Shields Up... Hold the Line!: Two New Books arrive!

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Two New Books arrive!

First one is the brand new encyclopedia of "The Uniforms of the Roman World". The book is a hands-down "best of" book for the Roman army and was just published this month. I highly recommend it as the illustrations are top-notch and the book covers the vast time span of the Roman Empire.

The second book is from the famed author Stephen Dando-Collins, titled "Legions of Rome: The Definitive History of Every Imperial Roman Legion". In the past, I've read several of his excellent books, like "Nero's Killing Machine: The True Story of Rome's Remarkable Fourteenth Legion" and "Caesar's Legion: The Epic Saga of Julius Caesar's Elite Tenth Legion and the Armies of Rome", and this one does not disappoint either. The book is mostly filled with great accounts of the key periods of the Roman Empire and the Legions, but does not contain as many illustrations as I'd hoped. There is a gloss-colored section in the middle that has some good pictures; including the highly controversial section on Scutum shield-art broken down by each of the Legions; many disagree with this unit-by-unit approach by him, but I enjoyed it.

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Roman Legions

A Roman Legion was an infantry unit consisting of heavily armed soldiers, equipped with shields, armor, helmets, spears and swords. In the early republic (circa 170 BC), the strength of a Legion was about 3,000 men; there were 4,800 Legionaries in a Legion in the days of Julius Caesar; the 28 Legions (about 185,000 soldiers) that defended the Roman Empire during the reign of Augustus counted more than 5,400 soldiers each (circa 10 AD). They were the backbone of the Roman army, supported by auxiliary troops, siege equipment and cavalry. Although in the third century, large cavalry units gradually superseded the Legions as Rome's most important force, many of the foot Legions remained well into the fourth and early fifth centuries.

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The birth of the Legion

By 390 BC, the organization of the Roman army was in need of change. Fighting in the Greek-style was proving increasingly outdated and inflexible, resulting in the severe Roman defeat and the sacking of Rome at the hands of the Gauls at the Battle of Allia (c. 387 BC). Following on from this catastrophe and in the next fifty years of warfare against Gallic and Italian tribes, a military revolution was born: the Roman Legion. This was a new unit of organization made up of three flexible lines of maniples consisting of troops of both heavy and light infantry. However, at the end of the 3rd century BC, Rome's prestige was shattered once more by the genius of Hannibal of Carthage, causing Roman battle tactics to be revised again. The legendary general Scipio Africanus achieved this, finally destroying the Carthaginian army at the climactic victory of Zama. A wholly new kind of soldier had been invented, and the whole Mediterranean world was now at Rome's feet. Later, Marius would improve the military greatly with his reforms around 150 BC. Finally, Augustus would make changes that would establish the Legion as the premier fighting unit of the Roman Empire; the army eventually became all-conquering and all-powerful.

Shields Up... Hold the Line!

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Two New Books arrive!

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The birth of the Legion

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