Thomas Fischer, Die Armee der Caesaren – Archäologie und Geschichte, Regensburg 2012

The Roman army has been in the center of scholarly interest for a long time and has lost none of its fascination to this day. From the Roman Republic until the end of the imperial period in late antiquity, the roman army was one of the main pillars on which the Roman Empire was built. The focus of the present, richly illustrated work are primarily the archaeological finds of the Roman Army, equipment, armament and military buildings from the various centuries. The book is divided into six large parts, each of it begins with an introduction to the respective content and ends with annotations and numerous further literature. In the first chapter, the author briefly presents selected pictorial sources on the Roman military. He limits the analysis to a few, but insightful, public state monuments from the different periods of Roman history. The second part is fundamentally dedicated to the Roman military itself. It describes the history of research, the history and structure of the Roman army, its internal structure and hierarchy as well as the various types of troops and arms. The third part deals in detail with the archaeological findings of the two big branches of service, infantry and cavalry, each divided into the categories of clothing, defensive and offensive weapons. In addition, there are three brief chapters on artillery, Roman field signs and signaling instruments, as well as marching baggage and tools. Part IV deals with the military installations of the Roman army. The chapter vividly describes the different types of military camps and introduces the individual types of fortifications and building elements through numerous graphs. This chapter concludes with an overview of the different border security systems and their development phases in different border regions of the Roman Empire.

Part V provides a chronological summary of the periods of development in Roman military history from the Roman Republic to late antiquity. The military conflicts, the respective (also material) levels of development and the equipment of the Roman army as well as the associated archaeological finds are briefly presented. The book concludes with the sixth chapter, which deals with the Roman navy, its history and development. The various types of Roman warships form the main part of this chapter. Based on the archaeological finds, it provides a good overview of the naval forces. In addition, the military port facilities and their architecture, the naval bases in the Mediterranean and in inland waters are also dealt with.

The entire publication concludes with a detailed bibliography that offers extensive literature on all chapters and the topics covered in them. The richly illustrated work is therefore not only suitable for the specialist and for quick searches on individual questions, but also for the interested layperson who, albeit, knows how to deal with the frequently used (and unfortunately not explained) technical terms. It is precisely the broad scope as well as the in-depth information and the numerous illustrations that make this overview work an outstanding representative of archaeological specialist literature, which nevertheless enables a wider reading group to acquire insight into the Roman army of the imperial period.