may have lost importance in modern warfare, due to the advent of aircraft, though the terrain is still vital for camouflage, especially for guerrilla warfare . Generals and commanders also play an important role, Hannibal , Julius Caesar , Khalid ibn Walid , Subutai and Napoleon Bonaparte were all skilled generals and their armies were extremely successful at times. An army that can trust

9322-609: The inhabitants of Caledonia have reddish hair and large loose-jointed bodies. They [the Britons] are like the Gauls and the Spaniards, according as they are opposite either nation. Hence some have supposed that from these lands the island received its inhabitants. Tacitus noted the Caledonians had "red hair and large limbs" which he felt pointed to a "Germanic origin." In the novel Satyricon by Roman courtier Gaius Petronius ,

9440-616: The late 18th century, but the British Army learned firsthand of the importance of rifles during the American Revolutionary War and began experimenting with them shortly thereafter, resulting in the Baker rifle . Although slower to reload and more costly to produce than a musket, it was much more accurate and proved its worth during the Peninsular War . Throughout the conflict, British riflemen could selectively target and eliminate

9558-434: The latter, resulting in their deaths or capture. A battle may end in a Pyrrhic victory , which ultimately favors the defeated party. If no resolution is reached in a battle, it can result in a stalemate . A conflict in which one side is unwilling to reach a decision by a direct battle using conventional warfare often becomes an insurgency . Until the 19th century the majority of battles were of short duration, many lasting

9676-529: The main battle by shooting into the enemy formation, or they joined in melée combat with daggers or short swords. Their mobility made skirmishers also valuable for reconnaissance , especially in wooded or urban areas. In Classical Greece , skirmishers originally had a low status. For example, Herodotus , in his account of the Battle of Plataea of 479 BC, mentioned that the Spartan Army fielded 35,000 lightly armed helots to 5,000 hoplites , but there

9794-535: The many wars of the Roman Empire , barbarians continued to use mob tactics . As the Age of Enlightenment dawned, armies began to fight in highly disciplined lines. Each would follow the orders from their officers and fight as a unit instead of individuals. Armies were divided into regiments , battalions , companies and platoons . These armies would march, line up and fire in divisions. Native Americans , on

9912-800: The middle of the 1st millennium. Gaulish may have survived in some regions as the mid to late 6th century in France. Despite considerable Romanization of the local material culture, the Gaulish language is held to have survived and had coexisted with spoken Latin during the centuries of Roman rule of Gaul. Coexisting with Latin, Gaulish played a role in shaping the Vulgar Latin dialects that developed into French, with effects including loanwords and calques , sound changes shaped by Gaulish influence, as well as in conjugation and word order. Recent work in computational simulation suggests that Gaulish played

10030-492: The moral then physical disintegration of one or the other of them" but the origins and outcomes of battles can rarely be summarized so neatly. Battle in the 20th and 21st centuries is defined as the combat between large components of the forces in a military campaign , used to achieve military objectives . Where the duration of the battle is longer than a week, it is often for reasons of planning called an operation. Battles can be planned, encountered or forced by one side when

10148-467: The most prominent being the Battle of Britain in 1940. Since the Second World War, land or sea battles have come to rely on air support. During the Battle of Midway , five aircraft carriers were sunk without either fleet coming into direct contact. Battles are usually hybrids of different types listed above. A decisive battle is one with political effects, determining the course of

10266-636: The mustache grow until it covers the mouth. Jordanes , in his Origins and Deeds of the Goths , indirectly describes the Gauls as light-haired and large-bodied by comparing them to Caledonians , as a contrast to the Spaniards, whom he compared to the Silures . He speculates based on this comparison that the Britons originated from different peoples, including Gauls and Spaniards. The Silures have swarthy features and are usually born with curly black hair, but

10384-478: The native peoples across the Carthaginian Empire . The Roman army of the late republican and early imperial periods frequently recruited foreign auxiliary troops to act as skirmishers to supplement the citizen legions . Medieval skirmishers were generally commoners armed with crossbows or longbows. In the 14th century, although long held in disdain by the aristocratic Castilian heavy cavalry,

10502-450: The next day (at the Battle of Wavre ). Battlespace is a unified strategic concept to integrate and combine armed forces for the military theatre of operations , including air , information , land , sea and space . It includes the environment, factors and conditions that must be understood to apply combat power, protect the force or complete the mission, comprising enemy and friendly armed forces ; facilities; weather; terrain; and

10620-500: The officers and NCOs of French forces from outside musket range. During the War of 1812 , American riflemen again contributed to British casualties but also had to contend with the revised British light infantry tactics. A consequence of those wars' experiences was a trend to training line troops to adopt tactics that had been used only by skirmishers. The treatise New American Tactics , by General John Watts de Peyster , advocated making

10738-476: The other force from gaining an effective intelligence picture by engaging their scouts, and likewise forcing them to deploy. By the late 19th century , the concept of fighting in formation was on the wane. Heavy infantry had disappeared, and all infantry effectively became skirmishers. The term has become obsolete, but as late as World War I , it continued to be associated with battlefield reconnaissance screens, which are essentially modern skirmish lines. As in

10856-487: The other hand, did not fight in lines, using guerrilla tactics. American colonists and European forces continued using disciplined lines into the American Civil War . A new style arose from the 1850s to the First World War, known as trench warfare , which also led to tactical radio . Chemical warfare also began in 1915. By the Second World War, the use of the smaller divisions, platoons and companies became much more important as precise operations became vital. Instead of

10974-410: The other is unable to withdraw from combat. A battle always has as its purpose the reaching of a mission goal by use of military force. A victory in the battle is achieved when one of the opposing sides forces the other to abandon its mission and surrender its forces, routs the other (i.e., forces it to retreat or renders it militarily ineffective for further combat operations ) or annihilates

11092-497: The other two tetrarchies and was finally recognized by the Romans as 'king' of Galatia . The Galatian language continued to be spoken in central Anatolia until the 6th century. In the Second Punic War , the famous Carthaginian general Hannibal used Gallic mercenaries in his invasion of Italy. They played a part in some of his most spectacular victories, including the battle of Cannae . The Gauls were so prosperous by

11210-435: The political actors. Personal effects of battle range from mild psychological issues to permanent and crippling injuries. Some battle-survivors have nightmares about the conditions they encountered or abnormal reactions to certain sights or sounds and some experience flashbacks . Physical effects of battle can include scars, amputations, lesions, loss of bodily functions, blindness, paralysis and death. Battles affect politics ;

11328-401: The primary combat force. Apartheid South Africa 's military doctrine stressed the use of highly-mobile, light-mechanized forces that could cover ground swiftly while they kept heavier enemy armoured and infantry formations off balance and did not engage until the conditions were favourable. The lightly armed South African units used tactics such as rapid movement, flank harassment and confusing

11446-480: The primary tools for both army and navy, as evidenced by the prominent use of helicopters to transport and support troops, the use of aerial bombardment as the "first strike" in many engagements, and the replacement of the battleship with the aircraft carrier as the center of most modern navies. Battles are usually named after some feature of the battlefield geography , such as a town, forest or river, commonly prefixed "Battle of...". Occasionally battles are named after

11564-485: The re-assembled Greek army. This led to a series of retreats of the Gauls, with devastating losses, all the way up to Macedonia and then out of the Greek mainland. The major part of the Gaul army was defeated in the process, and those Gauls survived were forced to flee from Greece. The Gallic leader Brennos was seriously injured at Delphi and committed suicide there. (He is not to be confused with another Gaulish leader bearing

11682-485: The regular forces, allowing them to engage only on favorable terms, taking advantage of better position or terrain, and quickly withdrawing from any threat of superior enemy forces. Though often critical in protecting the main army from sudden enemy advances, skirmishers are poor at taking or defending ground from heavy infantry or heavy cavalry . In modern times, following the obsolescence of such heavy troops, all infantry has become indistinguishable from skirmishers, and

11800-646: The same battle entered the popular culture, such as the First Battle of Bull Run and the Second Battle of Bull Run , which are also referred to as the First and Second Battles of Manassas. Sometimes in desert warfare, there is no nearby town name to use; map coordinates gave the name to the Battle of 73 Easting in the First Gulf War . Some place names have become synonymous with battles, such as

11918-466: The same conflict, the instances are distinguished by ordinal number , such as the First and Second Battles of Bull Run. An extreme case are the twelve Battles of the Isonzo — First to Twelfth —between Italy and Austria-Hungary during the First World War. Some battles are named for the convenience of military historians so that periods of combat can be neatly distinguished from one another. Following

12036-500: The same name who had sacked Rome a century earlier (390 BC). In 278 BC, Gaulish settlers in the Balkans were invited by Nicomedes I of Bithynia to help him in a dynastic struggle against his brother. They numbered about 10,000 fighting men and about the same number of women and children, divided into three tribes, Trocmi , Tolistobogii and Tectosages . They were eventually defeated by the Seleucid king Antiochus I (275 BC), in

12154-571: The setting of the sun, and the north star.    — Julius Caesar , Commentarii de Bello Gallico , Book I, chapter 1 Gaulish or Gallic is the name given to the Celtic language spoken in Gaul before Latin took over. According to Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War , it was one of three languages in Gaul, the others being Aquitanian and Belgic . In Gallia Transalpina ,

12272-720: The sides adopted different names for the same battle, such as the Battle of Gallipoli which is known in Turkey as the Battle of Çanakkale . During the American Civil War, the Union tended to name the battles after the nearest watercourse, such as the Battle of Wilsons Creek and the Battle of Stones River, whereas the Confederates favoured the nearby towns, as in the Battles of Chancellorsville and Murfreesboro. Occasionally both names for

12390-441: The skirmish line the new line of battle, which was then a revolutionary idea. During the American Civil War , cavalrymen often dismounted and formed a skirmish line to delay enemy troops who were advancing toward an objective. An example was the action of the Union cavalrymen led by Brigadier General John Buford on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg . Skirmish lines were also used to harass enemy probing missions, hampering

12508-634: The succeeding La Tène style. La Tène metalwork in bronze, iron and gold, developing technologically out of the Hallstatt culture, is stylistically characterized by "classical vegetable and foliage motifs such as leafy palmette forms, vines, tendrils and lotus flowers together with spirals, S-scrolls, lyre and trumpet shapes". Such decoration may be found on fine bronze vessels, helmets and shields, horse trappings, and elite jewelry, especially torcs and fibulae. Early on, La Tène style adapted ornamental motifs from foreign cultures into something distinctly new;

12626-478: The term has effectively lost its original military meaning as a distinct class of soldier, although skirmishing as a combat role is commonplace. In ancient warfare , skirmishers typically carried bows , javelins , slings and sometimes light shields . Acting as light infantry with their light arms and minimal armour, they could run ahead of the main battle line; release a volley of arrows, sling stones, or javelins; and retreat behind their main battle line before

12744-427: The time and space of a battle and while they may have an objective, they are not necessarily "decisive". Sometimes the soldiers are unable to immediately gauge the significance of the combat; in the aftermath of the Battle of Waterloo , some British officers were in doubt as to whether the day's events merited the title of "battle" or would be called an "action". Battles affect the individuals who take part, as well as

12862-502: The trench stalemate of 1915–1917, in the Second World War, battles developed where small groups encountered other platoons. As a result, elite squads became much more recognized and distinguishable. Maneuver warfare also returned with an astonishing pace with the advent of the tank , replacing the cannon of the Enlightenment Age. Artillery has since gradually replaced the use of frontal troops. Modern battles resemble those of

12980-603: The tribes later called Gauls had migrated from Central France to the Mediterranean coast. Gallic invaders settled the Po Valley in the 4th century BC, defeated Roman forces in a battle under Brennus in 390 BC, and raided Italy as far south as Sicily . In the early 3rd century BC, the Gauls attempted an eastward expansion , toward the Balkan peninsula. At that time, it was a Greek province. The Gauls' intent

13098-601: The use of skirmishers. The Britons used the sling and javelin extensively but for siege warfare, not skirmishing. Among the Gauls , likewise, the bow was employed to defend a fixed position. The Celts' lack of skirmishers cost them dearly during the Gallic Invasion of Greece of 279 BC when they found themselves helpless in the face of Aetolian skirmishing tactics. Thracians were famous for their skirmish war tactics and offered their services as mercenaries more than once in

13216-491: The war such as the Battle of Smolensk or bringing hostilities to an end, such as the Battle of Hastings or the Battle of Hattin . A decisive battle can change the balance of power or boundaries between countries. The concept of the decisive battle became popular with the publication in 1851 of Edward Creasy 's The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World . British military historians J.F.C. Fuller ( The Decisive Battles of

13334-401: The wheel, and the bull. There were gods of skill and craft, such as the pan-regional god Lugus , and the smith god Gobannos . Gallic healing deities were often associated with sacred springs , such as Sirona and Borvo . Other pan-regional deities include the horned god Cernunnos , the horse and fertility goddess Epona , Ogmios , Sucellos and his companion Nantosuelta . Caesar says

13452-522: The word "battle" is used for such campaigns if referring to a protracted combat encounter in which either one or both of the combatants had the same methods, resources, and strategic objectives throughout the encounter. Some prominent examples of this would be the Battle of the Atlantic , Battle of Britain , and the Battle of France , all in World War II. Wars and military campaigns are guided by military strategy , whereas battles take place on

13570-476: Was called Galatia ; there they created widespread havoc. They were checked through the use of war elephants and skirmishers by the Greek Seleucid king Antiochus I in 275 BC, after which they served as mercenaries across the whole Hellenistic Eastern Mediterranean , including Ptolemaic Egypt , where they, under Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–246 BC), attempted to seize control of the kingdom. In

13688-550: Was more widely recognised and as the ancient bias against them waned. Peltasts , light javelin infantry, played a vital role in the Peloponnesian War , and well-equipped skirmisher troops such as thureophoroi and thorakites would be developed to provide a strong mobile force for the Greek and the Macedonian armies. The Celts did not, in general, favour ranged weapons . The exceptions tended not to include

13806-405: Was the tribe, which itself consisted of one or more of what Caesar called "pagi" . Each tribe had a council of elders, and initially a king. Later, the executive was an annually-elected magistrate. Among the Aedui tribe the executive held the title of " Vergobret ", a position much like a king, but its powers were held in check by rules laid down by the council. The tribal groups, or pagi as

13924-507: Was to reach and loot the rich Greek city-states of the Greek mainland. However, the Greeks exterminated the majority of the Gallic army, and the few survivors were forced to flee. Many Gauls were recorded as serving in the armies of Carthage during the Punic Wars . One of the leading rebel leaders of the Mercenary War , Autaritus , was of Gallic origin. During the Balkan expedition, led by Cerethrios , Brennos and Bolgios ,

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