New Book - Romano-Byzantine Infantry Equipment!

[Virilis]

Salve bookworms!

I just ordered this book:

[amazon]Romano-Byzantine Infantry Equipment by I.P. Stephenson[/amazon]

Hope this will be good....

[FAVENTIANVS]

The link seems not to work. Please, ASAP guys have some cool images post'em please.

Comerus, are you thinking about turning to Late-Roman?

[Praefectusclassis]

Links for Amazon.com & UK work, the others do not seem to carry this book.

[FAVENTIANVS]

Great Comerus!!! I can't wait to see it!!

[Virilis]

This is the original link:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASI ... 61-3279659

I copy-pasted it to my original message but it mysteriously turned into an american amazon.com- link!? In amazon.co.uk there`s plenty of them to order!

Thank you Comerus for that Karma point, I`m not worthy :oops: ...
This is a quite good book: "The Late Roman Army" by Pat Southern and Karen Dixon. It has good b&w photos of the evolution of the late roman helmets, for example. It has also a drawing of that mysterious Dura Europos sassanian helmet....

Faventianus, this book was released 15th of January 2006, so let`s hope we`ll get some updated late-roman information at last (can`t wait :roll: )...

[Praefectusclassis]

That's not magic Jyrki, but board policy: all amazon links are edited with the amazon code ([ amazon ] & [/ amazon]) to provide amazon links for .com, .uk, .de and .ca. Yes, the code contains a Romanarmy reference so that if someone orders through that code, we get a very small kickback.

[Virilis]

Oops, sorry :oops: !

[Robert Vermaat]

The Southern/Dixon book is a 'must have' for all who start out in Late Roman re-enactment or just like to read about it. GHowever, it has had it's share of criticism.
Stephenson has had worse - his infantry book has been mauled as too fancyful. The cav book seems to have been even worse. Yet I am going to buy the new book (finally-it's been anounced two years ago!), if only to use his references and hope for some new material on plumbatae and such.

[Virilis]

Does anyone have that book "Roman Cavalry Equipment" By I.P. Stephenson & Karen Dixon? I have read some reviews of that book and they have not been very promising....

Is it true that this book also contains some colour plates of byzantine clibanarii/cataphracts?

[Caius Fabius]

I have it. It is better than I. P. Stephenson's other books in my library, even though, once again, the artwork is substandard. I think the book benefits from the addition of Karen Dixon and her knowledge. I am dissappointed in Stephenson's books, but buy them for the one or two items of interest that are accidentally included, usually in the bibliography.

[hoplite14gr]

Does the book give archeological proof of mail armour in the Byzantine armies. A forum member asked the question in the Greek thread.
I went to the byzantine museum in Athens but all the cool staff is locked in the store room as usual!
Kind regards

[Robert Vermaat]

I saw at the library a Brassey book by Dan & Susana Shardrake about Barbarian Warriors: Saxon, Vikings, Normans. but has some color & black & white picture & plates of Late roman, also modern roman helmets, but it is not much...

Actually, even thoughit was written some time ago, I think that Dan's book is still very worthwhile. Even today I sent some scans from it to two different people. It's very good on the Late Roman 'Arthurian' era, but also on Picts and Saxons.

BTW: Vorti I dont know wich one but , in one of the late roman forum, I dunno if was in the old one( from the one deleted by a stupid) by the or the new one, I saw some one who post some good picture of late roman archeological helmets , do you know what book was?

I'm not sure. Maybe the German book by Klumbach? It had pictures of the all the known (then, anyway) Late Roman helmets.[/quote]

[Robert Vermaat]

Thanks Gioi,

I can't wait.. At least he mentions plumbatae. But the artwork worries me!!!

[Virilis]

I have it and I have read it, quick impressions;

-Colour illustrations: even I could have made those and this is not good!
-Text; nothing really new, very cursory about the helmets & swords, the most interesting part of the book is the chapter "other armour", gorgets and greaves etc. It is difficult to understand for example the introduction of the sassanid sabres due to the absence of evidence in their usage in late roman/byzantine armies. The "revolutionary" part of the book is advertised to be the chapter "Infantry, cavalry and the shieldwall" and it shows the author`s knowledge about the anglo-saxon shields but I have not found nothing "revolutionary" yet...

Overall impression: a bit disappointing, it feels almost like a month`s summary of our forum`s opinions collected about late roman equipment. Valuable as it is, but hardly completely scientific. For example, author thinks that to have plumbatas attached behind the shield with leather straps is out of the question but never explains exactly why...

One more thing, colour pictures of the so called "early byzantine Karak helmet" begs for more contextual interpretation...

[Dan Howard]

Pity. Glad I held off buying it till someone did a review. Won't be wasting my money.