Liliane & Fred Funcken - Greek Cavalry

As a logical consequence of their passion for history, Liliane and Fred Funcken embarked in a projected series about costumes and weapons of military forces from all ages. This staggering encyclopedia spread along 17 thick hardbound volumes published between the late 60's and the mid 80's.

While serious-minded, thoroughly detailed and certainly didactic, this series was also very entertaining for me. Not story-wise, mind you, but because, the classic presentation (texts on the left, pictures on the right) allowed for some outstanding depictions of how colorful and inventive people have been in the representation of their armed forces.

Long before the advent of camouflage, uniforms were certainly meant to be seen.

This illustration was taken from the very first Volume published in 1966 ("Le Costume et les armes des soldats de tous les temps Tome 1 : Des pharaons à Louis XV", Page 45) and displays some great-looking Greek Cavalry warriors. The fields of Troy must not be very far, I think...