by Aldus Marius on Sun Jun 24, 2007 6:58 am
Ave iterum, mi Flavi...
As promised elsewhere: More Help. >({|:-)
My personal knowledge of anything to do with the Late Imperial army is an Impressionist sketch at best (versus the Impressionist painting I can usually pull off on assorted other subjects). However, I possess the means to rectify that situation, and maybe I will now that you've got my curiosity up! Some sources:
My best concise reference for Roman military history as a whole is sold in game stores more often than in bookshops. Phil Barker's Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome (4th ed.; illus. Ian Heath; Wargames Research Group, 1981) covers organization, tactics, dress and weaponry of the Romans (and everybody they ever mixed it up with!) from the end of Punic War III to the reconquest of Italy by the Byzantines.
The type is small. It has to be. There is a lot of information in this thing. It is profusely illustrated with line drawings taken from historical and archaeological sources; it discusses the limitations of such sources; it even reproduces the shield-patterns, with unit designations, from the Notitia Dignitatum, which I'd otherwise have to go to Oxford to inspect in any detail. The evolution of the Legions from a self-sufficient frontier garrison, to a frontier force backed up by a mobile field army, to a field army itself thumbing its collective nose at the (by then) less-prestigious frontier units, is clearly explained. (It must've been; even Mari got it.) >({|;-)
Amice, you want this book.
The other one is The Late Roman Army by Pat Southern and Karen Dixon (Yale UP, 1996; ISBN 0-300-06843-3). This is one of an increasing number of works on Roman military matters being written by women; among others, reenactor and horse-trainer Ann Hyland has made a deep mark on Roman Cavalry studies.
Southern and Dixon describe the conditions that led to the reorganization of the army; the army itself from Constantine to Justinian; recruitment; conditions of service, which had changed considerably from those a Flavian Legion would have known; equipment; fortifications; and siege warfare. They also chase down any last mentions of Roman soldiers or units before the darkness fell; and they take on the notion that Late Roman soldiers were more poorly-trained and/or -equipped than their earlier brethren, or that they had any less spirit.
'Nuff to get you started?
In amicitia et fide,
Aldus Marius Peregrinus.