Customer Reviews

Auxilia of the Roman Imperial Army

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Cheesman's book on the auxiliary soldiers of the Roman army was originaly published in 1914. At the time, little was known about these non-citizen soldiers who fought alongside the men of the Roman legions, and the book was rightly hailed as a breakthrough in Roman army studies. Eighty-six years later, this study is still the best introduction to the topic, and most of Cheesman's ideas about the development of the auxiliary units from a series of ad-hoc levies to regular and permanent formations, have stood up well in the face of more recent scholarship (most notably P.A. Holder's "Studies in the Auxilia of the Roman Army", and D.B. Saddington's "The Development of the Roman Auxiliary Forces"). Although the information on individual auxiliary units contained in the appendices has been rendered outdated through the accretion of evidence since the writing of the book, it continues to hold its position as one of the cannonical works in the study of the non-citizen units of the Roman army. Cheesman's clear and lucid style, and his insightful analysis of the topic, makes this a useful book for both specialists and non-specialists alike. I heartily recomend it to anyone with an interest in the Roman military.