The Complete Roman Army

by Adrian Goldsworthy

Book Overview

The Roman army was one of the most successful fighting forces in history. Its organization and tactics were highly advanced and were unequaled until the modern era. Spectacular monuments to its perseverance and engineering skill are still visible today, most notably Hadrian's Wall and the siegeworks around the fortress of Masada.

This book is the first to examine in detail not just the early imperial army but also the citizens' militia of...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0500288992
• ISBN13: 9780500288993
• Release Date: September 2011
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.6" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

Worth the money

I don't usually like books with heavy glossy pages because many publishers use that device to throw together a book that is heavy on photos and short on content. This is NOT the case here. Dr. Adrian Goldsworthy put together a great book, heavy on detail, well written and organized into a small package. He devotes more effort into discussing the practical and operational evolution of the army than he does with the politics of the army. If you want to understand the political evolution of the army, this work will leave you short. But then again, that's not what the book is about. As the Empire collapsed at its "ending", the tactics of its enemies had improved while the Roman Army hadn't evolved fast enough to meet the threat effectively. It would have been nice if Dr. Goldsworthy had taken some time to discuss this at greater length. But the book still gets 5 stars from me.

The Best Illustrated Reference to the Roman Legions

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.

Best One-Volume Work on the Subject Available

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 secti

Terrific

This book is just about as complete as it could be, and it is still readable. It covers every period of the evolution of the army, and includes great detail on the soldiers' lives outside of battles. The pictures and diagrams were excellent, and there were more than enough of them. My only request would be for a little more information on the army of Late Antiquity, but I don't think that the book was too lacking in this area to make it a serious problem. No matter how well-read you are on Rome, this book will teach you something new.

Best Survey of Roman Army 750 B.C. to 400 A.D.

For serious scholars and interested amateur historians alike, this is the one "must have" survey book on the Roman Army. Goldsworthy provides a comprehensive, insightful survey in this lavishly illustrated book. Using the best of recent historical reseach on the Roman Army, Goldsworthy presents the material in a comprehensive and easily accessible style. Starting with his summary of available historical sources, he provides fresh analysis of what contemporary historians know, don't know, and what remains conjecture regarding the Roman Army. The core of the book deals with evolution of the Roman Army during the main thematic periods; the Republican Army, the Professional Army of the first and second centuries A.D., and finally the Army of Late Antiquity. There are also two sections dealing the Army at War and the Life of the Roman Soldier. The book ends with a very useful bibliography. This book is the benchmark for surveys of the Roman Army and is likely to remain so for a long time. Do not hesitate to buy this book, it is well worth it!