While this site is predominately about the medieval period, I do like a good book on any period rally and the Roman period is just as fascinating. And when it comes to the Roman invasion of Britain, even more so as we live pretty much slap bang in the middle of the biggest bone of contention right now with where the invasion actually took place.

Roger Nolan’s, book is a very good look at the current thinking based on the best archaeological advice there is. Caesar lands at Dover and chases his main foe Cassivellanus to Hertfordshire. I wish the britons of the time had easier names .

His book shows his research into the route they took, where they set up marching camps, and where the major encounters took place. It is a well researched argument.

The book has maps and photos to highlight routes and locations, it is a great read as the book shows places in Kent I really need to go and see such a Bigbury and Denge Wood.

The book covers the prelude to the invasion with the defeat of the Gauls and then the preparations for invasion. The book also includes a translation of Julius Caesar’s own account of the Gallic wars and invasion of Britain.

This is a great account and includes lots of details that could be used by Wargammers to recreate some of the battles as well as for historians looking to understanding the invasion.

I attended a seminar on the possible invasion site of Thanet last year, which still needs more archaeological evidence to support but this is still a great topic for reading.

You can buy the book here from Pen and Sword books.

Please note I was not paid to write this review but was sent a review copy of the book. All comments are my own, and the publishers have not amended the review in any way.

Now for most of you following this site, Hans Talhoffer should be someone one you know. Perhaps my favourite author of this period, Talhoffer has blessed us with some of the best imagery and manuals on medieval swordmanship.

And it must be said, some of the wackiest too! Have you seen those duelling shields? and duelling onesies!

Anyways, this book in right in our wheelhouse and is a must read and resource for anyone practicing the german Leichtenauer tradition.

The first thing I love about this book, is it’s size.

It is clearly meant to be used as a training resource.

The second thing I love about this book, is they take one image per page and give a “simple” interpretation of what is going on. Not overly flowery but basic follow along guidance. It is a great book to open you up to the world of Talhoffer.

I love this book and every one in our school needs to own it. We use Talhoffer for Messer and will introduce Talhoffer dagger into practice too.

The book itself is almost a complete curriculum including wrestling, unarmoured fighting with the long sword, pole-axe, dagger, sword and buckler, and mounted combat.

You can buy the book here from Pen and Sword books.

Please note I was not paid to write this review but was sent a review copy of the book. All comments are my own, and the publishers have not amended the review in any way.

While the Romans had conquered the south of the Danube, north of the Danube they had a new enemy, the Dacian. And this is where this book gets really interesting for me, as a sword geek, as now the Romans come face to face with the Dacian falx.

The Danube frontier was always troublesome for Rome, right up to the fall of the Roman Empire 500 years after reach the southern bank of the river.

The book covers from period before the Romans conquered Macedonia and covers the period up to the short lived conquest of Dacia.

A lot of the Roman generals in this book are names we all know from history, Julius Caesar, Octavian, Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius. As the book says, the Dacians played a big part of Roman foreign policy for nearly 50 years.

We tend to focus on Roman Britain and the western campaigns. Until recently I didn’t know what a Dacian was or anything about the Roman eastern campaigns.

This book goes a long way to fill that gap. The section on the Dacian military seems to suggest they were a professional, well organised fighting force. Which might go a long way to explain their success.

Couple this with the skilled craftsmen they had access to, the Romans faced men and military technology equal to their own.

The author also highlights the changes the Romans made to their own armour to combat this new foe. I won’t go into all of it here but suffice to say the Romans clearly felt the threat of the Dacian military.

The authors photos of reproduction and found falx and sica are truly amazing , and it is no surprise the Roman legionary didn’t like those as they could get over their protective scutum. These weapons were curved, which isn’t surprising , what is surprising is that the are curved the “wrong way” to later curved swords.

This is a really interesting and detailed look and the region and conflicts within it. I can see this being useful for wargammers and historians like. From a military history point of view I would love to get my hands on a falx to see how effect it was against a Roman shield.

All in all a great book which will be a good addition to anyone’s bookshelf.

You can buy this book from Pen and Sword Books

Please note I was not paid to write this review but was sent a review copy of the book. All comments are my own, and the publishers have not amended the review in any way.