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The Roman Army at War: 100 BC-AD 200. By Adrian Keith Goldsworthy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. ISBN 0-19-815057-1. Illustrations. Notes. Appendix. Bibliography. Pp. x, 311. $72.00.
There has been no shortage of new studies on the Roman army in recent years. Since this latest book is based on the author's Oxford D. Phil. thesis, we might begin by exploring the originality of this latest contribution. Goldsworthy has attempted to do for Roman battles what John Keegan did for Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme-i.e., make them real by focusing on the behavior of individual soldiers and seeing how bodies of men interacted and fought with each other. In the last few decades, ancient historians have concentrated on recruitment, career and retirement patterns, the army's activities in peacetime, its uniforms and weapons, new translations of military manuals, the specifications of its fortresses, its religious beliefs and ceremonies, its role and effect on society, and the artistic and technical development of its equipment. Yet they miss the Roman army's one true calling: it existed to wage war. As Goldsworthy points out, "All other aspects of its behaviour and the relics it has left behind, however interesting and informative . . . should not obscure this truth"...