This book is an account of how the Roman legions fought, based on the point-of-view of the ordinary legionary, the man who actually did the fighting. The fighting soldier is, of course, the most important man in any army and yet, so often, the least understood. The book shows how he was deployed within his cohort, and how he functioned in contact with the enemy, by considering his weapons and reconstructing the drills for their use. It takes a historic approach. Starting with a discussion of Greek warfare, it considers the development of the Roman army throughout the Republican period, in particular it looks at the Battle of Cannae to see why the legionary system failed there. The main part of this book considers the legionaries of the fully developed Imperial army, and how they handled a variety of foes such as barbarians, cavalry, the Macedonian phalanx and other legions. Probably most significantly the book offers the reader the only reasonable account in print of the Teutoburg Wald disaster, and it considers other disasters in order to probe weaknesses in the Roman system. Finally the book considers how the legions finally became obsolete.

The overall result is a totally original account of Roman warfare. References are given for each chapter, as much as possible they are easily accessed Penguin Classics or Loeb editions.