Hi,
It's my birthday in a months time (December 4th) and I've been thinking about getting The Complete Roman army, I've heard people say it's excellent is it? I've never read any of Goldsworthy's books before so I can't really gauge whether I'd like it on that, so, would you recommend it?
I thought the book would be much more detailed than I found it when I bought it. Nice read and general information IMHO.
So do you think it's worth the money?
Dave, in my opinion it is a very good overall introduction to the subject. The drawings and pictures (especially of the equipment) should have been better, though. If you don`t have Peter Connolly`s "Greece and Rome at War" you should buy that first. It has superior illustrations!
Thanks for that Jyrki, I'll have a look for It
It's a nicely produced book, well illustrated with original photographs and the text is sound. (It could probably have done with more than one map, though: the attempt to show the growth of the Roman empire over 400 years on a single map is not really successful.)
It has been criticised for lack of references, but there is a large "Further Reading" section at the back. Equally, it can be criticised on details -- e.g. from my own field of siege warfare: on p.93, he states that the earthworks at Woden Law are Roman siege lines, but this is no longer thought likely; and the diorama of Masada on pp.190-191 has the Roman camps/forts all the wrong shapes, for some reason.
But if you have no other book about the Roman army, then I'd recommend this one.
Well at the minute I have
In The Name Of Rome The Men Who Won The Roman Empire and
The Roman War Machine the first of which mainly focuses on the generals and the second is more light reading. But now i'm pretty set on getting
The Complete Roman Army and
Greece And Rome At War Do you think this wise?
They are both books worth buying! Goldsworthy`s book gives a nice overall picture of the roman army. Connolly`s book gives also this but is bigger in size and beautifully illustrated. Of course the scope of Peter Connolly`s book is more wide, including for example Hannibal`s, celtic, samnite and etruscan armies!
...and, Connolly's Book is available in many different languages, I picked up a Russian language version, just because it was there.
Cheers everyone! Only 29 days to go!
Hi Dave!
I have ordered many "used" books from amazon.co.uk. You can have good quality books with a good price and it has always worked well for me! One good general introduction to ancient warfare is also John Warry`s "Warfare in the Classical World". It has many superb illustrations for example of triremes siege, towers, warriors, weapons etc. There is also a smaller version of this book without the pictures, so make sure it is the illustrated version!
I'm spoilt for choice :!: