Best of
Ancient-History

1997

A Short History of Byzantium


John Julius Norwich - 1997
    . . . All of this he recounts in a style that consistently entertains." --The New York Times Book Review In this magisterial adaptation of his epic three-volume history of Byzantium, John Julius Norwich chronicles the world's longest-lived Christian empire. Beginning with Constantine the Great, who in a.d. 330 made Christianity the religion of his realm and then transferred its capital to the city that would bear his name, Norwich follows the course of eleven centuries of Byzantine statecraft and warfare, politics and theology, manners and art.In the pages of A Short History of Byzantium we encounter mystics and philosophers, eunuchs and barbarians, and rulers of fantastic erudition, piety, and degeneracy. We enter the life of an empire that could create some of the world's most transcendent religious art and then destroy it in the convulsions of fanaticism. Stylishly written and overflowing with drama, pathos, and wit, here is a matchless account of a lost civilization and its magnificent cultural legacy."Strange and fascinating . . . filled with drollery and horror."                          --Boston Globe

A History of the Byzantine State and Society


Warren Treadgold - 1997
    It begins in a.d. 285, when the emperor Diocletian separated what became Byzantium from the western Roman Empire, and ends in 1461, when the last Byzantine outposts fell to the Ottoman Turks.Spanning twelve centuries and three continents, the Byzantine Empire linked the ancient and modern worlds, shaping and transmitting Greek, Roman, and Christian traditionsthat remain vigorous today, not only in Eastern Europe and the Middle East but throughout Western civilization. Though in its politics Byzantium often resembled a third-world dictatorship, it has never yet been matched in maintaining a single state for so long, over a wide area inhabited by heterogeneous peoples.Drawing on a wealth of original sources and modern works, the author treats political and social developments as a single vivid story, told partly in detailed narrative and partly in essays that clarify long-term changes. He avoids stereotypes and rejects such old and new historical orthodoxies as the persistent weakness of the Byzantine economy and the pervasive importance of holy men in Late Antiquity.Without neglecting underlying social, cultural, and economic trends, the author shows the often crucial impact of nearly a hundred Byzantine emperors and empresses. What the emperor or empress did, or did not do, could rapidly confront ordinary Byzantines with economic ruin, new religious doctrines, or conquest by a foreign power. Much attention is paid to the complex life of the court and bureaucracy that has given us the adjective "byzantine." The major personalities include such famous names as Constantine, Justinian, Theodora, and Heraclius, along with lesser-known figures like Constans II, Irene, Basil II the Bulgar-Slayer, and Michael VIII Palaeologus.Byzantine civilization emerges as durable, creative, and realistic, overcoming repeated setbacks to remain prosperous almost to the end. With 221 illustrations and 18 maps that complement the text, A History of the Byzantine State and Society should long remain the standard history of Byzantium not just for students and scholars but for all readers.

Egypt: Land of the Pharaohs


Regine Schulz - 1997
    Hard to Find book

The Complete Pyramids: Solving the Ancient Mysteries


Mark Lehner - 1997
    In this fully work on the major pyramids of Ancient Egypt, the author surveys the history, building and use of the pyramids. He examines both the practicalities and logostics of their construction and their conceptual aspects - their cosmology and iconography and their intriguing texts.

Ancient Egypt


David P. Silverman - 1997
    200+ color photos, maps, and charts.

Empire of Honour: The Art of Government in the Roman World


J.E. Lendon - 1997
    He contends that a despotism rooted in force and fear enjoyed widespread support among the ruling classes of the provinces on the basis of an aristocratic culture of honor shared by rulers andruled.

Luminous Debris: Reflecting on Vestige in Provence and Languedoc


Gustaf Sobin - 1997
    Drawing on prehistory, protohistory, and Gallo-Roman antiquity, the twenty-six essays in this book focus on a particular place or artifact for the relevance inherent in each. A Bronze Age earring or the rippling wave pattern in Massiolite ceramic are more than archival curiosities for Sobin. Instead they invite inquiry and speculation on existence itself: Artifacts are read as realia, and history as an uninterrupted sequence of object lessons.As much travel writing as meditative discourse, Luminous Debris is enhanced by a prose that tracks, questions, and reflects on the materials invoked. Sobin engages the reader with precise descriptions of those very materials and the messages to be gleaned from their examination, be they existential, ethical, or political.An American expatriate living in Provence for the past thirty-five years, Gustaf Sobin shares his enthusiasm for his adopted landscape and for a vertical interpretation of its strata. In Luminous Debris he creates meaning out of matter and celebrates instances of reality, past and present.

Ancient Egypt


David P. Silverman - 1997
    To this day, this ancient civilization--which produced the great pyramids, the riddle of the Sphinx, and the riches of Tutankhamun--exerts a strong hold on our imaginations. Now, in Ancient Egypt, eminent Egyptologist David P. Silverman and a team of leading scholars explore the cultural wealth of this civilization in a series of intriguing and authoritative essays based on the latest theories and discoveries. Illustrated with more than 200 superb color photographs, maps, and charts, this book illuminates the vivid and powerful symbolic images of this fascinating culture--from pyramids and temples to priests and rituals; from hieroglyphic writing to daily life by the Nile; and from temple carvings to the cult of the dead. Correcting the popular misconception of the Egyptians as a death-obsessed people, the book uses the most recent historical research and archaeological finds to illuminate the routines of daily life in royal, elite, priestly circles, as well as at lower levels of society. We learn, for example, that despite the monochromatic appearance of most temple ruins today, in ancient times they would have been colorful, even gleaming structures; that the title "Pharaoh" derives from the Egyptian phrase per aa, which means "great house" and was originally a reference to the royal palace; that temples employed all manner of part-time and full-time personnel, from farmers and carpenters to scribes, jewelers, and keepers of livestock; and that Egyptian law viewed women as equal to men, and they could, in some cases, wield considerable influence. The ancient Egyptians created some of the world's most beautiful art and architecture. To this day, this ancient civilization--which produced the great pyramids, the riddle of the Sphinx, and the riches of Tutankhamun--exerts a strong hold on our imaginations.

The Gospels for All Christians: Rethinking the Gospel Audiences


Richard Bauckham - 1997
    These essays argue, from a wide range of evidence, that the Gospels were intended for general circulation throughout all the early churches and, hence, were written for all Christians.Loveday Alexander, Stephen C. Barton, Richard Bauckham, Richard Burridge, Michael B. Thompson, and Francis Watson examine such topics as the extent of communication between early Christian churches, book production and circulation in the Graeco-Roman world, the Gospel genre and its audience, the relationships between the Gospels, the faulty enterprise of reconstructing Gospel communities, and the hermeneutical and theological pitfalls of reading the Gospels as community texts. By putting in question a large body of assumptions that are almost universally accepted in contemporary scholarship, this book could fundamentally change both the method and the findings of Gospel interpretation.

Hermeneutics and the Rhetorical Tradition: Chapters in the Ancient Legacy and Its Humanist Reception


Kathy Eden - 1997
    Kathy Eden traces a continuous tradition of interpretation from Republican Rome to Reformation Europe, arguing that the historical grounding of modern hermeneutics is in the ancient tradition of rhetoric.

Intellectual Warfare


Jacob H. Carruthers - 1997
    It then establishes the urgency to defend and honor the role of Ancient African civilizations on this major event. Exposing fallacies and reestablishing new and undistorted ways of viewing the formation of Western society, the book shows how classic literature shaped the contemporary world in intricate and sometimes startlingly and brutally honest detail. Not satisfied with simply challenging the reader to think about things differently, the volume goes further, citing specific examples and offering instruction on how to begin to retrain oneself to think about the origins of modern society in other terms. The book is also separated from other such critical efforts by expanding the text with instruction for implementing new ways of looking at the educational curriculum—to ensure that the task of improving education can be taken up by future generations.

Ancient Faces: Mummy Portraits in Roman Egypt


Susan Walker - 1997
    Published to coincide with a new major exhibition of these portraits, Ancient Faces is the most comprehensive, up-to-date survey of these astonishing works of art.Dating from the later period of Roman rule in Egypt, shortly before the birth of Christ, the painted mummy portraits are among the most remarkable products of the ancient world, a fusion of the traditions of pharonic Egypt and the Classical world. They are historical and cultural objects of outstanding importance and beauty, superb works of art that represent some of the earliest known examples of life-like portraiture. Though the subjects of the portraits believed in the traditional Egyptian cults, which offered them a firm prospect of life after death, they also wished to be commemorated in the Roman manner, with their fashion of dress and adornment signaling their status in life. Despite their ancient history, these portraits speak to the modern eye with a beauty and intensity that would be lost to portraiture until the Renaissance.

Cataclysm!: Compelling Evidence of a Cosmic Catastrophe in 9500 B.C.


D.S. Allan - 1997
    Crustal shifting, the tilting of Earth's axis, mass extinctions, upthrusted mountain ranges, rising and shrinking land masses, and gigantic volcanic eruptions and earthquakes--all indicate that a fateful confrontation with a destructive cosmic visitor must have occurred. The abundant geological, biological, and climatological evidence from this dire event calls into question many geological theories and will awaken our memories to our true--and not-so-distant--past.

Black Spark, White Fire: Did African Explorers Civilize Ancient Europe?


Richard Poe - 1997
    When the reconstruction was completed in 1989, Natsef-Amun's distinctly Negroid features came as a surprise to some Egyptologists.Were the ancient Egyptians black? Some experts say yes. If so, then Western civilization may owe its existence to black Africans.In Black Spark, White Fire , award-winning journalist Richard Poe explores new and controversial evidence from linguistics, archaeology, and anthropology, suggesting that Egyptian explorers may have landed in Greece 3 to 4,000 years ago, reared cities and pyramids, established cults, and founded royal dynasties. In the process, the spark they lit may have kindled the fire of Western Civilization. Black Spark, White Fire solves the riddles to these questions and more:• Why do so many of the cities, mountains, and rivers in Greece have names that are not Greek, but Egyptian and Phoenician?• Who were the mysterious "Minyans" who built pyramids in Greece, some 2,000 years before the Golden Age of classical Athens?• Did an Egyptian army once march across Russia leaving colonists in the Caucasus?• Did the first Egyptian pharaohs come from Nubia — a lost civilization deep in the heart of Africa?With all the suspense of a mystery thriller, Black Spark, White Fire follows a slender trail of clues that leads from the highlands of Ethiopia to the barrows of the Russian steppes. It pieces together the forgotten story of an Age of Exploration that ended nearly 3,000 years before Columbus — a time when Egypt ruled the waves, Africa was the seat of learning and power, and Europe a savage frontier.

The Kurgan Culture and the Indo-Europeanization of Europe: Selected Articles from 1952 to 1993


Marija Gimbutas - 1997
    

The Cambridge Illustrated History of Prehistoric Art


Paul G. Bahn - 1997
    The book also offers the first detailed account of how the world of scholarship became aware of the existence of prehistoric art, reproducing the very earliest drawings by explorers and surveyors from the 1600s onward to create a unique pictorial as well as discursive resource. With this powerful combination of illustration and analysis, Paul Bahn describes what prehistoric art is and the different ways in which it can shed light on the lives and preoccupations of our ancestors: sexual, humorous, social, economic, and religious. The result is a fascinating exploration: a book that Desmond Morris describes as a model of scientific restraint and objectivity....this is ultimately an art book, and as such it is endlessly provocative and engaging. Paul Bahn is an archaeologist and the author of more than 400 publications. He has authored or coauthored eight books, including The Cambridge Illustrated History of Archaeology. Dr. Bahn is a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

Plebs and Politics in the Late Roman Republic


Henrik Mouritsen - 1997
    It contributes to an ongoing debate about the role of the people in the running of the Roman state, asking whether they had any real say or had been marginalized by the elite. It approaches the issue from a practical perspective, looking at the way political meetings and assemblies functioned and at the crowds that took part. The book thus puts the current discussion about Roman democracy on a new footing, and places it in a social context.

In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great: A Journey from Greece to Asia


Michael Wood - 1997
    the Macedonian army, led by Alexander the Great, marched relentlessly across Asia. An event of bravery and cruelty, endurance and greed, Alexander's expedition was a turning point in human history. His conquest opened up contacts between Europe and Asia, unleashing astonishing historical energies that continue to affect the world today. This extraordinary book recreates Alexander's 22,000 mile, ten-year expedition from Greece to India, following as much as possible the actual route of his journey.Historian Michael Wood traversed seventeen countries, trekking through the Zagros Mountains to find the lost site of Alexander's battle at the "Persian Gates," drinking black tea in the Hindu Kush, listening to ancient stories of Sikander e Aazem, and crossing the Makran Desert with twenty-three camels. He traveled with Lebanese traders, Iranian pilgrims, Afghan guerrillas, and other local people on a journey that took him through many of the twentieth century's major trouble spots, including Beirut and Kurdistan.Wood bases his account of Alexander's conquest on the texts of Greek and Roman historians, but he also reconsiders the Greek adventure in terms of modern ideas on colonialism, orientalism, and racism. The Macedonian conquest, which has mainly been seen through Greek sources, is illuminated for the first time by medieval travelers' narratives, newly discovered oracles, and prophecies on papyrus or clay tablet.At the heart of Wood's powerful story is the towering, enigmatic character of Alexander the Great. He ascended the throne at twenty, conquered much of the known world before he was thirty, and was dead by the age of thirty-two. A ruthless politician, brilliant military tactician, devoted son, family man, lover of both women and men, Alexander was known for his extreme generosity as well as his ferocious cruelty. Following in the conqueror's footsteps centuries later, Michael Wood overhears the words of the fabled Greek mermaid who calls to passing sailors: "Great Alexander still lives!"

Aliens & Fallen Angels: The Sexual Corruption of the Human Race


Stephen Quayle - 1997
    

Stone Age Farmers Beside the Sea: Scotland's Prehistoric Village of Skara Brae


Caroline Arnold - 1997
    This description of the Stone Age settlement preserved in the sand dunes of Scotland's Orkney Islands includes how it was discovered and what it reveals about life in prehistoric times.

The Life and Times of Constantine the Great: The First Christian Emperor


D.G. Kousoulas - 1997
    Without compromising historical accuracy, it brings before the eyes of the reader as vividly as possible Constantine's fascinating life, filling in the gaps by exploring the ancient records in Greek and Latin and the findings of modern scholarship, reconstructing events or offering explanations to ancient riddles. It is astonishing how little the broad public in the West knows about Constantine. Yet, he is the man who gave a new direction to world history. One may wonder if Christianity would have survived if he had not embraced it with his imperial authority. Constantine's impact on our world is not the only reason for reading his story. His life is so rich in drama. excitement, tragedy, violence, intrigue and high adventure that the story can be as engrossing as a good work of fiction. "Prof. Kousoulas is a master story-teller."

Latin Historians


C.S. Kraus - 1997
    Their works have been shown to be quite different in nature from those of today's historians; instead, their techniques and assumptions have much in common with those of Homer or Virgil. Using these narratives as sources for ancient history has become more problematic than ever before, as we come to understand better how their style (the medium) and content (the message) shape each other. This book briefly introduces this revolution as it affects our reading of Latin historical writing, and then provides authoritative and informative discussions of the three major Latin historians of the classical period: Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus. The focus is on narrative technique and structure, intertextuality, and close reading, and the discussions are as accessible to beginning students as they are useful to experienced teachers.

Earth Under Fire: Humanity's Survival of the Ice Age


Paul A. LaViolette - 1997
    These ubiquitous legends are so extreme that they are often dismissed as imaginative exaggerations. In Earth Under Fire, Paul LaViolette connects these "myths" to recent scientific findings in astronomy, geology, and archaeology to reconstruct the details of prehistoric global disasters and to explain how similar tragedies could recur in the near future. Compelled by his decryption of an ancient warning hidden in zodiac constellation lore, LaViolette worked with information from many scientific sources, including astronomical observations, polar ice core measurements, and other geological data, to confirm that our Galaxy’s core exploded near the end of the last ice age. This explosion unleashed a barrage of cosmic rays and enveloped the solar system in a dense nebula, which led to periods of persistent darkness, frigid cold, severe solar storms, searing heat, and mountainous floods that plagued mankind for many generations. Linking his scientific findings to details preserved in the myths and monuments of ancient civilizations, he demonstrates how past civilizations accurately recorded the causes of these cataclysmic events, knowledge of which may be crucial for the human race to survive the next catastrophic superwave cycle. This information reveals the intelligence and ingenuity of our ancestors who, when faced with extinction, found the means to warn us that the apocalypse that destroyed them could occur once again.

The Global Past


Lanny B. Fields - 1997
    Written by experienced teachers of the course, it integrates diverse perspectives, combining a truly global approach, multidisciplinary treatment, balanced coverage, and a variety of interesting features. To provide students with a coherent framework, it places key historical themes within a chronological structure that helps students make comparisons and see connections across time and place. Abundant and creative pedagogy helps students make sense of it all; innovative ancillaries give students and teachers the tools to contend with this challenging course.

The three books of M. Terentius Varro concerning agriculture


Marcus Terentius Varro - 1997
    

The Collapse of the Roman Republic


Don Nardo - 1997
    Focuses on the often chaotic events and larger-than-life personalities of the fateful last republican century and discusses the power struggles which gave way to a dictatorship.

Ancient Sisterhood: The Lost Traditions of Hagar and Sarah


Savina J. Teubal - 1997
    Teubal peels away millenia of patriarchal distortion to reveal the lost tradition of biblical matriarchs. In Ancient Sisterhood: The Lost Traditions of Hagar and Sarah (originally published as Hagar the Egyptian), she shows that Hagar, the mother of Ishmael, was actually lady-in-waiting to the priestess Sarah and participated in an ancient Near Eastern custom of surrogate motherhood.Ancient Sisterhood cites evidence that Hebrew women actually enjoyed the privileges and sanctity of their own religious practices. These practices, however, were gradually eroded and usurped by the establishment of patriarchal monarchies that were based on militaristic conquest and power. Teubal examines the figures of Hagar and Sarah from a feminist perspective that combines thorough scholarship with an informed and detailed understanding of the cultural and religious influences from which the mysterious biblical figure of Hagar emerged. She looks at Hagar’s important role in the genesis of Hebrew culture, her role as mother of the Islamic nations, and her power as a matriarch as opposed to her apparent status as a concubine.Teubal posits two distinct sources for the Hagar episodes: Hagar as companion to Sarah and an unknown woman whom she refers to as the desert matriarch. She explores whether Hagar was a slave to Abraham or Sarah, the differences between Hagar and the desert matriarch, and the obscurantism of these important elements in biblical texts. Teubal sheds considerable light on two central figures of these world religions and “the disassociation of woman from her own female religious experience.”

Journey Through the Ice Age


Paul G. Bahn - 1997
    Paul Bahn and Jean Vertut explore carved objects and wall art discoveries from the Ice Age, covering the period from 300,000 B.P. to 10,000 B.P., and their collaboration marks a signal event for archaeologists and lay readers alike.Utilizing the most modern analytical techniques in archaeology, Bahn presents new accounts of Russian caves only recently opened to foreign specialists; the latest discoveries from China and Brazil; European cave finds at Cosquer, Chauvet, and Covaciella; and the recently discovered sites in Australia. He also studies sites in Africa, India, and the Far East. Included are the only photographic images of many caves that are now closed to protect their fragile environments. A separate chapter in the book examines art fakes and forgeries and relates how such deceptions have been exposed.The beliefs and preoccupations of Paleolithic peoples resonate throughout this book: the importance of the hunt and the magic and shamanism surrounding it, the recording of the seasons, the rituals of sex and fertility, the cosmology and associated myths. Yet enigmas and mysteries emerge as well, particularly as new analytical techniques raise new questions and cast doubt on our earlier suppositions.A comprehensive, up-to-date analysis of all that has been discovered about Ice Age art, Bahn and Vertut's book offers a visually rich link with the past.

The Egyptian News


Scott Steedman - 1997
    Covering ancient civilizations in the form of a daily newspaper written at the time, this innovative and acclaimed News series presents historical nonfiction in a unique, kid-friendly format. As accessible as your morning paper, THE EGYPTIAN NEWS gives young readers the unforgettable sense of actually being members of an ancient civilization.

Mine and Yours Are Hers: Retrieving Women's History from Rabbinic Literature


Tal Ilan - 1997
    Recent approaches to rabbinic literature have overturned the traditional view of these writings and new literary methods were suggested, mostly denying them all historical value. But rabbinic literature constitutes the main source for the lives of Jews in Palestine and Babylonia during the late Roman period, and thus should not be totally rejected. This study suggests a new post-literary approach, i.e. it discusses the residue of the texts after these have been analyzed and dissected by literary critics. But mainly this is a book about women's history, adopting many assumptions of feminist criticism about the androcentric nature of all ancient texts, and approaches them with due suspicion. The Rabbis treated women differently from the way they treated men. This resulted in the former's marginalization and manipulation by the texts. On the other hand, however, it created an ironic situation whereby principles useful for the recovery of historical information on women, are useless when applied to men. This study describes such principles and demonstrates them with the help of many examples.

Prayer In Greek Religion


Simon Pulleyn - 1997
    Pulleyn draws on all of the relevant literary and epigraphic material available in order both to describe ancient Greek practices and to explain their significance.

The English Peasantry and the Growth of Lordship


Rosamond Faith - 1997
    In covering the period from the end of the Roman Empire and the late 12th century, the author is able to trace, in post-Conquest society, the continuing influence of developments which originated in Anglo-Saxon England.

Manichaeism in Mesopotamia and the Roman East


Samuel N.C. Lieu - 1997
    This work brings together a number of major articles by the author published between 1981 and 1992 on the history of the sect in Mesopotamia and the Roman Empire. The studies have all been up-dated in the light of newly published material.

Rape in Antiquity: Sexual Violence in the Greek and Roman Worlds


Susan Deacy - 1997
    Using the numerous references to rape in Greek legal speeches, comedy, tragedy, visual art and myth, the authors assess the degree of seriousness with which rape was taken and who was seen as its main victims. They also consider whether the numerous Greek and Roman myths that involve rape reflect real-life behaviour and attitudes. Modern readers, used to a discourse which focuses on the question of woman's (or man's) consent to sexual activity, and which treats an unwilling partner as a sympathetic victim, may find in ancient attitudes much that is disturbing. The book should be of interest to students of women's history, ancient history and classical myth. The contributors are: Karim Arafat, James Arieti, Lucy Byrne, Susan Deacy, Thomas Harrison, Keith Hopwood, Martin Kilmer, Daniel Ogden, Rosanna Omitowoju, Karen F. Pierce, James Robson and Corinne Saunders.

Wandering in Byzantine Thessaloniki


Anastasia Tourta - 1997
    The text describes and evaluates all the most recent evidence for the Byzantine monuments of the city; together with the lavish illustrations, it offers an elegant account of the history of Byzantine civilization, enticing visitors along the major streets and narrow alleyways of the Upper town and introducing them, through the expertise of the specialist and the love of the admirer, to the enchantment of its unique monuments.

Ascending Jacob's Ladder: Jewish Views of Angels, Demons, and Evil Spirits


Ronald H. Isaacs - 1997
    Although angels have permeated Jewish tradition since biblical times, they remain a mystery to most people, often thought of as distinctly un-Jewish icons. In Ascending Jacob's Ladder: Jewish Views of Angels, Demons, and Evil Spirits, Rabbi Ronald H. Isaacs introduces readers to the fascinating Jewish world of angels, from earliest times to the modern period.

The Peopling of Ancient Egypt & the Deciphering of the Meroitic Script


Cheikh Anta Diop - 1997
    

The Origins and Ancient History of Wine


Patrick E. McGovern - 1997
    Among the subjects covered are the domestication of the Vinifera grape, the wine trade, the iconography of ancient wine, and the analytical and archaeological challenges posed by ancient wines. The essayists argue that wine existed as long ago as 3500 BC, almost half a millennium earlier than experts believed. Discover named these findings among the most important in 1991. Featuring the work of 23 internationally known scholars and writers, the book offers the first wide ranging treatment of wine in the early history of western Asia and the Mediterranean. Comprehensive and accessible while providing full documentation, it is sure to serve as a catalyst for future research.

The Roman Cavalry


Patricia Southern - 1997
    Karen R. Dixon and Pat Southern describe the origins of the mounted units of the Roman army and trace their development from temporary allied troops to the regular alae and cohorts. They have drawn together evidence from a wide variety of sources: archaeological, epigraphic and literary, as well as comparing ancient testimony with more recent experience of the use of cavalry.The book covers the subject from the perspective of both the men and the horses. How were the horses selected and disposed of; how were they trained, stabled and fed? How were the men recruited, organized and equipped; and what were the conditions of service for a Roman cavalryman? The cavalry had to be employed in peacetime and this is discussed as well as its role in war.The image of the Roman cavalry is often one of excitement and glory but the authors are aware that a true picture must not overlook the routine and the suffering. This book provides a comprehensive account of the Roman cavalry and the current state of knowledge concerning it. The wide selection of illustrations includes original drawings by Karen R. Dixon.