National armies, as we know them today, are a comparatively recent development. It has been assumed that the Romans had an army similar to the national institutions of advanced, almost exclusively European, powers at the end of the nineteenth century. But the assumption was wrong as is the belief that changes seen in the armies can be explained because the Romans “reformed” their armies. Up to the death of Augustus, the Romans had no permanent military forces. Roman armies were raised for particular campaigns and disbanded at their conclusion. Repeated campaigns were conducted in places like northern Italy and Spain but the armies were always disbanded. These armies were not seen by Romans as part of a national institution as modern armies are; they were simply a part of the life of a Roman citizen, like religion or elections. These armies were more like a militia than a national army. There is little evidence even of systematic training and what changes can be detected can be better explained by contingent adaptation to circumstances rather than “reform”. The emperor Augustus is commonly seen as the originator of the imperial armies but it was an unintended outcome of a long life.

A collection in English translation of sources for the study of Greek and Roman history.

The founding of the Roman Principate was a time of great turmoil. This book brings together a set of important Latin inscriptions, including the recently discovered documents concerning the death of Germanicus and trial of Cn. Piso, in order to illustrate the developing sense of dynasty that underpinned the new monarchy of Augustus. Each inscription is supplied with its original text, a new English translation, and a full introduction and historical commentary that will be useful to students and scholars alike. The book also provides important technical help in understanding the production and interpretation of documents and inscriptions, thereby making it an excellent starting point for introducing students to Roman epigraphy.

The previously untold story of the watershed battle that changed the course of Western history. In AD 9, a Roman traitor led an army of barbarians who trapped and then slaughtered three entire Roman legions: 20,000 men, half the Roman army in Europe. If not for this battle, the Roman Empire would surely have expanded to the Elbe River, and probably eastward into present-day Russia. But after this defeat, the shocked Romans ended all efforts to expand beyond the Rhine, which became the fixed border between Rome and Germania for the next 400 years, and which remains the cultural border between Latin western Europe and Germanic central and eastern Europe today. This fascinating narrative introduces us to the key protagonists: the emperor Augustus, the most powerful of the Caesars; his general Varus, who was the wrong man in the wrong place; and the barbarian leader Arminius, later celebrated as the first German hero. In graphic detail, based on recent archaeological finds, the author leads the reader through the mud, blood, and decimation that was the Battle of Teutoburg Forest.

With The Emperor and the Army in the Later Roman Empire, AD 235–395 Mark Hebblewhite offers the first study solely dedicated to examining the nature of the relationship between the emperor and his army in the politically and militarily volatile later Roman Empire. Bringing together a wide range of available literary, epigraphic and numismatic evidence he demonstrates that emperors of the period considered the army to be the key institution they had to mollify in order to retain power and consequently employed a range of strategies to keep the troops loyal to their cause. Key to these efforts were imperial attempts to project the emperor as a worthy general (imperator) and a generous provider of military pay and benefits. Also important were the honorific and symbolic gestures each emperor made to the army in order to convince them that they and the empire could only prosper under his rule.

A History of the Greek and Roman World, first published in 1926, presents the story of Graeco-Roman antiquity from its earliest recorded origins to the height of the Roman imperium. It aims to bring into prominence the internal dynamism - political, cultural, intellectual, and aesthetic – which animated the ancient peoples at different periods of their history, and to draw attention to the physical, socio-economic and religious conditions under which they lived. Written in a style which will likely be unfamiliar to modern readers, Grundy’s historical portrait is painted with broad brush-strokes, offering not only compelling narrative but also incisive commentary on the individuals and societies which occupy the foreground. A History of the Greek and Roman World will be of interest for the general enthusiast as well as students, who may value such a radically different approach to the interpretation of antiquity compared to the conventions which prevail amongst contemporary scholars.

Between the reigns of Augustus and Septimius Severus, the Eastern provinces of the Roman Empire frequently saw brutal fighting, most notably during the conquest of Dacia by Trajan, the suppression of the Great Revolt in Judea and intermittent clashes with Rome's great rival Parthia. In these wars, Roman soldiers had to fight in a range of different climates and terrains, from the deserts of the Middle East to the islands of the eastern Mediterranean. Using full-colour artwork, this book examines the variation of equipment and uniforms both between different military units, and in armies stationed in different regions of the Empire. Using evidence drawn from recent archaeological finds, it paints a vivid portrait of Roman army units in the Eastern provinces in the first two centuries of the Imperial period.

A Companion to the Roman Empire provides readers with aguide both to Roman imperial history and to the field of Romanstudies, taking account of the most recent discoveries. This Companion brings together thirty original essays guidingreaders through Roman imperial history and the field of Romanstudies Shows that Roman imperial history is a compelling and vibrantsubject Includes significant new contributions to various areas of Romanimperial history Covers the social, intellectual, economic and cultural historyof the Roman Empire Contains an extensive bibliography