07-06-2017, 07:57 PM
Hello all,
I'm looking for recommendations for readily available books / articles around the "administration" of the Roman Military in the early Imperial period - up through the time of Emperor Hadrian. I've never seen any extensive discussion of how army-wide policies, standards, and practices were determined, distributed, and inspected for conformance. For example, the Roman military had --looking at Trajan's column -- a fairly standard distribution of armor, weapons, etc., rather than a "bring-your-own" approach to out-fitting soldiers. So....who / how was it decided that shields were curved oblongs? Was there in the palatium in Rome some bureaus staffed with retired military / freedmen / greedy contractors....who decided on "advanced" weaponry? After Trajan's Dacian wars the helmet changed to avoid legionaries get their heads crushed by Dacian faix(s). Who did the design / made prototypes / field tests? Was there some embryonic "general staff" 1800 years before the Prussians?
thanks for any help here!!
I'm looking for recommendations for readily available books / articles around the "administration" of the Roman Military in the early Imperial period - up through the time of Emperor Hadrian. I've never seen any extensive discussion of how army-wide policies, standards, and practices were determined, distributed, and inspected for conformance. For example, the Roman military had --looking at Trajan's column -- a fairly standard distribution of armor, weapons, etc., rather than a "bring-your-own" approach to out-fitting soldiers. So....who / how was it decided that shields were curved oblongs? Was there in the palatium in Rome some bureaus staffed with retired military / freedmen / greedy contractors....who decided on "advanced" weaponry? After Trajan's Dacian wars the helmet changed to avoid legionaries get their heads crushed by Dacian faix(s). Who did the design / made prototypes / field tests? Was there some embryonic "general staff" 1800 years before the Prussians?
thanks for any help here!!