Hora est

It is about twenty years ago now that I went to my boss' office in Rotterdam to pitch the idea of Ancient Warfare. With the interest at RomanArmyTalk (go check it out - it's much more quiet now, but then again, it's not infested with bots), we had an eager audience and source for authors and material. Amazingly, he gave me the green light and I went to work, possibly also in the time I was supposed to work on my PhD thesis...

In the spring of 2007, I quit working on my PhD (it's still not done, sorry Luuk) and soon a sample issue appeared. That was received very well, thanks to an article by Ross Cowan and art by Graham Sumner. Some two months later, issue I.1 returned from the printer on June 18 of that year. I was, and am, a lucky bastard that I've been able to start this magazine and keep it going for this long.

But, with the exception of the years Josho Brouwers was at the helm of AW, it's now also been nearly two decades. With the expansion of the company, my responsibilities now involve much more than running just Ancient Warfare and both you, the readers, and the magazine deserve an editor who is entirely devoted to the magazine. Moreover, there's a danger that both Murray, who's been immensely helpful from the first issue onwards, and I get a little jaded and start to exercise our hobby horses. After all, 100-plus issues in, there's an easy trap that an idea will be greeted with 'done before!' or that something is too superficial and this little detail is much more interesting to explore. That detail inevitably is fascinating, but there's always a balance to strike between in-depth analysis and more accessible overview articles.

In other words, it's high time for an infusion of some new blood, new ideas, and new angles of attack. Time for me to step aside and focus on the more important job(s) of overseeing Ancient History, Ancient Warfare, Medieval World, and Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy, as well as customer service, logistics, accounting fun, and all that. Perhaps there'll even be time to develop some new projects too!

So what's going to happen next? Step one is the announcement of a job opening. This blog might as well serve as such. The formal paperwork can be downloaded here. After the deadline for submissions, we'll start the exciting process of finding someone who is as crazy about warfare in the ancient world as I am, and can combine that with a sense for what makes a good article and how to balance a magazine. Preferably, someone who can do it better than me even, and who has a good sense of what you'd like to read. Once the new editor has been appointed, it'll be announced here and they can take over from then on.

I'm not leaving - I'll stay around and oversee Ancient Warfare getting a fresh lease on life for another hundred issues or so. This is my baby, after all, so I'll be even more demanding than I am for Ancient History, Medieval World, or WS&S. This is the magazine you and I both love, and with some reinforcements, we're going to make damn sure it becomes more lovable, if that's at all possible.