Historic warrior — one with a strange attitude seems initially to retreat (7)
I believe the answer is:
samurai
'historic warrior' is the definition.
'samurai' can be an answer for 'warrior' (samurai is a kind of warrior). I'm unsure of the 'historic' bit.
'one with a strange attitude seems initially to retreat' is the wordplay.
'one' becomes 'i' (Roman numeral).
'with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'strange' becomes 'rum' (similar in meaning).
'initially' says to take the initial letters.
'to retreat' says the letters should be written in reverse.
The initial letters of 'attitude seems' is 'as'.
'a'+'rum'+'as'='arumas'
'arumas' back-to-front is 'samura'.
'i' put after 'samura' is 'SAMURAI'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for samurai that I've seen before include "Former Japanese military caste member" , "Member of the military caste in feudal Japan" , "military man" , "Trad. Japanese warrior caste" , "Traditional Japanese warrior" .)