Customer Reviews

Rome's Enemies (1): Germanics and Dacians (Men at Arms Series, 129)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Being a junior History buff, I looked into this book, interested in learning a little more about the traditional enemies (and allies) of Rome. This book wasn't too awfully dissapointing, but it wasn't all that great either, hence the 4 stars.
For one, there was a decisive lack of Dacians in this book. There was 1 Illustation for the Dacians (the cover illustration), and about a page and a half about them. Indeed, even with the Germans, there is a woefully short amount of imformation about THEM. The couple pages of historical quotes about them and their bearing in battle was interesting, but other than that, there was hardly anything of substance about these two people.
One thing though - if you are interested in Germanic and Dacians Standards, swords, axes, or shields, get this book. Half of the book, quite literally, is about the evolution of weapons and armor, their exact sizes, their shapes, etc. I did find this part helpful, since my father is in to weapons-making, especially archaic weapons. Using the diagrams in this book, we made 2 Franciscas, which came out quite nicely made.

This book touches on most of Rome's major barbarians, Early Germans, Suebian/Marcomannic tribes, Goths, Franks, Anglo-Saxons, and Dacians, and also provides some information on the contemporary Gauls, Sarmatians, and Huns. As a previous reviewer has noted, the Dacians, one of the most exciting peoples of Ancient Eastern Europe, only get about two pages and one plate, when they really deserve their own men-at-arms title. The plates are some of G A Embleton's better and are finely detailed. I suppose this book captures the whole point of the men-at-arms, giving a brief overview of the subject's history and appearance, and thus laying the foundation for the reader to pursue a deeper knowledge of the subject.

although this book is now offered in a thicker Osprey title called Barbarian Enemies of Rome,and includes 2 other Osprey titles as well,mainly British Celts and Iberian warriors,it would be worth it to have by itself if a person could get a good price on it.I liked the authors use of the word"Supertribe" in regard to the movements of conquest by the Germanic tribes. Really that's what governments are trying to do even today,create,"supertribes" strength in numbers. Sometimes people don't want to join the tribe for different reasons or are excluded,then they resort to the sword. The difference are settled when one side buys out the other or exterminate or assimilate the other. all this in one little wafer thin book,saves me the time from having to read the complete works of Cicero,not that it wouldn't be fun to.

This is a bit of a disappointment; rather dated and not very scholarly. There are better reference works out there.

i cancelled this order as it was going to take even longer to be shipped.