Type of bind: Hardcover
EAN num: 9780760716960
ISBN number: 076071696X
Label: Barnes & Noble
Manufacturer: Barnes & Noble
Page Count: 302
Printing Date: 2000
Publishing house: Barnes & Noble
Sale Popularity Level: 830013
Studio: Barnes & Noble
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Rated by buyers 
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First, let me start off my saying that this is a bargain book. So don't except too much from it and you won't be disappointed. Very simple. This book provides a good overview and introduction to warfare in the Classical (read Greek and Roman) Age. Warry has done a great job incorporating literary element into description of Greek Phalanxes and Roman Legions. He combines these with historical documents to interpret -although briefly- what a Greek, Roman, or Trojan army may have donned into battle.
There are some faults to the work. The very first and foremost is that there are no illustrations or maps. Even two or three general visual aids (a diagram of armour parts for example) would have been incredibly helpful. Alas, there are no pictures to be found. The lack of an expansive bibliography is forgivable in that searching amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, or even Google provide a wealth of information on the subject.
So take this book for what it is, a bargain introduction and overview of warfare in the Classical World. If you can understand the book's shortcomings you won't be disappointed.
Rated by buyers 
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This is a book that is interesting to read and appears to be well-researched (more on that later) but it is also disappointing because it could have been so much more.
The main reasons I bought this book are because I wanted to learn more about western martial arts and Classical-era history in general. It was definitely informative with regards to martial history, detailing the rise and fall of a number of different Greek & Roman empires and rulers and the significance of key battles and campaigns.
From a western martial arts view, it was more disappointing. It had details about battlefield tactics and unit divisions. It had some detail about arms and armor, although more would have been nice. However, the periods it describes ARE quite a long time ago, so it is entirely possible the information is just not available.
Where I absolutely find fault with the book is in a distinct lack of guidance for those who would like to do more research.
- There is no bibliography.
- There are sparse chapter end-notes, usually about technical details that didn't really have a place in the text. In a few cases, a sub-section will state which ancient author or authors in particular are the source for that particular subsection. But generally, there is no way to tell which particular statements are based on which particular sources.
- Sources for each major section are named at the beginning of that major section, along with information about whether the source had first-hand experience of what he wrote, what his background was, and whether he seemed to be relatively even-handed or definitely biased towards a certain viewpoint. Also included is information about which ancient authors have works that are still extant and which authors' works are lost to us and known only through intermediate authors and secondary sources. But many times the ancient authors are mentioned only by name and the titles of their relevant works are not included. There is also no information about which particular authors & works have been translated and published in English.
So, for example, if I want to know more about Athenian light-armed troops in the time of the Peloponnesian war (mentioned in the last paragraph of "The Athenian Army" in the section titled "The Peloponnesian War"), there is very little information to go on. The beginning of the section on the Peloponnesian war mentions Thucydides, Xenophon's "Hellenica", "other historians . . . of whose works only fragments survive", Plutarch, Theopompos, Ephorus, Cratippus, and a 900-line fragment from an Egyptian papyrus manuscript which may or may not be a continuation of Thucydides. Besides "Hellenica", do any of these other works have formal titles? Are any available in English translations? Which are available to the public, either through reprints that can be purchased or through public libraries, and which are only held in private or institutional collections? And which, if any, of these were used specifically for the paragraph on Athenian light-armed troops and therefore might have more information on those troops? You won't find any of those answers in the book.
Also, there are NO illustrations or maps and the book could have benefited GREATLY from these.
Finally, I was APPALLED at the number of spelling and grammar errors. Does the author not proof-read his work? Does the publisher not have a copy editor?
In all, a decent introduction and overview, but this book could have been SO much better with some more time put into it.
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