Sources on Late Antique Barbarian Armies

[Flavivs Aetivs]

I'm looking for sources on Germanic Armies of Late Antiquity. I have Guy Halsall's Warfare and Society in the Barbarian West, which is helpful, but I need more.

Thanks,
Evan Schultheis

[John W Davison]

Evan,

There are a few monographs on Frankish, Anglo-Saxon and Viking warfare but all a bit specific so maybe no use for you. One thought I had was the "International Library of Essays on Military History" volume on "Warfare in the Dark Ages". This series comprises compilations of papers rather than a complete history by one author, so not ideal, but there is a full table of contents on Amazon if you want to check what is in there. It's not exactly cheap, though!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/toc/0...8&n=266239

There is also "Woden's Warriors" which is Northern Europe, 6th - 7th centuries so a little broader than the aforementioned Anglo-Saxo/Frankish/Viking ones:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wodens-Warriors-...s+warriors

I assume you are already familiar with Hugh Elton's excellent book, which has a lot on the enemies of Rome as well as covering Roman armies in the period 350-425?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Warfare-Europe-3...man+europe

Regards, John

[Flavivs Aetivs]

Thanks!

I have Warfare in Roman Europe by Hugh Elton, but haven't read it all. I'll have to look through it for stuff on Barbarians.

Those other books have some hefty pricetages :dizzy: Thanks for the recommendations!

[John W Davison]

Evan,

A couple more thoughts...

There is also this - I found it slightly strange but interesting (although I read it along time ago). It covers different Germanic fighting "types" and I thought it was quite original:

"Ancient Germanic Warriors:Warrior Styles from Trajan's Column to Icelandic Sagas",MP Speidel,(2004)

It's very learned - and a little cheaper:

http://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Germanic-W...0415486823

There was also this one - "Warriors of the Dark Ages", of which cheap used copies are available:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Warriors-Dark-Ag...0750919205

Regards, John

[Nathan Ross]

I found it slightly strange but interesting... "Ancient Germanic Warriors:Warrior Styles from Trajan's Column to Icelandic Sagas", MP Speidel...

It certainly is strange... and doesn't give a lot of evidence for some of its wackier claims.

Guy Halsell actually calls Speidel's book 'bizarre' on his blog and suggests it might be of interest to neo-Nazis! :errr:

Meanwhile, Halsell also provides a long (and uncut) essay on warfare in early medieval Europe (600-800, if that's early enough for you) here, with an note [2] again slating Speidel, as well as Bernard Bachrach, for claiming that armies of the era were either "straightforward continuations of the Roman regular army" or "simple tribal, ‘Germanic’ warbands".

EDIT - another Halsell essay that might be of interest - Battle in the Early Medieval West - despite claiming that "it is more or less impossible to know what the norms of ‘Germanic’ warfare were before the fifth century," has some very interesting points about topics discussed here recently, including the adoption (or not) of Roman military practices by Franks and others, and the medieval appreciation for Vegetius...

[Condottiero Magno]

I found it slightly strange but interesting... "Ancient Germanic Warriors:Warrior Styles from Trajan's Column to Icelandic Sagas", MP Speidel...

It certainly is strange... and doesn't give a lot of evidence for some of its wackier claims.

Guy Halsell actually calls Speidel's book 'bizarre' on his blog and suggests it might be of interest to neo-Nazis! :errr:

Despite finding his work useful, such as his series on the Merovingian Franks in Wargames Illustarted, to put it politely, he does come across as an anti-militarist leftist twat, along with his sycophants, on the blog, demonstrated by his article on WWI - since when is John Milius a right-wing aka Neo-Nazi loon, especially as he's Jewish?