Review; The Roman Army

Pat Southern feels "no apologies need be made for any amount of books on the Roman army." I personally have not read many books on said topic, mostly due to disinterest, and on the few occasions I have tried I have usually been disappointed. A book that would convey a broad spectrum of information on the Roman army in an accessible format would thus do me a great favor. Fortunately, Southern need not apologize for her own entry in this overcrowded market. Her lucid writing poses a considerable amount of data in a friendly fashion. Never has the Roman army looked so inviting...

...read the full review of The Roman Army: A Social and Institutional History by Patricia Southern

Salve, Amici.

In relation with some questions on the Camillean/Appian reform and the earliest Roman Legion posed in a recent thread, Pat Southern wrote in this thread's the Roman Army (pg. 89; SIC):

"The change of the Hoplite formation to Maniples.

...It took forty years to recover from the attacks of the Gauls... The phalanx legion was broken up into more maneuverable sections or maniples... The round clipeus was abandoned in favor of the oval scutum, which was already in use by some of the Italian allies...it is possible that introduction of the looser manipular formation and the introduction of the pilllum are related, but there is no proof of this hypothesis.

Livy and the Army of the Mid-Fourtth Century BC

By 362 BC, the annual levy has increased from one to two legions... eventually the Army was doubled again to four legions. Livy implies that this had already happened by 340 BC, but the first reliable evidence for the increase dated from 311 BC".