Late Roman Reading list for Beginner

[Anonymous]

Whilst this Period will always come second to my beloved 18th Cent....I've decided to actually buy some books instead of just using the Library!!..Main interests, 4/5th cent Western Empire, "Nitty-Gritty" details of Personal Dress/Weapons....To Start with I'm considering 5 Osprey "Warriors"<br>
Late Roman Infantry<br>
" " Cavalry<br>
Germanic Warrior<br>
Pictish Warrior<br>
Anglo/Saxon Thegn<br>
I'm Fully aware of Osprey's Variable Quality & Would appreciate any comments/suggestions.<br>
Steve<br>
<p></p><i></i>

[Guest]

Salve,<br>
<br>
See this earlier thread for reviews of some of those titles.<br>
<br>
Regards,<br>
<br>
Sander van Dorst <p></p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

Thanks, Sound worth getting now I know the Drawbacks...<br>
Steve <p></p><i></i>

[aitor iriarte]

Hi Steve,<br>
<br>
I agree with Sander about the tex but I would warn you to take the colour plates (often the most ostensible and attractive part of an Osprey book) with some caution. Clothes, arms and armour (specially helmets) are rather freely reconstructed, to say the least.<br>
<br>
Aitor <p></p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

You may also want to check out Hugh Elton's "Warfare in Roman Europe, AD325-425". Not a huge amount of nitty-gritty, but very useful for the bigger picture. I like his analysis of the demise of Western Empire. <p></p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

For Late Roman fiction I found Eagle In The Snow by Wallace Breem to be a good read. Captures the whole late roman backpeddaling to save the empire feel pretty well. It used to be hard to find, but it had been reprinted lately so it's on Amazon.com now.<br>
<br>
Caius Livius Varus Germanicus<br>
COH.III.BRIT.EQ<br>
<p>================<br>
"Self-Pity"<br>
I never saw a wild thing<br>
sorry for itself.<br>
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough<br>
without ever having felt sorry for itself.<br>
<br>
D. H. Lawrence<br>
<br>
</p><i></i>

[Robert Vermaat]

Eagle in the Snow is not really Late Roman fiction. Sure, the story is set between 360-410, but the setting could equally have been the 3rd century or even earlier.<br>
Although it was a good read, the outcome is known and therefore not really surprising.<br>
But I found it disappointing that this novel, again, portrayed the Late Roman army in a totally wrong guise. You get the legions, the cohorts, the gladius and the pilum. No comitatenses, spatha, plumbata, etc. Sure, the names and places are early 5th century, but even there the author seems to have missed a lot of information. True, he did read a lot of books (judging from his bibliography), but too bad he did not read a book written after 1969!<br>
<br>
Valete,<br>
Valerius/Robert <p></p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

Has Sander or one of the other scholars over here done a similar review of McDowall's <em>Germanic Warrior</em>? I'd be curious to know how it compared. (It seems the Adrianople book won't be available until September, as it goes through re-printing; maybe I can find it used.) But anyway, I have the 3 McDowall Warrior Series books on the late Roman period and I appreciated the review as well. It sounds like you think that he got the basics right, while some of the details were a little off. Did I get the right impression? Was this equally true of the Germanic Warrior title?<br>
<br>
Aaron. <p></p><i></i>

[Vincula]

Quote:</em></strong><hr>too bad he did not read a book written after 1969.<hr><br>
<em>Eagle in the Snow</em> was written in 1970! 'nuff said? <p></p><i></i>

[Robert Vermaat]

My mistake, I thought it was new! I must have mistaken the date of the reprint for the original...<br>
<br>
1970? that explains a LOT!<br>
<br>
Valete,<br>
Valerius/Robert <p></p><i></i>