This volume is largely based on contributions to the conference “Bounded Violence and Violence Unbound: Violence in Pre-Modern Warfare,” which I organized at the University of Bonn from August 31 to September 3, 2022. In addition to the papers presented in this volume, the conference also featured specialists in ancient Greece and Republican Rome. Their contributions on antiquity will be included in a separate volume in Brill’s Companions to Classical Studies: Warfare in the Ancient Mediterranean World.
The conference and both volumes would not have been possible without the generous financial support of the Daimler and Benz Foundation, which funded the project as part of its scholarship program for postdoctoral researchers. Additional funding was provided by the Transdisciplinary Research Area (TRA) “Past Worlds and Modern Questions: Cultures between Time and Space” at the University of Bonn, as part of the Excellence Strategy of the federal and state governments.
I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to all contributors. Special thanks go to Ryan Delaney, who professionally proofread all contributions. I am also deeply grateful to the student assistants in the Department of Ancient History—particularly Nicolas Cavagnet, Katharina Fischer, Milena Janßen, and Gregor Kirilov in Bonn, as well as Anna Kreuzer and Sören Gravemann in Essen—whose efforts ensured the smooth running of the conference and provided invaluable support during the manuscript phase. Above all, I am especially indebted to my student assistant Daniel Göttlich, who has been involved in the conference and the production of this volume from the very beginning, ensure that it can now be published.
Lennart Gilhaus
Berlin, August 29, 2025