Hans Delbruck (1848-1929), a German military historian and politician, won international renown as well as fierce criticism because of his chosen way to study military history by comparing the traditional accounts of campaigns and battles with modern geography and what was known about the contemporary capabilities of soldiers, horses, and pack animals.

Thus he became the first to cut away the inflated figures of, for instance, the size of the Persian army that invaded Greece, and the numbers of barbarians who later invaded the Roman Empire. Delbruck presented his by then revolutionary - but today commonly accepted - ideas in his great, multi-volume work "History of the Art of War within the Framework of Political History" (Geschichte der Kriegskunst im Rahmen der politischen Geschichte).

The introduction of this concept made Delbruck one of the most important military historians of the century, if not of all times. However, he was capable of making errors, especially when he was not in possession of all facts. So, for instance, he refused to believe that the North African elephant, used in warfare by for instance the Ptolemies and Carthaginians, was smaller than the Indian elephant, which was used by armies with access to India.

Although pointed out by many ancient sources, Delbruck dismissed such sources as nonsense [GS: He also considered that the traditional numbers for Agincourt must have been wrong, as so few English troops could hardly have caused so much damage to so many French - he suggested that the English must have outnumbered the French!]

Such minor errors do not of course detract from the fundamental importance of Delbruck's views of military history and on how to evaluate ancient and medieval sources. "Numbers in History" consists of the texts of two lectures delivered by Delbruck. He deals with army sizes in original sources, looking at the Persian invasion of Greece, and in particular the battle of Marathon, the rise of the Roman Empire, the fall of the Roman Empire, the wars between Romans and Germans, and the Norman Conquest, in particular the battle of Hastings. He compares the surviving texts with what is known from later campaigns.

For anybody who has not read his "History of the Art of War" (published in English in a rather inferior translation by Walter J. Renfroe, Jr. - a man who did not even bother to look up the length of the "German" mile when translating Delbruck's numerous measurements!), this booklet deserves attention. The translation has mercifully been made by another hand than Renfroe's. And for this price, I can recommend it to anybody.

More Reviews

The Pallas Armata Library
Numbers in History
The Tyrants of Britain, Gaul and Spain 406-411
The Fall of Visigothic Power in Spain
Strategimaticon and Strategicon

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