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The Indispensable booklist
#1
The question comes up regularly: which books do I need to read/have/look at/drool over...
I suggest we use this thread to come up with a list of all those books. It will remain at the top of the References & Reviews forum and will be continually updated with suggestions further on in the list. For those books that cannot be found on Amazon, I recommend [url:2brylu62]http://www.addall.com/used[/url]. For the Amazon links, try the various country sites as they do not always carry the same books!

General
Connolly, Peter, [amazon]Greece and Rome at War[/amazon]
Warry, John, [amazon]Warfare in the classical world[/amazon]

Roman Army
Bohec, Yann Le, Les légions de Rome sous le Haut-Empire (2000 Lyon)
Goldsworthy, Adrian, [amazon]The Roman Army at War[/amazon] ()
Goldsworthy, Adrian, [amazon]The Complete Roman Army[/amazon]
Goldsworthy, Adrian, [amazon]In the Name of Rome[/amazon]
Junkelmann, Marcus, [amazon]Die Legionen des Augustus[/amazon] (Mainz 1986).
Junkelmann, Marcus, [amazon]Die Reiter Roms[/amazon], 3 vols. (Mainz 1990-2).
Keppie, Lawrence, [amazon]The Making of the Roman Army[/amazon]
Luttwak, Edward, [amazon]Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire[/amazon]

Roman Navy
Baatz, D. u. R. BOCKIUS, Vegetius und die römische Flotte (Bonn 1997).
Casson, Lionel, [amazon]Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World[/amazon] (Baltimore/London 1985).
Haywood, John, Dark Age Naval Power, A Reassessment of Frankish and Anglo-saxon Seafearing Activity (Anglo-Saxon Books, repr. 1999)
Kienast, Dietmar, Untersuchungen zu den Kriegsflotten der römischen Kaiserzeit (Bonn 1968)
Konen, H.C., [amazon]Classis Germanica[/amazon] (St.Katharinen 2000)
Mason, D.J.P., [amazon]Roman Britain and the Roman Navy[/amazon] (2003)
Starr, Chester, [amazon]The Roman Imperial Navy[/amazon] (3rd ed, Chicago 1963)
Viereck, H., [amazon]Die Römische Flotte[/amazon] (Herford 1975)

Late Antiquity
Elton, Hugh, [amazon]Warfare in Roman Europe AD 350-425[/amazon] (Oxford 1996).
Hoffmann, Dietrich, Das Spätrömische Bewegungsheer und die Notitia Dignitatum, 2 vols., Epigraphische Studien 1, (Bonn 1969).
Nicasie, Martijn, [amazon]Twilight of Empire, the Roman Army from the Reign of Diocletian until the Battle of Adrianople[/amazon] (Amsterdam 1997).
Greets!

Jasper Oorthuys
Webmaster & Editor, Ancient Warfare magazine
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#2
About the Roman army, the book I have used most often in the last year is Yann Le Bohec, Les légions de Rome sous le Haut-Empire (2000 Lyon). For me the two volumes are indispensable. I add Der Neue Pauly. But I think that not many people have my taste for books.

I do think, however, that everyone should read Lawrence Keppie's excellent book .The Making of the Roman Army [amazon]The Making of the Roman Army: From Republic to Empire[/amazon]
Jona Lendering
Relevance is the enemy of history
My website
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#3
In the Late Antiquity, I will add "The fall of the Roman Empire", Peter Heather. [amazon]0195159543[/amazon]
[Image: gaudentius.gif]

Magister Equitum Gaudentius :wink: <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt=":wink:" title="Wink" />:wink:

Valerius/Jorge
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#4
Should HR Robinson and Bishop and Coulston be included?
Felix Wang
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#5
Very good book is L. Casson's The Ancient Mariners (second edition) (US) (UK). General informations on seafarers and sea fighters in ancient times, well writen, easy reading.

More detailed is the above mentioned Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient world by the same author, with many technical details, good scholarship.

I consider both books as a must for anyone interested in naval history.
Martin
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#6
Quote:which books do I need to read/have/look at/drool over...

It's amazing how few "must-have" Roman army books there are, Jasper.

Of course, Connolly goes without saying.
And if Goldsworthy's Complete Roman Army were properly annotated, I'd have no hesitation about recommending it, but I personally prefer his The Roman Army at War.

One of my favourites is G.R. Watson's The Roman Soldier (1969). I love the way he quotes his sources; you will often find a complete Latin inscription quoted in the notes. Excellent![amazon]0801493129[/amazon]
posted by Duncan B Campbell
https://ninth-legion.blogspot.com/
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#7
I would have to add G.L. Cheesman's The Roman Auxilia (Oxford 1914) - a genuine tour de force that (in my opinion at least) has yet to be bettered. It may be out-of-date, but good scholarship (like fine wine) lasts. A year later he was killed at Gallipoli. Incidentally, this is out of copyright now (by definition, if he was killed in 1915) so why is there no digital edition on the web? A future project for Romanarmy.com, possibly?

Likewise, if you have to read only one excavation report on a Roman fort, it should be James Curle's A Roman Frontier Post and its People (Glasgow 1911), now available on the web. It has never been bettered and most modern reports are turgid wastes of dead trees in comparison. The man was a polymath who wore his learning lightly and one of the unsung Great Names in Romano-British archaeology.

Mike Bishop
You know my method. It is founded upon the observance of trifles

Blogging, tweeting, and mapping Hadrian\'s Wall... because it\'s there
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#8
Quote:Likewise, if you have to read only one excavation report on a Roman fort, it should be James Curle's A Roman Frontier Post and its People (Glasgow 1911), now available on the web.

the correct URL is

http://www.curlesnewstead.org.uk/
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#9
Quote:Incidentally, this is out of copyright now (by definition, if he was killed in 1915) so why is there no digital edition on the web?

Yes, I've been thinking about this before. I am quite busy right now, but perhaps in the future...

Alexandr
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#10
Hello!

Do you know this? Adrian Goldsworthy, "In the name of Rome. The man who Won the Roman Empire", Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 2003. I enjoyed it. [amazon]0753817896[/amazon]

Do you know the Osprey's serie "Rome's enemies? [amazon]Rome's Enemies[/amazon] What do you think about?

Bye-bye.
I\'\'m sorry. It\'\'s very hard for me to write in English.

Nino Parrilla.
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#11
Hi All,

I would add H M D Parker's Roman Legions [amazon]0880298545[/amazon] (with caveats) and Campbell's The Roman Army - A Source Book and Kate Gilliver's The Roman Art of War[amazon]Kate Gilliver[/amazon].

And as a further claim to primary sources I would suggest [amazon]Vegetius[/amazon], [amazon]Polyaenus[/amazon] and [amazon]Frontinus[/amazon]!!

Cheers

Murray
Murray K Dahm

Moderator

\'\'\'\'No matter how many you kill, you cannot kill your successor\'\'\'\' - Seneca to Nero - Dio 62

\'\'\'\'There is no way of correcting wrongdoing in those who think that the height of virtue consists in the execution of their will\'\'\'\' - Ammianus Marcellinus 27.7.9
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#12
Hi all, and hi, Muzzaguchi.

As primary source I like [amazon]Tacitus[/amazon], "Germania", "Iulius Agricola" and (sorry, I don't know the English translation) "Anales" and "Historias". They are very good books, with nosenses, but good.

Cheers.
I\'\'m sorry. It\'\'s very hard for me to write in English.

Nino Parrilla.
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#13
I'm always referring to the series of Roman military Diploma books by Margaret Roxan and Paul Holder.

also I wouldn't be without Cheesman The Auxilia of the Roman Army. Oxford University Press

or Spaul, J. 2000. Cohors2: The evidence for and a short history of the auxiliary infantry units of the Roman Imperial Army. BAR international series 841

or Michael Spiedel "Die Denkmäler de kaisereiter"

Regards,
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#14
I'd offer up the obvious, or not so obvious, choices of Julius Caesar's The Civil War, Josephus' The Jewish War and selected portions of Polybius' The Rise of the Roman Republic.

They are especially rewarding reads for individuals who've had experience as NCOs or officers who'll be able to pick out some long-standing principles of military organization and leadership still applicable today but might not be readily obvious.
Frank
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#15
Yann Le Bohec, The Imperial Roman Army (US) (UK)


This great book is also available in english.
Martin
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