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Best books on the Roman Legions?


gilius

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Here in the French speaking world we usually consider the books by Le Bohec to be amongst the best one might find, and they were translated into English. Otherwise there are the good old trustworthy Keppie (The Making of the Roman Army from Republic to Empire) and of course the very good books by Goldsworthy. A short introduction to the topic of the roman army with a lot of bibliography for further reading is "Ancient Warfare: A Very Short Introduction", by Sidebottom, but this small book does also speak about other civilisation's ways of making war and might not be what you're looking for. "Republican Rome: Army and Allies" by Emilio Gabba is also an old book but a good point to look for information on the demographics surrounding the mainly late (as in "post hannibalistic") republican armies of Rome.

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My favorite books on the Roman legions are:

 

Adrian Goldsworthy "The Complete Roman Army", London 2003

Kate Gilliver "The Roman Art of War", Stroud 1999

Lawrence Keppie "The Making of the Roman Army", London 1984

Yann Le Bohec "The Imperial Roman Army", London 1994

Marcus Junkelmann "Die Legionen des Augustus", Mainz 1986

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I know I'm dating myself, but it's a mistake to forget the seminal works that were published in the 1920's (but are still available in re-prints) viz. H.M.D. Parker's "The Roman Legions" and G.L. Cheeseman's "The Auxilia of the Roman Imperial Army". If you are interested in the Army of the Republic there is no substitute for "Italian Manpower" by P.A. Brunt.

 

Cheeseman has been brought up to date by J. Spaul and D.B. Saddington but their works are very hard to find.

 

The appropriate chapters of A.H.M. Parker's "Later Roman Empire" and W. Treadgold's "Byzantium and its Army" are good for the late Empire.

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Try Peter Connolly's Greece and Rome at War one of the best books ever written on ancient warfare.

If you want a good short colourful introduction to the Roman military you could look no further than Osprey Publishing's many books on the subject on - Osprey's Ancient World book list . Osprey have books on every aspect of the Roman military, from auxiliary forts, to late Roman cavalrymen, to titles on Roman battles such as Philippi, Actium, Cannae etc. Some are better quality than others, though.

 

Another interesting new look on Roman arms and armour comes from Raffaele D'Amato and Graham Sumner's Arms and Armour of the Imperial Roman Soldier. It's a controversial re-evaluation of the appearance of the Classical Imperial Roman legionary, so it's worth purchasing if you want a fresh new perspective on an old subject (although I should warn you that it can be rather heavy going at times).

 

As for Stephen Dando-Collins' book Legions of Rome - it's a readable look on the history of the legions, although I should warn you that the book is filled with many basic errors carried over from Dando-collin's other books on the subject. Another problem comes from his battle descriptions. they are well written and detailed - far too detailed for what we usually know from ancient records, which shows he simply makes stuff up to fill in the blanks. A real shame really as he's a good writer.

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Thanks for your replies.

 

Given that inscriptions are (presumably) one of the primary sources for the Roman Legions, wouldn't the majority of books quoted above surely be out of date by now? Perhaps there is a modern companion book that would go nicely alongside one or more of the above?

Edited by gilius
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If you wish a companion book then try:

 

The Roman army, 31 BC-AD 337: a sourcebook By J. B. Campbell

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...here some book reviews we did on military over the last 7 years...

 

The Roman Soldier by G. R. Watson

 

Caesar: A History of the Art of War by T. A. Dodge

 

The Roman Army At War by A. Goldsworthy

 

The Complete Roman Army by Adrian Goldsworthy

 

The Late Roman Army by Pat Southern and Karen R. Dixon

 

Greek & Roman Warfare by John Drogo Montagu

 

The Roman Army: A Social and Institutional History by Pat Southern

 

Legionary: The Roman Soldier's Manual by Philip Matyszak

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  • 2 weeks later...

I am covering Legions of Rome now, and it is a very good book. It has easy to process information about what you need to know about the legions, and it gives information on every single Roman Legion and every major battle they fought in. So far, it is the most comprehensive book on the legions I have read.

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  • 7 months later...

...here some book reviews we did on military over the last 7 years...

 

The Roman Soldier by G. R. Watson

 

Caesar: A History of the Art of War by T. A. Dodge

 

The Roman Army At War by A. Goldsworthy

 

The Complete Roman Army by Adrian Goldsworthy

 

The Late Roman Army by Pat Southern and Karen R. Dixon

 

Greek & Roman Warfare by John Drogo Montagu

 

The Roman Army: A Social and Institutional History by Pat Southern

 

Legionary: The Roman Soldier's Manual by Philip Matyszak

These are all fine books. I just bought two copies of the Matyszak book. One for me and one for my son's birthday. I hope he enjoys it as much as I have. It's a cross between the Marine field manual and a boy scout manual with a wry sense of humor. He wasn't in the scouts long but he did 5 years in the Corps. He made Centu... I mean Sergeant. My son doesn't read a lot of history but this is presented in a way that is both easy and fun. You may start chuckling at the humor but by the time you've finished you have learned a great deal about the legions. What did Mary Poppins say? "A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down." I love this book and I love combining humor with history.

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@Tribunicus Potestus

I am sure Matyszak is delighted to hear you enjoy his books, considering that he is a frequent poster on this forum he might even see this post... :)

 

cheers

viggen

It's a small world.

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I discovered something new from his book. The romans had pattern welded swords. I knew the vikings had them, and I have long suspected the technique reached Japan upon a viking boat. The timing is right. But now the roman swords open all sorts of possibilities. Hmmm....

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@Tribunicus Potestus

I am sure Matyszak is delighted to hear you enjoy his books, considering that he is a frequent poster on this forum he might even see this post... :)

 

cheers

viggen

It's a small world.

My thanks for the kind words. Pass my greetings to your son. Like him I made sergeant - acting WO even - but was not long in the Scouts. (By now that scandal about the missing good conduct badges should have been forgotten ...)

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