D'Amato, Raffaele/Ruggeri, Raffaele Roman Army Units in the Western Provinces. Part 3: 4th-5th Centuries AD

A fully illustrated account of the large-scale reform of the Roman army from the reign of Diocletian to the fall of the Western Empire in 476 AD. After 50 years of chaos in the middle of the 3rd century AD, Emperor Diocletian (reigned 284-305 AD) and his successor Constantine I (reigned 306-37 AD), the first Christian emperor, implemented comprehensive administrative reforms to reflect the new circumstances and improve defense strategy. As part of these reforms, the Roman army was completely reorganized, with the old structure of legions and auxiliary troops being replaced by central mobile field armies and various classes of garrison troops. In addition, the army began to recruit more and more allied barbarians, some of whom were even promoted to higher levels of command. Roman military expert Raffaele D'Amato draws on the latest archaeological and written evidence to explore this turbulent final period of the Western Empire. Illustrated with photographs and drawings of surviving artifacts and images, this latest installment in a series tracing the evolution of the Roman army also includes eight newly commissioned color plates depicting the uniforms and weapons of the reformed Roman military.