Roman Military History

Oliver L. Spaulding, Jr.: The Ancient Military Writers. A straightforward basic survey of Greek and Roman writers on military matters, by a U. S. Army expert who served as Chief of the Historical Section of the War College. It is an excellent starting-point for anyone who wants to learn about ancient military theory.

[ complete English translation:
1500 print pages, presented in 37 webpages ]

The Greek author Polybius was a close friend of Scipio, one of Rome's great generals, and with him spent much time campaigning in the field in the 2c B.C. His Histories are thus essential to an understanding of the Roman army and the rise of the Roman republic as a world power. He is one of our most important sources on the organization of the army, the legion, and the Roman camp system.

[ complete English translation:
2178 print pages, presented in 69 webpages ]

The Roman History of Cassius Dio is another careful work by a Greek historian, a Roman senator of the 3c A.D.; and though he was a civilian, how can a history of Rome avoid being largely about wars? Somewhat fragmentary, the History is still a very good source for the Punic Wars, the Civil Wars of the 1c B.C. and Caesar's war in Gaul; but many other wars are covered as well.

[ complete Latin text, English translation ]

The Strategemata of Frontinus (2c A.D.) are a collection of over 500 examples of devices, ruses, ploys, creative ideas from history, intended by the author as a sort of checklist for the military commander. The work is an appendix to his work on the Art of War, which has not survived; I suspect the interesting "stories" appealed far more to medieval copyists and readers than the deeper theoretical work: it's a great pity.

[ 5/31/03: 23 of the Lives, in English translation ]

Plutarch's Lives are going up onsite; among those most relevant to Roman military history, Romulus, Fabius Maximus, Crassus, Sertorius, Marius, Sulla, Caesar, Brutus, and Antony.

[ complete Latin text, English translation ]

Of the ten books of his De Architectura, the Roman author Vitruvius devotes two to military architecture and engineering. Book I covers the siting of a town and the building of its walls; Book X is mostly given over to siege machines and defending against them, and includes a prologue on a thoroughly military topic: how to deal with cost overruns.

[ 9/19/06: several dozen photos and a small weblist ]

One of the great witnesses to the Roman military machine is Trajan's Column in Rome, which documents in carved stone the emperor's campaigns in Dacia, with its armies, its battles, its fortifications, bridges and ships.