Caesar's Legions: The Roman Soldier 753 BC to 117 AD

by Nicholas Sekunda, Simon Northwood, Michael Simkins

This book combines Men-at-Arns 283: ‘Early Roman Armies’, Men-at-Arms 291: ‘Republican Roman Army 200-104 BC’ and Men-at-Arms 46 ‘The Roman Army from Caesar to Trajan’. Rome held dominion over a huge swathe of territory and peoples by the 1st century AD, covering Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Yet the delivery, maintenance and administration of such power and riches were founded upon one thing alone – the military might of her army.

Genres: History

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Dr. Nicholas Victor Sekunda was born in 1953. After studying Ancient History and Archaeology at Manchester University, he went on to take his Ph.D. in 1981. He has taken part in archaeological excavations in Poland, Iran and Greece, participated in a research project on ancient Persian warfare for the British institute of Persian Studies. He has published numerous books and academic articles, and is currently he is Head of the Department of Mediterranean Archaeology at Gdansk University, Poland, and is co-director of excavations at Negotino, Republic of Macedonia.

Reviews

[Billy · Rating 4 out of 5]

An Osprey book focusing on the men, tactics and equipment of the Roman army from its earliest days until Trajan's reign in the Imperial period. Be forewarned, despite the title, the book really is not about the legion or by implication of the use of "Caesar" the Empire.

As with all Osprey books, the writing is concise and the book is lavishly illustrated. However, given the heavy focus on describing the intricacies of swords, javelins, spears and armor, the book would have been well served with an initial description of the parts therein. Also, there are no diagrams of how a hoplite formation would have deployed in phalanx or how the manipular system was deployed in its trademark checkerboard fashion (though it is heavily, if somewhat confusingly discussed). This is one of the cases where a picture would have been worth a thousand words, even if it meant sacrificing one of the photos of a badly eroded grave stelae.

If you're interested in the place where archaelogy. literature and history met with regards to the Roman army, this might be a good starting place.

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative. Interesting to watch the birth and development/adaptation of the Roman army.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Roman Empire changed over time as did the military legions serving it. Here is an evaluation of the makeup, equipment, and tactics of the legions under the caesars of Rome.