Roman Empire Books

 

Title: Arms and Armour of the Imperial Roman Soldier

Author: Graham Sumner

Publisher: Frontline Books

Price: £35.00

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: Roman Army

Category: Roman Empire

 

From the Latin warriors on the Palatine Hill in the age of Romulus, to the last defenders of Constantinople in 1453 AD, the weaponry of the Roman Army was constantly evolving. Through glory and defeat, the Roman warrior adapted to the changing face of warfare. Due to the immense size of the Roman Empire, which reached from the British Isles to the Arabian Gulf, the equipment of the Roman soldier varied greatly from region to region.Through the use of materials such as leather, linen and felt, the Army was able to adjust its equipment to these varied climates. Arms and Armour of the Imperial Roman Soldier sheds new light on the many different types of armour used by the Roman soldier, and combines written and artistic sources with the analysis of old and new archaeological finds. With a huge wealth of plates and illustrations, which include ancient paintings, mosaics, sculptures and coin depictions, this book gives the reader an unparalleled visual record of this fascinating period of military history.

 

Title: 428 AD

Author: Giusto Traina

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Price: £16.95

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: End of the Roman Empire

Category: Roman Empire

 

This is a sweeping tour of the Mediterranean world from the Atlantic to Persia during the last half-century of the Roman Empire. By focusing on a single year not overshadowed by an epochal event, 428 AD provides a truly fresh look at a civilization in the midst of enormous change--as Christianity takes hold in rural areas across the empire, as western Roman provinces fall away from those in the Byzantine east, and as power shifts from Rome to Constantinople. Retracing the kind of route a contemporary gazetteer might have taken, Giusto Traina describes the empire's people, places, and events in all their simultaneous richness and variety. The result is an original snapshot of a fraying Roman world on the edge of the medieval era. Readers meet many important figures, including the Roman general Flavius Dionysius as he encounters a delegation from Persia after the Sassanids annex Armenia; the Christian ascetic Simeon Stylites as he stands and preaches atop his column near Antioch; the eastern Roman emperor Theodosius II as he prepares to commission his legal code; and Genseric as he is elected king of the Vandals and begins to turn his people into a formidable power. We are also introduced to Pulcheria, the powerful sister of Theodosius, and Galla Placidia, the queen mother of the western empire, as well as Augustine, Pope Celestine I, and nine-year-old Roman emperor Valentinian III.

 

 

 

Title: Spartacus and the Slave War

Author: Nic Fields

Publisher: Osprey

Price: £14.99

Bookshop: Amazon

Website: Spartacus and the Slave Wars

Category: Military History

 

In the year 73 BC, Spartacus broke out of a gladiatorial training school and formed an army of runaway slaves and people with little to lose. This army defeated two Roman armies and attacked several cities. Terrified lest the revolt spread, the government in Rome assigned Crassus and Pompey to crush to rebellion. They cornered Spartacus and brought him to battle near the source of the river Silarus. During the battle, Spartacus was killed and his army defeated. Crassus crucified 6,000 prisoners as an example to others who might think of revolt. Written by Nic Fields and illustrated by Steven Noon, this campaign title brings to life the story of Rome's most famous revolt and the ex-gladiator who led it.

 

Title: Belisarius: The Last Roman General

Author: Ian Hughes

Publisher: Pen & Sword

Price: £25.00

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: The Romans

Category: Ancient World

 

A military history of the campaigns of Belisarius, the greatest general of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Emperor Justinian. He twice defeated the Persians and reconquered North Africa from the Vandals in a single year at the age of 29, before going on to regain Spain and Italy, including Rome (briefly), from the barbarians. It discusses the evolution from classical Roman to Byzantine armies and systems of warfare, as well as those of their chief enemies, the Persians, Goths and Vandals. It reassesses Belisarius' generalship and compares him with the likes of Caesar, Alexander and Hannibal. It will be illustrated with line drawings and battle plans as well as photographs.

 

 

 

Title: The Roman Army of the Principate

Author: Nic Fields

Publisher: Osprey

Price: £16.99

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: The Romans

Category: Ancient World

 

The Imperial Army established by Augustus drew heavily on the nomenclature and traditions of the late Roman Republic, but was revolutionary in its design. He decided to meet all the military needs of the Empire from a standing, professional army. Military service became a career: enlistment was for 25 years (16 in the Praetorian Guard), and men were sometimes retained even longer. The loyalty of the new army was to the emperor and not to either the Senate or the People of Rome. Imperial legions became permanent units with their own numbers and titles and many were to remain in existence for centuries to come.

 

 

Title: Warlords of Republican Rome

Author: Nic Fields

Publisher: Pen & Sword

Price: £19.99

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: Ancient World Websites

Category: Ancient World

 

The war between Caesar and Pompey was one of the defining moments in Roman history. The clash between these great generals gripped the attention of their contemporaries and it has fascinated historians ever since. These powerful men were among the dominant personalities of their age, and their struggle for supremacy divided Rome. In this original and perceptive study Nic Fields explores the complex, often brutal world of Roman politics and the lethal rivalry of Caesar and Pompey that grew out of it. He reconsiders them as individuals and politicians and, above all, as soldiers. His highly readable account of this contest for power gives a vivid insight into the rise and fall of two of the greatest warlords of the ancient world.

 

 

 

Title: Mithridates the Great

Author: Philip Matyszak

Publisher: Pen & Sword

Price: £19.99

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: Ancient World Websites

Category: Ancient World

 

A military biography of Mithridates VI `the Great' of Pontus, Rome's most persistent enemy. The Mithridiatic wars stretched over half a century and two continents, and have a fascinating cast of pirates, rebels, turncoats and poisoners (though an unfortunate lack of heroes with untarnished motives). There are pitched battles, epic sieges, double-crosses and world-class political conniving, assassinations and general treachery. Through it all, the story is built about the dominant character of Mithridates, connoisseur of poisons, arch-schemer and strategist; resilient in defeat, savage and vindictive in victory. Almost by definition, this book will break new ground, in that nothing has been written on Mithridates for the general public for almost half a century, though scholarly journals have been adding a steady trickle of new evidence, which is drawn upon here. Few enough leaders went to war with Rome and lived long to tell the tale, but in the first half of the first century BC, Mithridates did so three times. At the high point of his career his armies swept the Romans out of Asia Minor and Greece, reversing a century of Roman expansion in the region. Even once fortune had turned against him he would not submit. Upto the day he died, a fugitive drive to suicide by the treachery of his own son, he was still planning an overland invasion of Roman itself.

 

 

 

 

Title: Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town

Author: Mary Beard

Publisher: Profile

Price: £25.00

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: Ancient World Websites

Category: Ancient World

 

The headings of Mary Beard’s notes give a taste of this astonishing book: Bad Breath, Intestinal Parasites, Performing Monkeys, One-way Streets, Kosher Food, Water Shortages. The Temple of Isis serves to bring in multiculturalism. The House of the Menander tells how a house worked. At the Suburban Baths we go from communal bathing to hygiene to erotica. 154 writing tablets from the House of Caecilius Jucundus detail the accounts of its owner. A fast-food joint on the Via dell’ Abbondanza introduces food and drink and diets and street life. These are just a few of the strands that make up an extraordinary and involving portrait of an ancient town, its life and its continuing re-discovery, by Britain’s leading classicist.

 

 

 

Title: Hannibal's Last Battle

Author: Brian Todd Carey

Publisher: Pen & Sword

Price: £19.99

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: The Ancient World

Category: Ancient World

 

At Zama, in what is now Tunisia in 202 BC, the armies of two empires clashed. The Romans under Scipio Africanus won a bloody, decisive victory over Hannibal's Carthaginians. Scipio's victory signalled a shift in the balance of power in the ancient world. Brian Todd Carey's compelling reconstruction of the battle, and of the gruelling war that led up to it, gives a fascinating insight into the Carthaginian and Roman methods of waging war. And it offers a critical assessment of the contrasting qualities and leadership styles of Hannibal and Scipio, the two most celebrated commanders of their age.


 

Title: The Complete Pompeii

Author: Joanne Berry

Publisher: Thames & Hudson

Price: £24.95

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: Pompeii

Category: Ancient World

 

Pompeii is the best known and probably the most important archaeological site in the world. The drama of its destruction has been handed down to us by Roman writers, its paintings and mosaics have astonished visitors since their discovery in the 18th century, and its houses and public buildings to this day present a vivid picture of life, disaster and death in a Roman town. Yet, until now, there has been no up-to-date, authoritatative and comprehensive account for the general reader of its rise, fall and splendour. "The Complete Pompeii" fills that gap. With its lavish illustrations, numerous box features and reams of information, this book is the ultimate resource and inspirational guide to this magnificent ancient site, visited by millions each year.

 

 

 

Title: Boudica: Iron Age Warrior Queen

Author: Richard Hingley & Christina Unwin

Publisher: Continuum

Price: £12.99

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: Boudica

Category: Ancient World

 

 

Boudica, or Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, led a famous revolt against Roman rule in Britain in AD 60, sacking London, Colchester and St Albans and throwing the province into chaos. Although then defeated by the governor, Suetonius Paulinus, her rebellion sent a shock wave across the empire. Who was this woman who defied Rome? Boudica: Iron Age Warrior Queen is an account of what we know about the real woman, from classical literature, written for the consumption of readers in Rome, and from the archaeological evidence. It also traces her extraordinary posthumous career as the earliest famous woman in British history. Since the Renaissance she has been seen as harridan, patriot, freedom fighter and feminist, written about in plays and novels, painted and sculpted, and recruited to many causes. She remains a tragic, yet inspirational, figure of unending interest.

 

 

Title: Boudica's Last Stand

Author: John Waite

Publisher: Tempus

Price: £17.99

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: Boudica

Category: Ancient World

 

It is Britain, AD 60. Three Roman towns are in ashes and thousands lie dead. With her new allies, the Trinovantes and the Catuvellauni, Boudica and the Iceni march defiantly towards their enemy. They seek one last pivotal victory to drive the Romans from their land forever. Not far away the Roman governor, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus awaits them. His ground chosen, his strategy decided, his small force awaits the great native army. If his strategy is sound they will prevail, if not they will be massacred, losing the province forever. Is it really revenge Boudica wants for the vile humiliations the Romans heaped on her? Or is she playing for much higher stakes? And Paulinus, can he defeat the odds to win the day? To answer these questions, this book will re examine events from a fresh, tactical perspective and produce a clearer picture of a revolt crushed on a newly suggested battle site, offering a new interpretation of a battle that decided 2000 years of Britain's cultural heritage.

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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