Late Roman Infantryman 236-565 AD [Paperback]

Simon MacDowall (Author), Gerry Embleton (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 28, 1994

Between the 3rd and 6th centuries AD the traditional legions of heavy infantry were whittled away and eventually replaced by a force of various arms and nationalities dominated by cavalry and supported by missile troops. However, in spite of this trend towards cavalry, the pedes remained the backbone of the Roman army until well into the 5th century. This book details a warrior who was very different from the legionary who preceded him; perhaps he was not as well disciplined, but in many ways he was more flexible – ready for deployment to trouble spots, and for fighting both as a skirmisher and a heavy infantryman.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Insights into the real lives of history's fighting men, packed with full colour illustrations, highly detailed cutaways, exploded artwork of weaponry and armour, and action-packed battle scenes.

About the Author

Simon MacDowall is a professional army officer with a life long passion for history. His hobbies include painting military figurines and wargaming. He has lived in England, Canada, Germany and Belgium as well as seeing service in Central America and the former Yugoslavia. He enjoys good food and drink, travel, wilderness camping and writing.

Product Details

• Paperback: 64 pages
• Publisher: Osprey Publishing (July 28, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1855324199
• ISBN-13: 978-1855324190
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 0.2 x 9.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #699,115 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another beautifully illustrated and informative Osprey book., January 19, 1999

By 

Nelson R. Willis "Rob Willis" (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Late Roman Infantryman 236-565 AD (Paperback)

Do you ever feel frustrated by books which have a lot of illustrations but not sufficient text to explain them? How about books which have plenty of text but lack maps, diagrams, or other illustrations which would really help you understand what the writer is talking about? Well, what I like about the Osprey military books is that they offer a good ballance of text and illustrations which harmonize to convey information to the reader in an efficient and entertaining manner.

This is one of my favorite titles from them. It covers a very fascinating period of transition in Europe -- that of the late Roman Empire. Much of the information in the text is taken from writers who lived around that time, and there are photographs of art works from the period which show us the dress and equipment of the late Roman infantrymen. My only complaint is that these photographs are printed in black & white and are often small, so one can miss much of the spectacular color and detail of these invaluable mosaics and frescos. Printing everything in color would, of course, make the book more expensive, but it still might be worthwhile. Depends on how one looks at it, I suppose. Osprey books do, however, offer a section of full color illustrations in the middle which reconstruct as best as possible the appearance and activities of the troops under study. The color illustrations in this one are superb. They show just how beautiful the uniforms were, and how slick the armor could be in the Roman armies even in the period where everything was declining and falling apart, giving way to a new European order. Though the Dark Ages were coming up, the late Roman period forshadowed aspects of the Medieval period which would bloom like a Phoenix from the ashes of the Dark Ages.

I recommend this title to anyone who is into history or who just enjoys good color illustrations. Those of you who have read my other reviews on Amazon know that I do a lot of research on Arthurian matters, particularly the historical origins of the Arthurian myths. Though this is not a title which focuses on Arthur or even Britain particularly, I still recommend it to anyone who is into Arthurian studies because it covers that general part of the world in roughly the same period.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good book on a misunderstood era, July 8, 2004

By 

D. D Lawson (Pasadena, Calif. USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Late Roman Infantryman 236-565 AD (Paperback)

A very good book about an era that is really fascinating to me. The subject being the change over from the "Classic" era to the start of the "Dark Ages". It is during this time that the Legions change into Field Armies and Garrison Troops because of the pressures of the Barbarians and the ecomonic collaspe of the Empire. (I shall not go into the near constant state of civil wars between the competing thugs, nutters and other sods that wanted to wear the purple.)
The Illustrations alone are worth the price but the text,maps are an added bonus. I have to agree with the other reviewer in the the B/W photos are the only down side of this book. All in all a very good buy for those with a taste for this type of history.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very useful little book, August 6, 2004

By 

Florentius (New Jersey, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: Late Roman Infantryman 236-565 AD (Paperback)

For the novice or the expert, this book gives a nice overview of the transformation of the Roman infantryman from being the heavily-armored core unit of the Imperial Roman army, to the lightly armed auxiliary force of early Byzantine times. As always, the plates in this Osprey book are well done and every attention is paid to getting the details right. A useful list of further reading is included at the end, which is very helpful for those who wish to flesh-out the scanty but tantalizing descriptions in the text with true research material.

All in all, this is a very useful little book and I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in the military of late antiquity.