The Roman Army: A Social and Institutional History

by Patricia Southern

Written by a leading authority on Roman military history, this fascinating volume spans over a thousand years as it offers a memorable picture of one of the world's most noted fighting forces, paying special attention to the life of the common soldier.
Southern here illuminates the Roman army's history, culture, and organization, providing fascinating details on topics such as military music, holidays, strategy, the construction of Roman fortresses and forts, the most common battle formations, and the many tools of war, from spears, bows and arrows, swords, and slingshots, to the large catapulta (which fired giant arrows and bolts) and the ballista (which hurled huge stones). Perhaps most interesting are the details Southern provides about everyday life in the Roman army, everything from the soldiers pay (they were paid three times per year, but money was deducted for such items as food, clothing, weapons, the burial club, the pension scheme, and so on) to their often brutal life—if whole units turned and ran, about one-tenth of the men concerned were chosen by lot and clubbed to death and the rest were put on barley rations instead of wheat. Moreover, soldiers who lost weapons or their shields would fight savagely to get them back or would die in the process, rather than suffer the shame that attached to throwing weapons away or running from the battle.
Attractively illustrated, this book offers a fascinating look at the life of the Roman soldier, drawing on everything from Rome's rich historical and archaeological record to soldier's personal correspondence to depictions of military subjects in literature and art.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Ancient History, Military History, Military Fiction

330 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2005

Reviews

[Chris Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very good overview of the Roman Army to the Late Empire. Ms. Southern touches on all the aspects from clothing, to weapons, to marching, to politics, and more. It is readable and informational.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent book with a dreadful index - a 500 page academic book about the entire Roman Army really should have more than 2 and a half pages of index.

[Ryan Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

While much of this is a fine, if a little dry, survey of out current state of knowledge about the ancient Roman army, I have two main complaints: this needs more pictures (there are of course many fine illustrated books about the Roman army out there, but they usually lack the scholarly sophistication of this book--what we need is a good combination) and a better focus (the encyclopedic nature results in lots of repetition and a rather scattered non-narrative account)--for example, in Chapter 8, we get pages of summary about Marius, Pompey, and Caesar in the famous generals section, but it tends to be more focused on their political narrative than on their generalship.

[Tommy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it. A good primer for starting a study of the Roman Army. It touched on a very large swath of information on the institution and showed its evolution over the years. I did not like that it got repetitive at times and that the writing style did not have a very even flow. However, this will prove to be a useful reference work in the future for obtaining information about the Romans.

[Bonnie_blu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this is a better-than-average review of the Roman army, once again, an author who is a supposed expert on ancient Rome perpetuates the (long disproven) contention that Caesar burned the Alexandrian Library. This kind of error lessens the overall worth of the book.

[Honistie]

I am reading this as I get free time. This is giving me some good information. Cannot wait to read more.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was great, it helped me a lot with my understanding of the Army