The book clearly explains and illustrates the mechanics of how Roman
commanders - at every level - drew up and committed their different
types of troops for open-field battles. It includes the alternative
formations used to handle different tactical problems and different
types of terrain; the possibilities of ordering and controlling
different deployments once battle was joined; and how all this was based
on the particular strengths of the Roman soldier. Covering the period of
"classic" legionary warfare from the late Republic to the late Western
Empire, Ross Cowan uses case studies of particular battles to provide a
manual on how and why the Romans almost always won, against enemies with
basic equality in weapon types - giving practical reasons why the Roman
Army was the Western World's outstanding military machine for 400 years.