Kategoria BISAC: History >> Military - Ancient

The Roman Legions were the most highly organized troops of the ancient world, but the process of turning the Legions from what was essentially a part-time citizen militia into the professional force that first made Rome the dominant power in the Mediterranean and then built an empire that stretched across the known world, was no small feat

Focusing on the organizational changes in the Roman Army during the Civil Wars, Nic Fields examines the role played by Caius Marius and his far-reaching reforms, which included having professional volunteers from the lowest social class enter the...

Elephants have been deployed as weapons for centuries, particularly in South and South-East Asia, where war elephants constituted the bulk of most armies in the region from antiquity right up to the 19th century. This book offers an insight into the incredible history of these "living tanks," focusing on the design of the equipment and armament that made them so terrifying, particularly the development and structure of the fighting tower.

The author, Konstantin S. Nossov goes on to trace the battle history of war elephants, from their deployment against Alexander the Great's army at...

Few, if any, centuries in world history have had such a profound and long-lasting impact as the first hundred years of Islamic history. In this book, David Nicolle, a former member of the BBC's Arabic service, examines the extensive Islamic conquests between 632 and 750 AD. These years saw the religion and culture of Islam, as well as the Arabic language, erupt from the Arabian Peninsula to spread across an area far larger than that of the Roman Empire at its greatest extent. It also saw the abrupt collapse of the Persian Empire, as well as the permanent withdrawal of the Romano-Byzantine...

The Imperial Army established by Augustus drew heavily on the nomenclature and traditions of the late Roman Republic, but was revolutionary in its design. He decided to meet all the military needs of the Empire from a standing, professional army. Military service became a career, and pay and service conditions were established that took account of the categories of soldier in the army: the Praetorian Guard, the citizen legionary troops, and the non-citizen auxiliaries. Enlistment was for 25 years (16 in the Guard), and men were sometimes retained even longer. The loyalty of the new army...

When the Romans left Britain around AD 410 the island had not been fully subjugated. In the Celtic fringe of Caledonia - now Northern Scotland - these unconquered native peoples were presented with the opportunity to pillage what remained of Roman Britain. By way of response the Post-Roman Britons of what is now Scotland did their best to defend themselves from attack, and to preserve what they could of the economic and administrative systems left behind by the Romans. While some old Roman forts were maintained, the Post-Roman Britons in the area created new strongholds, or re-occupied...