Soundscape of Sieges: Insights from Selected Examples

The sensory history of Late Antiquity remains an emerging but increasingly dynamic field of study, with recent publications offering promising evidence of its rapid development. This paper seeks to investigate the soundscape of sieges during Late Antiquity and the Early Byzantine period, focusing on how sound and silence shaped both the experience and conduct of warfare. A central case study will be the siege of Amida in 359 CE, vividly described by the eyewitness historian Ammianus Marcellinus. In addition, the paper will consider the role of sound in Byzantine military thought, as reflected in military treatises that discuss the auditory dimensions of combat. By examining both the cacophony of the battlefield and the calculated use of silence, the study aims to illuminate how sound was perceived, experienced, and strategically employed to influence morale, communication, and the balance of power between opposing forces.