Encyclopedia of the Uniforms of the Roman World...

[Condottiero Magno]

An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Uniforms of the Roman World: A detailed study of the armies of Rome and their enemies, including the Etruscans,...Gauls, Huns, Sassaids, Persians and Turks

This is a detailed study of the armies of Rome and their enemies, including the Etruscans, Samnites, Carthaginians, Celts, Macedonians, Gauls, Huns, Sassanids, Persians and Turks. It is an incredible visual reference of the fighting men of Rome and their enemies, from the earliest settlement on the River Tiber in the 8th century BC to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. It offers a concise and authoritative overview of the rise of the Roman Empire, its campaigns, conquests and tactics, with detailed information on the men at arms. It includes coverage of the Roman navy and sea battles, as well as the artillery pieces, siege engines, defenses and military structures built by the army - from the north-west reaches of the empire to the far east. It is illustrated with over 670 images of military dress, weapons, galleys, ballistas and fortifications. This book details the uniforms of the Roman army and its enemies, from the first decades of tribal warfare in Italy, through the republican and imperial periods, up to the end of the eastern Roman Empire. It includes expert insight into the army's astonishing engineering feats, the discipline of the legions and the relentless expansion of the empire. Including information on the arms and clothing of the Carthaginians, Persians, Huns and Turks and other enemies of Rome, the book is a definitive and accessible visual study of the military dress of the period. There is also a fascinating history of the Roman's artillery, siege engines and fortifications, and a special section on the founding and expansion of its navy.

Anyone know anything about this forthcoming book? Assuming Mr. Kiley's the editor, who else has contributed to the work?

[Narukami]

First time I've heard about it -- Thanks for the alert.

Perhaps Graham Sumner knows something about this or the author ... ?


:?

Narukami

[Longovicium]

Looks very exciting and thanks for the heads-up! The reviews of one of their other books is a little mixed so it will be interesting to see how detailed and correct this is!

http://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Encycl...im_sbs_b_3

[Graham Sumner]

Hi

I spotted this too a few weeks ago but other than that I have no other information and sadly no I wasn't asked to contribute.

As Francis said reviews of previous volumes in the series appear mixed and one of the main criticisms is that the subjects are derivative if not almost virtual copies of artwork chiefly from Osprey books. Another criticism is that the artworks are not all done by the same artist so the quality is mixed.

Just from the front cover I can spot a figure based on one of my artworks from the Osprey Roman Naval Forces book and a Cornicen looking very like a Peter Connolly illustration.

However it would be foolish to judge a book by it's cover and I will doubtless add it to my collection.

Graham.

[John W Davison]

I spotted this a while back and had been wondering about it. It reminded me of the Wargames Research Group books of the 1980s, but with colour plates.

Mr Kiley is the actual author, as he mentions himself in the "comments" to a review of another title:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R1DP4DDYA...hisHelpful

He is a retired USMC artillery officer and now a history teacher as well as an author.

The reviews of this series are a little mixed, although it must be said, favourable on balance.

I have some interest in the 1660-1815 period, but very much secondary to the ancient & early medieval periods and not especially on the uniforms, so I am simply not sufficiently knowledgeable to say whether the criticisms are justified. However, the books are quite modestly priced and are very richly illustrated, so I am happy to invest the price to acquire the Romans (and others) volume.

I suppose my nagging doubt about the series format is how they can pack in so much for under £20, and one might think that this necessitates reliance on some use of secondary sources, and there has certainly been some, shall we say, polemic in the Amazon "comments" section on this area, so I will be interested to see inside this volume and make an informed judgement myself.

I recently acquired two volumes (Napoleonic & US Independence War) which are authored by Digby Smith, who used to write under the name of Otto von Pivka. He is a prolific and long-time author, certainly in Napoleonic uniforms, and my perception is that he is a highly respected writer, and his authorship indicative that the general quality levels of the series are high.

Regarding the Roman volume, Jeremy Black is listed as the consultant. I am not sure if this means series editor. Jermey Black is a very distinguished historian indeed, and has had a prolific output over the years, but I tend to associate him with more modern work, anything from 1500 up to the World Wars, e.g. the volumes in the Routledge "Warfare & History" series dealing with European Warfare 1494-1660, 1660-1815 and a book on the emergence of Britain as a "Great Power", 1688-1815 (i.e. when we got a Dutch king), so as far as I know, ancient history would be a new area for him. Mr Kiley himself states his main interest to be the 1792-1815 period (although I think he has also done work on the US Independence War), so it will be interesting to see the results of his efforts in this near area.

I look forward to seeing the views of other forum members once the book appears!

[arklore70]

I've added it to my wishlist and will see what happens on the reviews, but the cover appears to have more than a few inacuracies to include the centurion wearing a belt more for a milites.

If there is evidence of centurions wearing a balteus with aprons straps please let me know as it would make my personal load a bit lighter.

[Graham Sumner]

My copy finally arrived today so this is just a first impression.

The book is very attractive, packed with illustrations and photographs. Many of the photographs will probably be familiar and a lot of use is made of Victorian paintings.

For those of you like myself who may have been looking for some new research in particular with regard to clothing, the book will be a huge disappointment. Almost all of the re-constructions are derived from Osprey books or artwork by Peter Connolly. For example all of the naval troops are copied from the Osprey book on Roman Naval Forces. Similarly the late Roman-Byzantine troops are clearly all based on the books by Timothy Dawson.

It is easy to spot the artworks based on paintings by Angus McBride. It is almost fair to say that they are McBride paintings brought to life if that is the correct way to describe them. Some are so similar to the original Osprey artwork one could wonder if it even raises issues of copyright!

Three illustrators have been used all using computer generated images and the standard varies. The better ones look like exceptional paintings while the others look like photographs of modern people with varied quality of kit pasted onto them. I recognise some familiar faces including Paul Karremans twice and even the model from one of the Indian armour catalogues.

Seeing my own artwork given this treatment is a bizarre experience but I suppose imitation is a form of flattery as they say.

What is sadly a major disappointment is that there is no bibliography but basically as I have said the artworks all derive from Osprey's Roman books or Peter Connolly's 'Greece and Rome at War'.

Therefore one can only say at this moment in time without reading the text that if you do not have any Osprey Roman books then this book will save you a lot of money.

Graham.

[mcbishop]

Seeing my own artwork given this treatment is a bizarre experience but I suppose imitation is a form of flattery as they say.

A feeling I got used to with various books that did the same with my artwork from B&C. C'est la vie.

Mike Bishop

[Longovicium]

Thanks for the feedback, Graham. I will give it miss, I think.

[Flavivs Aetivs]

sounds interesting, I only have one osprey book so i might order it.

[Narukami]

I will wait for this book to go on "Clearance" and perhaps pick it up at a deep discount. Clearly I can afford to wait.

:wink:

Narukami

[Graham Sumner]

Evan wrote:
sounds interesting, I only have one osprey book so i might order it.

Indeed, there are an impressive 600 commissioned figurative artworks. However I cannot tell you who the best artist is of the three, as none of the individual artists are credited alongside their work! The one I like most has produced work which is probably the best I have seen in this field. As I said previously they look more painterly rather than photoshopped photos, which some of the others tend to do.

If you like many of the Victorian images you wont know get to know who painted them either as no names are given but you should all recognise Alma-Tadema by now. They appear to have come from the Bridgeman Art Library so you would have to check their to find out who did the paintings. Sadly as there is a collection here of older scenes and re-constructions it misses out those of Coussin and Forestier which would have been of interest to compare with the modern re-constructions.

Each figure has a caption but they do not appear to have any references to what the individual pieces of equipment are based on. Somehow I myself have never been able to get away with that from an editor!

Another point is that there seems to be a lot of left handed Romans, as many shields are carried in the right hand! In addition some items of equipment are out of scale.

There is a section on Artillery which does not appear to give a make over to the artwork in Duncan Campbell's books but some of the ships in the naval section look suspiciously like those in 'Warfare in the Classical world'!

Equally a couple of shields shown in section appear to be straight copies of some from Connolly's 'The Roman Army'.

Graham.

[John W Davison]

Beyond the figures already mentioned as recognisable from Osprey and Peter Connolly, there are one or two others which jump out as noteworthy.

On page 188, Constantine's sword looks a little surprising, but it is in fact based on the 1998 statue in York (this figure is captioned):

http://www.yorkcivictrust.co.uk/?idno=708

In the statue, the sword handle has been deliberately made to look like a cross, so is artistic licence, and while the sculptor did some research, the statue is intended to be a piece of civic art and not a didactic reconstruction of a Roman emperor in military dress so it seems an odd basis for the plate.

Vercingetorix on page 115 is based on the Napoleon III-era statue at Alise-Sainte-Reine, which explains his cuirass:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alise-Sainte-Reine

The statue is intended to be...etc.

(At this point I checked the index, but the Hermannsdenkmal hasn't made it in as a figure plate!)

I think there is also some material recognisable from the rather nice "Roman Army: Wars of the Empire" (part of a series which I think ended before its time, sadly).

It only cost me £14.14 including postage so I can't complain about the cost, but I think I'll still be holding on firmly to my Osprey books!

[Kai]

I got the book for 19 Euro, and it to make a long story short: it is a lot bang for the buck.

However, it works as an art-book, not as an encyclopedia, because there are so many factual errors and, especially for late antiquity, extremely outdated views on the Roman army. Also a big lot of captions are plain wrong. The archer instructor from 476 on p.152 wears perfect 3rd century outfit and gear, but would be totally wrong for 476 e.g.

The artworks themselves are, as noted already, simply based on other artworks with absolutely no independent research going into them. They are all slavishly copied in terms of equipment, clothing etc. As such, they are as good or bad as their basis.

On the positive side one has to acknowledge how many of these artworks are presented in the book. And quite a lot of them are darn nice to look at. It is a pleasure to browse through the pages, and thereby browsing through Roman military history.

So in the end, while I strongly advise against using it for research of any kind, it is good eye-candy for very little money, although I often prefer the originals. (Not always though: I cannot stand the fantasy style of Christos Giannopoulos and therefore I am glad his figures are more realistically drawn).
I think this book is going to make a fine gift for children, or maybe people mildly interested in Roman military history.

[Robert Vermaat]

I got the book for 19 Euro, and it to make a long story short: it is a lot bang for the buck.
However, it works as an art-book, not as an encyclopedia, because there are so many factual errors and, especially for late antiquity, extremely outdated views on the Roman army. Also a big lot of captions are plain wrong. The archer instructor from 476 on p.152 wears perfect 3rd century outfit and gear, but would be totally wrong for 476 e.g.

OK, so not for me then.