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Europa Militaria Special #2
The Roman Legions Recreated In Color Photographs
In this book, for the first time, the 500-year story of the evolution of the Roman legionary, his armor and equipment is told in vivid color photographs of museum-quality reconstructions. The Roman soldier is reconstructed by actors authentically armored and equipped. Europa Militaria Special 2.
- GenresNonfictionHistory
96 pages, Paperback
First published February 28, 1992
12 people want to read
About the author
Daniel Peterson
105 books3 followersDaniel C. Peterson is a prominent Mormon apologist and professor of Islamic Studies and Arabic in the Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages at Brigham Young University (BYU). He also currently serves as editor-in-chief of BYU's Middle Eastern Texts Initiative. He is a former member of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at BYU. The institute released Peterson in June of 2012. Peterson is the first and current editor of Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 23, 2009
Interested in what the Roman military looked like? Kind of an obscure issue. However, I got hooked on the concept and ordered the book. I'm glad that I did, although it's certainly not something I would have thought of picking up.
The purpose of the book is straightforward (Page 4): "This small book is the first attempt to make a fairly comprehensive examination of the development of the Roman legionary solely through the employment of actual full scale reconstructions." The first thing we find is a basic chronology of the Roman Republic and the Empire, giving the reader a sense of what happened when.
The first substantive section is entitled "Legionaries," and provides us a sense of what the Roman military was like--and how it evolved early on, in terms of the "foot soldiers" themselves. The early forces featured several classes, with the better born, the first class, armed in the style of the Greek hoplites and the fifth class equipped with slings (very lightly armed and without armor, as far as I can tell). There is a photo of one of the "re-enactors" in the first class garb on page 7. The use of these re-enactors makes this a most interesting volume, as the reader can get a visual sense of exactly what Roman forces looked like and how they were armed.
Thereafter, brief sections examine Imperial Legionaries (under Augustus), swords (the famous gladius) and daggers, helmets, centurions, and so on. One of my favorite sections is "Legionary Cavalry" (pages 78-83). As the book notes (page 78): ". . .service in the cavalry was the prerogative of the Roman upper class. . . ." The pages with photographs of cavalry re-enactors is fascinating.
On page 90, we learn that there are a number of re-enactor groups, trying, through trial and error and re-enactment of troop movements, to better establish how the Roman military functioned and what their gear was like.
So, a quirky book--but absolutely intriguing! If Roman history and its military has any interest for a reader, then this could be a useful resource for you.
The purpose of the book is straightforward (Page 4): "This small book is the first attempt to make a fairly comprehensive examination of the development of the Roman legionary solely through the employment of actual full scale reconstructions." The first thing we find is a basic chronology of the Roman Republic and the Empire, giving the reader a sense of what happened when.
The first substantive section is entitled "Legionaries," and provides us a sense of what the Roman military was like--and how it evolved early on, in terms of the "foot soldiers" themselves. The early forces featured several classes, with the better born, the first class, armed in the style of the Greek hoplites and the fifth class equipped with slings (very lightly armed and without armor, as far as I can tell). There is a photo of one of the "re-enactors" in the first class garb on page 7. The use of these re-enactors makes this a most interesting volume, as the reader can get a visual sense of exactly what Roman forces looked like and how they were armed.
Thereafter, brief sections examine Imperial Legionaries (under Augustus), swords (the famous gladius) and daggers, helmets, centurions, and so on. One of my favorite sections is "Legionary Cavalry" (pages 78-83). As the book notes (page 78): ". . .service in the cavalry was the prerogative of the Roman upper class. . . ." The pages with photographs of cavalry re-enactors is fascinating.
On page 90, we learn that there are a number of re-enactor groups, trying, through trial and error and re-enactment of troop movements, to better establish how the Roman military functioned and what their gear was like.
So, a quirky book--but absolutely intriguing! If Roman history and its military has any interest for a reader, then this could be a useful resource for you.
March 16, 2010
One of my interests for awhile has been Roman legionaries; part of this is from reading Under the Eagle: A Tale of Military Adventure and Reckless Heroism with the Roman Legions, part of this is from painting some 28mm Roman legionaries from Warlord Games. After looking over several different books showing Roman legionaries, I decided to get this book. I'll open by saying Wow. For wargamers, modelers, or re-enacters this is a must have. While the text is light, the photos are outstanding (each of the photos have a nice textual description but there's only a page or two on each of the subject matters. I'd love to have had a more complete description of Roman legions.). Many details are brought out in greater detail than drawings can often bring out. While the pictures are of re-enactors, these re-enactors have done good research on their uniforms and done the best job possible recreating their kits. For me this is 4.5 star book only because the text is a little thinner than I'd have liked and because the section on auxila was a little thin but rises to five stars for what I need it for, painting legionaries.
January 16, 2021
A detail photographic look at the equipment of the Roman legions as we created by the various Roman military reconstruction groups. If you want an idea about how the average Roman soldier was outfitted this would be your book. Recommended.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews