Roman Republic at War: A Compendium of Roman Battles from 498 to 31 BC Hardcover – April 3, 2017

as described

Book got in the mail excellent condition

Excellent book, wonderful reference

Roman Republic at War and Roman Empire at War are encyclopedic volumes that attempt to provide accounts of every battle that occurred during the Roman Era. Both are great works that can serve as a quick reference guides for people wanting to know, “what happened during that battle?” Though they are incredibly valuable, the works are affected by a major flaw—the battles are listed alphabetically rather than chronologically. This makes tracking down the battle you’re looking for more difficult than it should be and makes it impossible to understand the flow of Roman warfare from start to finish.Perhaps the easiest way to assess Taylor’s books is to compare them with Ray’s similar books about Greek battles. Taylor’s books are the Roman Republic at War (RRW) and the Roman Empire at War (REW). Ray’s books are Land Battles in 5th Century BC Greece (5BC) and Greek and Macedonian Land Battles of the 4th Century BC (4BC). Both authors attempt to fully catalog all of the battles that took place during their respective eras. Of the two series, however, Ray’s is by far the superior. In part, this is due to the narrower scope afforded to Ray. For example, 5BC includes descriptions of 173 battles while RRW includes 406 battles. Additionally, although the books all have similar page counts, the Greek books have smaller font sizes and wider margins providing a much higher word count. Scope aside, though, the biggest difference is in the presentation. The Greek books list the battles chronologically. The Roman books list them alphabetically. Thus, the Greek books read like books. You can start at the beginning and read all of the accounts like a continuous story. The Roman books read like an encyclopedia. Taylor does provide a chronological list of the battles, but to read them this way you have to flip back and forth and spend a fair amount of time “finding” the battles. Then once you do find them, the accounts read like encyclopedia entries. There’s no flow to them.Does this mean that Taylor’s works are useless? No! Not at all! They are an amazing achievement and a great resource for anyone interested in Roman military history. The irritation is that while they are extraordinarily helpful, they could have been GREAT! As they stand now, Taylor’s works are great references that can guide you to further study of the period. Had the battles had been organized chronologically and linked together by a tiny amount of connective text, they would have been the be-all-end-all, must-have references for Roman battles. Plan to buy them for references not for bedtime reading.

A summary of the review on StrategyPage:'Prof. Taylor (Hardin-Simmons), who has specialized in Roman history, has complied a valuable reference guide to the battles of the Roman Republic. He opens with an introduction outlining the major trends in Roman military practice under the Republic and giving us a brief analysis of the relevant sources. Taylor follows with summaries of almost 500 battles. These can vary from four or five lines to several pages, depending on available sources, which in many cases are quite thin. As far as possible, Taylor includes details on the circumstances of the battle, the armies and their commanders, the course of the fighting, and the consequences. Naturally this means that the most famous battles receive the best treatment, because they are always the most well documented, but Taylor often manages to squeeze an impressive amount of detail from otherwise slender references. For many of the longer pieces, he includes simple, clear, and useful maps and diagrams to illustrate the action. This is an indispensable reference guide for any student of the Roman military, and a worthy companion to his earlier "Roman Empire at War: A Compendium of Roman Battles from 31 B.C. to A.D. 565'."For the full review, see StrategyPage

"The Roman Republic at War" by Don Taylor details every major and minor battle during the Roman Republic. The author has done his research. He explains why Roman tactics prevailed against rivals in Italy, then in the western Mediterranean and finally around the entire Mediterranean Sea. Some of pitched battles are accompanied with maps that show the strategy, tactics and unfolding of the tumults.___My lone gripe comes from the author's narrative. He presents the battles in alphabetical order which is like isolating quotes without their context. I would have given this book a five-star rating if the author had presented the battles in chronological order, which would have made for a handy reference to be used again & again.

Utilissimo testo di consultazione a cui fare riferimento quando mi viene in mente di sapere qualcosa su questa o quella battaglia.

Great