Content area
Full Text
Rome and the Enemy: Imperial Strategy in the Principate. By Susan P Mattern. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1999. ISBN 0-520-21166-9. Maps. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xiii, 259. ,35.00.
Susan Mattern is particularly interested in how and why the Romans took decisions concerning the deployment of their thousands of troops and the management and development of their empire. This theme has inspired much scholarly debate, but Mattern tries to get a new slant by deliberately avoiding much of the archaeological evidence that underlies recent work on frontier studies, and trying to see things through Roman eyes. She therefore concentrates on material from ancient writers who came in the main from the same class as the people who made important strategic decisions.
Mattern's book is well organized and clearly presented....