"The Army of the Caesars"

The Army of the Caesars (Michael Grant)

This is a history book detailing the relationship between the army and the Roman state, covering in detail from Augustus up through when the military got the final upper hand after the collapse of the Tetrachy system. It also goes into detail about the armament, pay, and living conditions of the common soldiers to provide some context. I guess that probably sounds pretty tedious, but I found it quite interesting. If you're a Roman history nerd - which I assume would be the only type of person interested in this book - some of this may already be familiar to you (almost certainly the account of Augustus defeating Mark Antony), but Grant ensures that the material is never boring. The book has been out of print since the 70's and I was going to say my only caveat is that it may be tricky tracking down a copy, but there's currently like 97 used copies on Amazon (I recommend Powell's - it's a few bucks extra, but you can't beat their service), so you don't have any excuse.

Grade: A