The Complete Roman Army

Another excellent review has been completed for our Roman Books section, thanks to community member Germanicus. Not only are relevant items available for further research throughout the site, but our books section includes an ever growing list of Roman related Fiction and Non-Fiction books, Movies and Games.

The Complete Roman Army by Adrian Goldsworthy

I pmd Germanicus to praise his review and let him know I had ordered this work on his recommendation.

I am not dissapointed , what a good book. Please note that the flyleaf illustration is, spookily, once again , the view from milecastle 37 looking toward Vircovicium (Housesteads) as posted by yours truly in the gallery

Well done Germanicus.

Yep, excellent review Germanicus!

BTW, I too wish to review a horrible book one of these days! :sniper:

Umm. I ordered Goldsworthy but one question(lol)

Does the book offer incites on the military organization et al? Or is it battles and their setup.

I wanted to get a book telling me not just how a certian battle in general, but how the battle would be carried out, how each command went from general to the maniple and down to each legionary. Im going to read this since Im a fan of Goldsworthy but Im also looking for something in that regard. mainly because I hope to eventually write a fictional story on this, but i want all the research done and done right before hand.

There's a host of useful detail in the book. Very little of it deals with specific battles, it's mainly about the army as an institution.

A better book for your purposes might be Goldsworthy's 'The Roman Army at War 100BC-AD200) or a book by Keppie whose exact title escapes me. Webster has some information too. A quick Amazon search should get you all these.

I don't think we actually KNOW all the details of how commands were transmitted. Much can be deduced/infered though.

Just started an interesting book by Goldsworthy, "In the Name of Rome: The Men who Won the Roman Empire." Each chapter is devoted to a general--Fabius, Scipio Africanus, Aemilius Paullus, Scipio Aemilianus, Caius Marius, Sertorius, Pompey, Baldie (who gets two chapters for some reason), Germanicus, Titus, Trajan, Julian, and Belisarius--and how exactly he drew up his battle lines, trained his troops, etc.

For the many forum readers who sympathize with the Great Man view of history and who think the Roman military is the most interesting feature of the Roman world, Goldsworthy probably provides just about everything you'd like (and more).

I read the review, very good review and the book looks very excellent indeed! When I actually get the cash together and am putting an order in, I'll get a copy.

"In the Name of Rome: The Men who Won the Roman Empire."

Yes, read it a while ago. Baldy ??? I suppose I should expect that kind of thing from you..LOL

I just read the recently released paperback version of the book, and I have to say it was great. The chapter on the later imperial army was pretty thin, but I guess given the dearth of information on the subject, it's not the author's fault. But everything else was top notch.

I don't remember this book being particularly great. I seem to recall that info on Standard Bearers wasn't clear. Also, the Roman legions are not traced by their known movements between fortresses, so there's no way it's "complete".