Product Description

The period 31 BC-AD 43 saw the greatest expansion of the Roman Empire. In 31 BC Octavian defeated Antony at the battle of Actium and remodelled the semi-professional Roman army into a permanent force of 28 legions. Octavian became the first emperor (Augustus) and under his leadership the legions conquered northern Spain, all Europe south of the Danube line and Germany west of the Elbe. The legionaries exemplified the heroic culture of the Roman world and this title takes a behind-the-scenes look at their lives, training, weaponry and tactics, including the bloody massacre of the Teutoberg forest.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #71737 in Books
• Published on: 2003-06-20
• Released on: 2003-06-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 64 pages

From the Publisher
Insights into the real lives of history's fighting men, packed with full colour illustrations, highly detailed cutaways, exploded artwork of weaponry and armour, and action-packed battle scenes.

About the Author
Ross Cowan studied at the University of Glasgow where he was awarded a PhD for a thesis on the Roman army entitled 'Aspects of the Severan Field Army AD 193-238'. The major themes of the thesis are the organization of the Prateorian Guard and Legio II Parthica, their recruitment, numbers and equipment. Ross also completed his first degree at Glasgow. In 1999 he was elected a fellow of the Society of the Antiquaries of Scotland.

Customer Reviews

The awesome Roman legions
The Bad Season Michael In Hell

I bought the book to use as research for a novel I'm writing. The book had great illustrations and was very informative on legion tactics and weapons. I was also amazed by how many times the legions fought each other and how the weapons and uniforms changed over the years. I really enjoyed this book.

Excellent Sourcebook on the Roman Legionary
This is an excellent introduction the experiences, weaponry, and tactics of the Roman soldiery of the late Republic and early Empire, from the beginning of Julius Caesar's Gallic War to the death of Galba and Otho in 69. For a more experienced student of the Roman Army, it contains basic information but includes some new material-like the little known fact that many legionaries were forced into service-and makes some argumentable claims, like that the cohort did not have a commander. For anyone, this book is a worthy visual source; as with most Osprey books, the color plates by Angus McBride have only one problem-you only get eight of them!
This title would be best read with the other two Osprey titles by Cowan, Imperial Roman Legionary AD 161-284, and Roman Battle Tactics 101 BC-AD 313.

Fine introduction to the early Imperial legions
This Osprey book on the Roman legions proves to be a well written introduction to the subject matter. Written primary for beginners, any beginning reader can get a pretty clear understanding of how the Roman legion works, operates and function as a military unit. The author describes the tactics, weaponary, armor and other elements of the legion clearly and without blogging down the reader with too much details. The author also get on the personal level as he describes the recuitment, training, pay and other individual elements of being a legionaire. All that information for 63 pages. As an introductionary material, this book does an excellent job of a quick read and understanding.

I do agreed with one previous reviewer that there's a singular flaw in this book where the author claims that the century was the primary tactical unit of the legion. I too, totally disagreed with that assertion. That reviewer made an excellent case for why a century wasn't the primary tactical unit so I won't be redundant here.

But overall, the author provided a well researched book that should encouraged most beginning reader on the subject to read more and deeper.