Just how deadly were ancient booby traps in battle? Thanks to Kingdom Maker for sponsoring – Download Kingdom Maker on iOS & Android and start ruling today: https://pixly.go2cloud.org/SH3EO
Hollywood battles often culminate in the use of some clever trap used by the underdog in an attempt to turn the tide of battle. This includes the pit traps of Spartacus: War of the Damned, the hidden pikes of Braveheart, the flaming logs of Spartacus, the flaming balls of Centurion, and the flaming fields of King Arthur. Such battlefield traps are certainly quite effective on camera and seem relatively easy to pull off. But did they ever exists? We explore the fascinating world of ancient battlefield booby traps in this animated history documentary.
The video begins with a discussion of the sorts of impressive fortifications which typically accompany permanent and semi-permanent positions. We then turn to field battles to see what sorts of practices were carried over. The documentary begins with the smallest form of trap, the caltrop, which was first used by the Persians at the Battle of Gaugamela but was soon being deployed by everyone from the Macedonian Army to the Roman Army. We then move on to traps of ever increasing size and deadliness.
What traps from history of Hollywood do you think are the most deadly?
Sources and Suggested Reading:
“Roman History” by Cassius Dio
“Commentaries on the Gallic Wars” by Julius Caesar
“Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World” by Adrienne Mayor
“The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates” by Adrienne Mayor
“Syriac Chronicle” by Zachariah of Mitylene
“Anabasis” by Xenophon
Credits:
Research = Invicta
Writing = Invicta
Narration = Invicta
Artwork = Penta Limited
#history
#documentary
#rome
source
Thanks to all who helped crowdsource these amazing examples of ancient traps! Craft you own realm's defenses by downloading Kingdom Maker on iOS & Android and start ruling today: https://pixly.go2cloud.org/SH3EO
Do you have a citation for the herodotus bit? I was trying to recall just this story the other day to someone.
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I have only one thing to say. It's a TRAP!
Goodbye channel with ads.
Stop pushing this mobile game crapola at us.
You forgot the elbownians banana peel trap
There is a termination on all games as work and life remove perpetual and non change
https://youtu.be/FzjEaS4al-o
need follow up….was awesome…add more castle def and siege too
i bet Chinese history is full of ingenious traps and devices used in warfare.
Think the only rule's back then was… will it hurt…yeah…big YEAH or little yeah. Lol
The Battle of Badon hill is meant to have rolled traps used
I seem to recall one battle in antiquity which used flaming goats/pigs to scare off elephants, but I can't for the life of me remember which battle it was. Great video, @Invicta!
Of course they did , how did 600 Scots beat 3000 English at the Battle of Loudoun hill if not for cunning ground work defences
https://youtu.be/FzjEaS4al-o ✅✅
NO ROME GREECE NEVER EXISTED TARTARIA
These traps pale in comparison compared to the fire wheel at the battle of Eger 1552 against the Ottomans. It legit made an entire army retreat.
Semper Invictus.
Did things in films really exist you say? Are you serious, really? Do you not know what a film is? Incredible
nevertheless, surprisingly a very interesting video based on real knowledge, many thanks
That was an amazing video, Thanks
Interesting how so much of this is speculative, isn't it? If you're not willing to entertain the takeaway that most of history is a lie, you too have fallen into a booby trap….
Thank – you . ( 2022 / July / 18 )
So Traps are a lot like revenge. They both are at their best when they are served cold.
could you do a video on army veterinary medicine?
For information on more reliable records from the three kingdoms period. You might want to refer to the "Records of the Three Kingdom" rather than the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".
Booby. That's so funny
Secret pikes or secret spikes…?
None of the five examples at the beginning actually constitute a ‘booby trap’.
The official definition of a booby trap is ‘a device activated when the victim carries out an apparently harmless act’.
None of these devices are victim activated and none of them involve an apparently harmless act.
Rolling firy stuff downhill is sure nice looking in movies, but i guess even if someone would have had the technology and resources to light and get stuff burn that much in the needed time, this might …well..backfire, since the rolling fire thingy might ignite other things , grass bushes or even your own soldiers and shroud the view. Problems that became very common with the use of gunpowder btw.
I guess it's hard to keep a torch constantly lit so that you can start your fire trap at the right momment.
Only the most despicable and cruel , anything to eliminate a much hated adversary . Ask war veterans in Vietnam , In Angola , Guiné etc. etc …
If I lived back then and was a king or some high ranking military figure I would create so many weird weapons and booby traps. One idea I would have implemented would have been using monkeys as infantry decoys to make our enemy attack them while our real army out flanks them.
We would acquire the monkeys from the jungle using traps and then dress the monkeys in mock uniforms similar looking to our own from far away but actually just made of cheap materials.
Another idea I would implement is to ad a slow-acting poision to all the food in all the villages that I know the enemy would pass through. The villagers would be in on the scheme and happily surrender and feed their "conquerors" the tainted food.
Another technique I would use to win a war would be to build a giant statue of a beutiful naked lady. The enemy army would see the statue from far away and think it is a real woman whose actually alot closer to them. They will then march for many days trying to catch up to her unaware that she's actually many miles away and made of wood. I will have teams of horses moving the statue on massive rollers and there will be a mechanical mechanism in the statue's arm that makes it wave – beckoning the enemy army closer. Then when the enemy army is getting close we press a button and the statue transforms into a siege engine and the arm that previously was waving begins hurling large boulders and also flame throwers shoot from her boobs. And that's my idea. 😅
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that was the real reason why he draw his cavalerie so far to the right …
he expected such booby traps … and could draw bezos with him and so becomes the opening …
dareios learned by isos that he like to attack the center of power and so he use this … but alex chevked or expected it … or saw it in a epylepsy attack … hephaistos record his words …
nice … two flys with one go ….
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There is a natural Honey in some country I can`t remember that does the thing you mention, I guess it wasn`t poisoned just gathered from there. There is a documentary about it here on YT somewhere. Peace!
Well done!
i have also heard and seen rope traps in forst parts being used to trap riders. but i dont think its the same as on a big battle field. its more mines are to like make a few soldiers be crippled and need a lot off help. but very good video. (sorry for bad english)
Slaves would have dug these fortifications.
The tide one is something I haven't heard before that is really genius!
I can't help but feel that many "traps" were intended to affect how and where troops were forced to move on the battlefield to create desirable killing-zones or protect more vulnerable units, versus inflicting casualties, like how they're portrayed in modern media.
Didn't king Henry V use a spike trap and bait the French calvary into charging to it??
Anyone else miss stronghold crusaders …
16:14 subterraneanhumans
so far i know the story of the germanic trowing fire rocks etc to the roman is a so far i know real story
Good video, pungi pits had poop in them.