Roth provides a general introduction to how warfare shaped the Roman Republic and Empire. The book is a colourful, well-presented volume with a selection of colour and half-tone photographs, graphs and diagrams that assist the reader on their journey through over one thousand years of Roman civilization. The narrative is not specifically about ‘warfare’; rather it discusses the development, expansion and eventual decline of Rome from a military perspective between its founding around 753 b.c.e. and the fall of the Empire in 476 c.e. In 266 pages of main text, R. presents a concise military history of Rome, so inevitably much is only briefly touched on or even absent; omissions may be due to editorial discretion rather than oversight. Some scholarly controversies are mentioned, but R. does not elaborate, presumably in the interest of brevity and readability.

The book begins with an introduction to the sources and the inherent problems of reliability. This is followed by: ch. 1 ‘The Wars of Early Rome (Beginnings to 343 BCE)’; ch. 2 ‘The Conquest of Italy (343–264 BCE)’; ch. 3 ‘The Army's Greatest Challenge: The Punic Wars (264–202 BCE)’; ch. 4 ‘The Army in Republican Society’; ch. 5 ‘Rome's Army Wins an Empire (202–133 BCE)’; ch. 6 ‘The Transformation of the Army (133–64 BCE)’; ch. 7 ‘Caesar's Wars (64–44 BCE)’; ch. 8 ‘Death Throes of the Republic (44–30 BCE)’; ch. 9 ‘Augustus' New Army’; ch. 10 ‘Conquests of the Imperial Army (30 BCE–68 CE)’; ch. 11 ‘The Imperial Army as Society’; ch. 12 ‘War and the Roman Peace (68–191 CE)’; ch. 13 ‘Rome Struggles for Survival (191–285 CE)’; ch. 14 ‘Rome Fights Back (285–378 CE)’; and ch. 15 ‘Half an Empire Falls (378–476 CE)’. These chapters are followed by a twelve-page timeline, a glossary of Roman terms, and a ‘Glossary of People’. The Bibliography is a mere eight pages which includes a section ‘For Younger Readers’ and concludes with five websites (of varying reliability). Some ancient literary sources and inscriptions (referred to as ‘Links’) are listed at the end of each chapter for further reference by the reader; this book has no actual footnotes.

Roman Warfare is ‘intended for students of the ancient world and military history’ and is to ‘serve as a first point of reference for students’. The topics of the series are ‘linked’ to those of the Cambridge Latin Course which suggests that a range of ages and education levels could be expected to read this volume, although it does appear to be aimed at younger readers. Students new to ancient history should find it an easy read, despite the slight tedium of ch. 13 which becomes a catalogue of military incursions, revolts, assassinations, usurpers and political intrigue. The diverse subject matter of the book (social structure, politics, battles, weapons, army development) hopefully will encourage students to seek the original sources or to look to scholarly works on the various topics of interest. However, younger readers will possibly struggle to obtain the suggested ‘links’.

Depending on the age and/or intellect of the reader this book will either please or annoy. As an undergraduate I was irritated by introductory volumes that lacked references to primary and secondary literature. However, my main concern with this book is not the lack of footnotes, but the inclusion of websites such as wikipedia.org in the bibliography, and, in particular, R.'s acknowledgement of and gratitude to ‘the many anonymous authors of articles in Wikipedia’ (xvii). R. has included some websites that will be of interest to young readers who are fascinated by the Roman army, but his use of unsubstantiated sources like Wikipedia encourages and endorses what I would consider unsuitable methods of scholarship even for the first year undergraduate. While www.perseus.org (also listed by R.) provides easy access to various ancient texts, anonymous authors of Wikipedia articles surely are far from suitable sources for academic writing. This book will annoy the inquiring mind of a serious undergraduate, but it does provide a good general overview of the military history of ancient Rome and therefore fulfils its goal to provide an ‘Introduction to Roman Civilization’.