William Mclaughlin

William Mclaughlin is one of the authors writing for WAR HISTORY ONLINE

Articles by William Mclaughlin:

The Battle of Leuctra: Crushing the Spartans and the Birth of the Echelon Formation

The echelon formation is a solid staple in the modern military and police world. Fighter jets use this diagonal formation to maintain visibility while maximizing…

Evidence Shows A Greek Stand against the Goths in the 3rd Century CE – In The Pass Of Thermopylae

Ancient history covers an incredibly vast span of time. We know the specific details of only a small percentage of the battles fought during this…

Top 4 Underrated Battles of Roman History

There is a long list of influential battles throughout Roman history: Zama, Pharsalus, Actium, Teutoburg, Adrianople and plenty more. These tend to get a major…

Movie Mistakes – The 4 Worst Things Hollywood Gets Wrong about Ancient and Medieval Battles

Personally, I love Hollywood historical epics no matter how ridiculously inaccurate they are. Anything that gets history out in the world is okay with me.…

When Spartacus and His Renegade Gladiators Gave the Romans All They Could Handle

The War of Spartacus was violent and disturbing. Gladiators and other slaves were fighting for what modern society views as the inalienable right to freedom.…

3 Extremely Heroic Last Stands in Military History

The Battle of Thermopylae is the ultimate example of a heroic last stand. The few mighty warriors stood against hundreds of thousands of Persian troops,…

Evidence Piling Up about Unparalleled Bronze Age Bridge Battle in Northern Europe

Sometimes it’s easy to forget about the history of people before writing. Technically a region without writing is prehistoric; North America before colonization, or Western…

Mithridates the Poisoner King: Hallucinogenic Honey, Venom Arrows, and More

Poison had a steady but often quiet or controversial place in the history of warfare. On one hand, it was incredibly useful. Poisoned wells could…

Rome’s Most Hated People (Spoiler: Their Stories Often Don’t End Well)

Throughout the history of Rome, from the Kingdom of the 700’s BCE  to the fall of the Empire in 476, there have been individuals who…

Alternative History: The Roman Civil War

Crassus is an interesting character in Roman history. He was incredibly wealthy, one of the richest men before the emperors, but craved some military glory.…

Top Five Roman Generals – From Marcellus to Caesar

The Roman Legion was a fearsome military unit. A heavy infantry advance was almost unstoppable, able to take on most enemies. The best aspect of…

Scariest Nuclear Bomb Accidents in History

Nuclear bombs, the ultimate weapons of mass destruction. It would stand to reason that a ridiculous amount of safety protocols would exist to prevent an…