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 enlarge | Author: Adrian Goldsworthy
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Category: Book
List Price: $39.95
Buy New: $24.29
You Save: $15.66 (39%)
New (28) Used (13) from $24.25
Avg. Customer Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 20690
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.4
Dimensions (in): 10 x 7.6 x 1.1
ISBN: 0500051240
Dewey Decimal Number: 355.00937
EAN: 9780500051245
ASIN: 0500051240
Publication Date: October 27, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new item. Over 4 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Few left in stock - order soon. Code: N20090105043406T
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| Customer Reviews:
The Best Illustrated Reference to the Roman Legions May 25, 2006
17 out of 18 found this review helpful
Unlike other armies in antiquity, the Roman army evolved to be a formal institution with a distinctive military code, standard equipment, defined ranks and duties, as well as laws and procedures affecting the life and retirement of its soldiers. Although service was long (20 years/no family allowed) and discipline was strict (i.e. decimation), it was truly the first modern professional army with very specialized units ranging from doctors and cooks to sappers and siege engineers. Its men were led by leaders such as Lucullus, Pompey, and Caesar who took war as an empirical subject in which politics and well calculated strategies implemented with sound logistics and tactics were the decisive factors to victory. Because of such organization, no army would be as highly organized and trained until those of the late 19th century. Despite its defeats, the Roman army's training and efficiency tenaciously allowed it to overcome superior numbers under higher attrition. It made Rome the master of the Mediterranean world and most of modern Europe for over 1500 years (counting the Byzantine.)
This book by Adrian Goldsworthy is much better than his other one covering the political evolution of the Roman army. The list of items pertaining to the Roman army is exhaustive and, unlike with his other book, the illustrations and color photographs here are optimally suited to support the well written and edited summaries for each subject. This work far exceeds the information and detail found in the military section of Adkins & Adkins "A Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome." The book also has plenty of detail on auxilliary troops as well. One of the only problems with the work is that it offers little information on the Byzantines which is unfortunate. Despite this main drawback, the book is a valuable reference to the individual components of Western Rome's army in terms of its internal organization, composition, and evolution.
This book is far better than Goldsworthy's previous awkward illustrated attempt at presenting a sociological and political summary analysis on this subject. The information is thorough, organized, and the illustrations reinforce the subjects well. A good book for general readers, students, and scholars. A good companion to this book is G.R. Watson's 'The Roman Soldier' explaining the Roman army more from the perspective of the individual soldier.
The Complete Roman Army March 15, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
For anyone interested in a detailed discription and development of the Roman Army, this book is a must. The book explainse the aften complex command structure of the army and provides order of battle diagrams which are very helpful in understanding the army. The photos and drawings of forts, camps and the dress and weaponry, including the changes thereto, is wonderful.
 Great reference February 28, 2006
3 out of 8 found this review helpful
I bought this as a reference book and as something I hoped I could read front to back, but the writing style is too dry for me to be engrossed in. However, it has lots of info and some nice photos and illustrations.
Best One-Volume Work on the Subject Available February 21, 2005
104 out of 111 found this review helpful
My first impression on receiving this book was that at 214 pages it was far too short to be considered a "complete" history of the Roman Army. However, Dr. Adrian Goldsworthy is one of the finest Roman-era historians writing today and he packs a considerable amount of detail into this slim volume. Although the volume is primarily a synthesis of other existing works, Goldsworthy has taken the best materials - including recent archaeological research from Kalkriese in Germany - to provide a very balanced portrait of this subject. Furthermore, The Complete Roman Army has a very high graphic quality, with beautiful color photographs of uniforms, reconstructed and ruined fortifications, weapons and locations. Indeed, this book is easily the best one-volume work available on the Roman Army today.
The Complete Roman Army consists of five major sections: the Republican Army (25 pages), the professional army (29 pages), the life of a Roman soldier (87 pages), the army at war (35 pages) and the army of late antiquity (14 pages). Goldsworthy covers numerous topics, including recruitment, daily routines, rewards and punishments, religion, retirement, equipment, rank structure and off-duty behavior. In essence, this represents a "handbook" on the Roman army. The author also includes order of battle data on the Roman Army, maps of garrison locations, layouts of camps and sidebars on major battles like Pharsalus and the defeat of Boudicca. Although some readers might wish greater detail than Goldsworthy can provide on some subjects, the author's extensive bibliography does point to other sources for expanded information. All in all, Goldsworthy's synthesis and condensation of so much information into such a small space is impressive.
Goldsworthy's discussion of Roman battle tactics follows in the tracks of his earlier works on the subject and I do find some gaps in his otherwise superb analysis. Goldsworthy never really explains how the Romans were so often victorious in the close battle; in previous books, Goldsworthy suggested that it was a handful of "extra-aggressive" soldiers who "broke into the enemy line" but in this book he leaves it more vague. While Goldsworthy notes the importance of the reserve in a Roman army, he doesn't discuss how it was used to win battles. Furthermore, he uses literary evidence from Caesar's commentaries to suggest that Roman soldiers charged at their enemies, hurling their pilum at 10-15 meters and then crashed into their line. The idea that a soldier could run with armor and scutum, throw a javelin, then draw his sword while maintaining linear order with the soldiers on his right and left in the space of perhaps 6-10 seconds is absurd. Indeed, the idea of running with a large rectangular shield like the scutum seems pretty absurd. Given the Roman emphasis on tight discipline and the need to use the shields to cover the front rank, I think it far more like that Roman infantry advanced methodically.
In the final section, Goldsworthy spends little effort discussing the role of the army in Rome's decline and fall. While the author does mention the army's role in causing political instability in the empire and the difficulty its smaller units had in defeating Barbarian invasions, he dismisses the "Barbarization" theory and delves no further into examining the decline. Yet it is clear from the sources and evidence we have available that the Roman Army did decline in quality toward the end and that it was up against tougher opposition (Goldsworthy never mentions the Goths, Ostrogoths, Vandals or Huns). The Roman military system was based on a high level of tactical organization, skill and discipline - all of which apparently declined over time and contributed to their eventual defeat.
This book is amazing! Reads better than most fiction. December 10, 2004
8 out of 17 found this review helpful
You want a book that will translate into real terms how the Roman army conquered the world, no other book does a better explanation. Well put together, cool illustrations, food for thought. Great stuff.
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