Aurelian and Probus: The Soldier Emperors Who Saved Rome

The book "The Military Campaigns of the Roman Emperors Aurelian and Probus" by Ilkka Syvänne is a narrative military history that explores the reigns of Aurelian and Probus and how they were responsible for the Empire surviving and emerging largely intact from a period of intense crisis. It uses a new methodology to reconstruct the military campaigns of these two soldier emperors and their contemporaries in greater detail than has been possible before, based on the military treatises that describe the strategy and tactics of the period.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 304 pages
Publication date: 03 October 2023
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books Ltd

This is a narrative military history of the emperors Lucius Domitius Aurelianus (‘Aurelian,reigned 270-275) and Marcus Aurelius Probus (276-282) which also includes the other reigns between the years 268 and 285. It shows how these two remarkable emperors were chiefly responsible for the Empire surviving and emerging largely intact from a period of intense crisis. It was Aurelian who first united the breakaway regions, including Zenobias Palmyra, and it was Probus who then secured his achievements. The reigns of Aurelian and Probus have been subjected to many studies, but none of these have approached the extant material purely from the point of view of military analysis. Most importantly, the previous historians have not exploited the analytical opportunities provided by the military treatises that describe the strategy and tactics of the period Roman army. It is thanks to this new methodology that Ilkka Syvänne has been able to reconstruct the military campaigns of these two soldier emperors and their other contemporaries in far greater detail than has been possible before.

This is a narrative military history of the emperors Lucius Domitius Aurelianus (‘Aurelian,reigned 270-275) and Marcus Aurelius Probus (276-282) which also includes the other reigns between the years 268 and 285. It shows how these two remarkable emperors were chiefly responsible for the Empire surviving and emerging largely intact from a period of intense crisis. It was Aurelian who first united the breakaway regions, including Zenobias Palmyra, and it was Probus who then secured his achievements. The reigns of Aurelian and Probus have been subjected to many studies, but none of these have approached the extant material purely from the point of view of military analysis. Most importantly, the previous historians have not exploited the analytical opportunities provided by the military treatises that describe the strategy and tactics of the period Roman army. It is thanks to this new methodology that Ilkka Syvänne has been able to reconstruct the military campaigns of these two soldier emperors and their other contemporaries in far greater detail than has been possible before.

Weight: 520g
Dimension: 156 x 234 x 26 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781399021456