The Roman Legions Recreated In Color Photographs (Europa Militaria)

Interested in what the Roman military looked like? Kind of an obscure issue, I thought, when I took a look at a review by an Amazon Friend. However, I got hooked on the concept and ordered the book. I'm glad that I did, although it's certainly not something I would have thought of picking up.

The purpose of the book is straightforward (Page 4): "This small book is the first attempt to make a fairly comprehensive examination of the development of the Roman legionary solely through the employment of actual full scale reconstructions." The first thing we find is a basic chronology of the Roman Republic and the Empire, giving the reader a sense of what happened when.

The first substantive section is entitled "Legionaries," and provides us a sense of what the Roman military was like--and how it evolved early on, in terms of the "foot soldiers" themselves. The early forces featured several classes, with the better born, the first class, armed in the style of the Greek hoplites and the fifth class equipped with slings (very lightly armed and without armor, as far as I can tell). There is a photo of one of the "re-enactors" in the first class garb on page 7. The use of these re-enactors makes this a most interesting volume, as the reader can get a visual sense of exactly what Roman forces looked like and how they were armed.

Thereafter, brief sections examine Imperial Legionaries (under Augustus), swords (the famous gladius) and daggers, helmets, centurions, and so on. One of my favorite sections is "Legionary Cavalry" (pages 78-83). As the book notes (page 78): ". . .service in the cavalry was the prerogative of the Roman upper class. . . ." The pages with photographs of cavalry re-enactors is fascinating.

On page 90, we learn that there are a number of re-enactor groups, trying, through trial and error and re-enactment of troop movements, to better establish how the Roman military functioned and what their gear was like.

So, a quirky book--but absolutely intriguing! If Roman history and its military has any interest for a reader, then this could be a useful resource for you.

I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical when I bought this one; the main reason why I did is all the positive reviews it has already attracted. Now, her I am after having got it yesterday, and I agree with the previous reviewers completely! This is a ninety-something page collection of quality pictures of all the best Roman Army reenactors across Europe, such as the famous Ermine Street Guard of the UK and several in Germany (Germania?)

Among the pictures are lots of good shots of the equipment of the legionaries, particularly their helmets, swords, and daggers. Naturally the book focuses mostly on the Army between Vespasian and Marcus Aurelius (AD 69-180), and its statement that the military equipment of the 3rd Century Army is 'virtually unknown' is a gross exaggeration. There are a couple pictures of 4th Century infantry and cavalry, though not enough to appease a Late Empire enthusiast (or snotty perfectionist?) such as myself. Overall, expect to see a lot of the classical 1st Century legionaries with Gallic helmets, red tunics, and loricas. That is my only complaint against this book, and it was not enough to justify giving it 4 stars instead of 5.

A feature of this book I particularly appreciated was how so many of the pictures are of fair-skinned blond Europeans, which, since most of these reenactment groups focus on Northern European Legions, would have made up the overwhelming majority of the legionaries in those provinces. All the men in the pictures look very professional; they have the look of men who are actually used to wearing and marching in chainmail and carrying shields nearly as big as themselves. You won't find any unprofessional goof-ups here like a whole 'cohort' of reenactors marching by with their shields on their right sides. These guys have, so much as anyone alive today can, lived the Roman Army, and probably know much more about it than you reading this or me writing it.

Like I said above, this book focuses largely on the lorica-clad legionaries of Flavian Britain and Germany, but it does include a hearty selection of other troop types; among them are early period hoplites, velites, hastatii, and triarii, legionary and auxiliary cavalry, auxiliary spearmen and archers, and standard bearers of the three major types (signifiers, aquilifiers, and imagnifiers). Each section also has a few paragraphs of text to profile the roles of the particular type of soldier discussed on that page, and lots of little details on the pictures themselves.

Overall, if you want a good image of what the Roman Army would have looked like in life, forget the movies and buy this book.

A must have for everyone interested in historic recreation of roman armies. Excellent photos. Interesting contacts and some (few) facts.

This book is all color pictures of uniforms. There are no sketches or drawings here.

This is a very good source of detailed information of the Roman Legions and their armour, weapons, tools, etc. Of particular interest is the study of the Cavalry and Centurions. Like all books in this series, the best reenactment units are used to illustrate the legionary from the Republic to the Christian Empire but with emphasis on the imperial period from Augustus through Marcus Aurelius. I wish Hollywood would pay more attention to this book.