Customer Reviews

ARMS AND ARMOUR OF THE IMPERIAL ROMAN SOLDIER: From Marius to Commodus

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Massive reference. Almost every item is fully described in text: weapons, armor, "soft" clothes, insignia, foot, horse, auxiliary and naval troops equipment etc. The only drawback (in my opinion) is that the text is illustrated mostly with frescoes, sculptures (which are hardly "readable" for an average inexperienced student) and original items from museum collections (same badly damaged). There are comparably few "modern reconstruction" drawings - in fact just 7 full page color plates by Graham Sumner (4 of which were already published in another massive book by Sumner - "Roman Military Dress", 1st plate descriptions are confused), the book lacks (again, in my opinion) accurate line drawings of javelins, swords, shields, helmets etc. This makes the present title rather "academic", perhaps not suitable for beginners who should use Osprey series first

Although I do agree that some of the ideas presented in this book are controversial, I also believe that the quality of the images alone in the book make it well worth the sticker price. Absolutely beautiful book, and even though I do not agree with the author's conclusions, I believe that there are some interesting ideas to consider. The author's main point that the Roman army was much less standardized than modern convention assumes is an argument that I also adhere to. Unfortunately, there is simply too much conjecture in regards to the analysis and description of the images displayed within the book. One other detracting factor that I must note is the way in which the written material is organized: the description of any particular monument or artifact is rarely on the same page as its photograph. This flipping back and forth between the object's image and the written description makes for a harried reading experience.

The value in this work is the photographic evidence of monuments and artifacts seldom seen anywhere else. The written material is interesting, undoubtedly, but not always as convincing as I would have liked to see in a scholarly work.

This book presents a re-emphasis of the types of sources employed in the discipline.
Perceptive observation is given to representation sources.
Different conclusions are reached from past consensus on equipment.