Get Hold Of The Late Roman Army Illustrated By Patricia Southern Accessible In Readable Copy

wealth of details on the Imperial army in the twilight of the empire Extremely detailed and well referenced, more academic than populist in style, Most, if not all, depictions of roman soldiers tend to stick to Laminar armor, it is highly recognizable, has an exotic and yet industrious and uniform feel to it that instantly puts people in the right mindset.
This is the Roman Legion,

However this was the Roman legion from the age of princeps augustus until roughly the age of chaos that was theth century, Few and far in between are the depictions of the earlier and later Roman military equipment, For the earlier form I would point to HBO series Rome sitelink youtube. com/watchvJMYl for a later roman army I point to a graphic novel series by Ken Broeders about the enigmatic and spiritual emperor Julian the apostate sitelink wikipedia. org/wiki/Apostatav whose excellent work and beautiful art provided a nice checklist for things discussed in this book,

Talking about every subject in this book would not do it justice Pat and Karen did an excellent job of dissecting every aspect of the late Roman army, recruitment, training, weapons, siege warfare, military engineering and makes sure to link it to the political, societal and economic context of the times.
In particular the chapter on the morale of the army is worthwhile endeavor to reflect upon, They use a wide array of sources from the literary to art to archaeological remains and provide more then adequate pictures, drawings and schematics to visualize it all.
What I liked in particular is that they don't stop with the fall of Rome in theth century, theth century Justinian is presented as the last true Roman emperor and I agree.
Sure maybe a few succors of him might still have looked beyond what was fast becoming the Byzantine focus the eastern Mediterranean but in effect Justinian was the last Emperor who had the ambition and perhaps the means of the Roman empire as redesigned by emperors Severus, Diocletian and Constantine all of whose reforms and impact is analyzed.
What I found useful, was the usage of Justinian records and remains to help bridge the gaps in theth century, what did the Justinian forces do

and were capable of engineering and tools wise, thus what had survived the chaos of theth century.


Although non scholars might not find this an easy book to read the setup is for further research and that is why my somewhat lackluster score.
It is an impressive piece of scholarly research but I do have look at reading enjoy ability and on that front it does not hit the mark.
Nevertheless I do recommend the book for anyone interested in the time period be it for academic or mere fascination reasons, I would not be surprised that Ken Broeders might have used this book to help depict the Roman army in his masterful series, I cant imagine how else he would have known about the dragon head standard with the flowing tails used by the later Roman Army.
At the times I thought it to be a little fantastical flavor element but I was wrong,

I might be tempted to purchase the book for my personal collection as it feels I can get more out of it then I have now.
Might push this review to a fourth star if I do, From the reign of Septimius Severus at the end of the second century A, D. , the Roman Empire was continuously beset by internal unrest, revolts, usurpations, civil wars, and attacks along its farflung frontiers, Scarcely a part of the empire was unaffected, and some areas were forced to deal with several serious problems at the same time, This book is the first comprehensive discussion of the Roman army during this period, and it shows how the army adapted itself to meet these growing threats and how effective it was in combating them.
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