Barbarian Warrior vs Roman Legionary: Marcomannic Wars AD 165–180

The book "Imperial Rome at War" 2nd century AD, pits the legionaries of Imperial Rome against their Germanic and Sarmatian opponents. It assesses the objectives, weapons, and equipment, and fighting styles of the two sides in three featured battles: Carnuntum, the 'Battle on the Ice', and the 'Miracle of the Rain'. Photographs, specially commissioned artwork plates, and mapping complement the authoritative text.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 80 pages
Publication date: 18 January 2024
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Shortly after Marcus Aurelius came to power in AD 161, the Roman Empire was plagued by a series of military crises. While unrest in Britain and a new war with Parthia were swiftly dealt with, the invasion of Roman territory by the Chatti and Chauci peoples heralded a resurgent threat from the empires European neighbors. Soon, the Marcomanni and the Quadi, as well as the Dacians and the Sarmatian Iazyges, would attack the Romans in a series of savage conflicts that continued until AD 175 and would see the first invasion of Roman Italy since the beginning of the 1st century BC.

In this book, the two sides objectives, weapons, and equipment, and fighting styles are assessed and compared in the context of three featured battles: Carnuntum (170), where a Roman legion was vanquished and Italy invaded; the Battle on the Ice (172), where the Romans fought their lighter-armed Iazyges opponents on the frozen Danube; and the so-called Miracle of the Rain (174), during which a trapped Roman force facing annihilation was able to defeat numerically superior Germanic forces. Photographs, specially commissioned artwork plates, and mapping complement the authoritative text in this engrossing study of Imperial Rome at war.

Weight: 264g
Dimension: 184 x 248 x 7 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781472858061