It was with some surprise that I received this book along with the usual Osprey soft cover books a few months back. I've never been that interested in the Roman Empire, even though there have been a number of most interesting movies and television shows on the subject as of late.

So, as I usually do, I started reading the book. The more that I read, the more interesting the subject became. It seems as if the editor has taken the best from a rather large number of smaller Osprey books and combined that material into one cover. This basically covers the Roman Empire from its beginnings until its ultimate defeat. Not an undaunting task to try to do in a mere 300 pages, but the end result is a very readable and useful reference book.

Basically the book covers the campaigns of the Roman army against its many enemies including the Carthaginians, Etruscans, Greeks, Gauls, Goths and Huns, to name just a few (as there were many). The overall impression is that Rome was basically in a constant state of war against someone during its long history.

The book is divided into four sections: Early Republic, Late Republic, Early Empire, and Late Empire. A chronology is provided at the beginning of each section then there is a short history of the time period. Next part goes into the conflicts against a specific peoples and then a look at the weapons, battle strategies, and leaders of the various enemies.

This is all enhanced by superb color drawings and photos to help give the reader some example of what was being faced by the legions. Throughout there are smaller information boxes that give a deeper look into a leader, battle or some other area of importance of the time.

Overall, this is an outstanding book that offers many hours of enjoyable reading. It is a must for those who want a ready reference on the subject and its incredibly low price makes it that much more desirable.

February, 2006

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