Stauner, Konrad  (Text) / Sumner, Graham (Illistrationen) EXERCITVS ROMANVS

Rome's armed forces at a glance.
When we talk about the EXERCITVS ROMANVS, the Roman army, most of us think of the legions of the Eternal City. However, this only covers half of the fighting units at best, as the emperors raised numerous other units in addition to the citizen units over the course of time. Spread across the provinces of the empire and present in the metropolis on the Tiber, the armed forces were the emperors' most important instrument for protecting the empire externally, ensuring peace and order internally and lending stability and permanence to their rule. This volume presents the armed forces of the emperors - in words and pictures. The book offers a source-based, vivid overview of the composition and function of the Roman land and naval forces as they developed over the course of the first three centuries of the Roman Empire. A look into late antiquity illustrates the far-reaching changes in organisation and troop diversity with their new designations for units and personnel. Numerous pictures show developments in the army, while overviews illustrate the hierarchies within and between the units at a glance. This depiction of the EXERCITVS ROMANVS is also the basis for a forthcoming book that will take an exclusive look behind the scenes of the Roman army for the first time, shedding light on the administrative and logistical processes within the troops presented in this book.

Dr Konrad Stauner is an ancient historian and lecturer in Greco-Roman antiquity at the FernUniversität in Hagen. He is co-editor of the international journal Philia. International Journal of Ancient Mediterranean Studies and has published relevant works on the Roman army and edited a large number of epigraphic source texts.