Gladius delivers a stunning ground-level recreation of what it was
like to be a soldier in the fighting force that made the Roman Empire.
Empire.
The Roman army was the greatest fighting machine in the ancient world.
More than that, it was the single largest organization in Western
antiquity, taking in members from all classes, from senators to freed
slaves. The Roman Empire depended on its army not just to win its wars,
defend its frontiers, and control the seas, but to act as the very
engine of the state.
In Gladius, Guy de la Bédoyère takes us straight to the heart of what
it meant to be a part of the Roman army. Rather than a history of the
army itself, or a guide to military organization and fighting methods,
this book is a ground-level recreation of what it was like to be a
soldier in the army that made the empire. Surveying numerous aspects of
life in the Roman army between 264 BCE and 337 CE, Gladius--the Latin
word for sword--draws not only on the words of famed Roman historians,
but also those of the soldiers themselves, as recorded in their
religious dedications, tombstones, and even private letters and
graffiti. Gladius reveals the everyday life of these soldiers and
their families, whether stationed in a bleak frontier garrison in
Britain or North Africa, tasked with guarding the emperor in Rome,
fighting on foreign battlefields, mutinying over pay, marching in
triumph, throwing their weight around on city streets, or enjoying
esteem in honorable retirement.
By illuminating the history of one organization that reflected all
corners of the Roman world, Gladius gives us a portrait of an ancient
society that is unprecedented in both its broad sweep and gritty
intimacy.
