It is unusual for me to buy "Suggested" titles. This book was completely a pleasant surprise.
Any person studying the history of the Roman Empire is curious to know about the Germanic tribes who later rampaged unchallenged across Roman territory; who they were, where they came from, their economy; their social organization and their militaries. This title goes very far to acquaint the reader with some of the latest findings along with an extensive review of the Classical literary, historiographical and ethnographic sources. Some readers might attempt to figure out how or why they succeeded in defeating and overrunning the last Empire of Antiquity and dominated Europe for centuries afterward.
Esposito gives a good background of Iron Age Germanics then proceeds to epitomize the literature along with more recent relevant finds and conclusions. This narrative begins with the Teutonic rampage across Northwest Europe at the close of the Second Century BC when Marius halted the Germanic hordes with well disciplined Roman forces.
Next we are given an extensive portion dealing with the Germanics of Caesar's day. In this section Esposito stresses the contact between the Celts and the Germanics and the extensive influence the more economically and technologically advanced Celts had on the Germanics.
We proceed to the era of Augustus and the Varian disaster and its aftermath. Esposito is strong in relating why the Romans suffered such a massive loss at Teutoburg .My only real surprise or disappointment was Esposito's lack of comments on Tacitus's two major contributions to our understanding of this period, Germania and The Annals; but for the average reader this is not problematic. But the latter work unforgettably puts readers into the minds of Romans finding the aftermath this military disaster and might be a next stop for readers who were inspired by this book. Esposito is also good at explaining the campaigns of Augustus's relatives in the region, Drusus, Tiberius and Germanicus, also worthy of further reading.
The next section deals with the Marcomannic Wars when some kind of force equilibrium is approached between the Germanic and Roman militaries. I am grateful to this book to having continuing coverage of the history of the Marcomanni and contrasting them with the earlier Cherusci and Chatti. It must be mentioned, this was the series of wars that consumed the energies of Marcus Aurelius.
The book then fast forwards on to the Goths and Hadrianople. From there it is just a hop, skip and a jump to the Hunnic invasion and the Sack of Rome.
This historic survey is the largest portion of the book and absolutely MUST telescope a lot of literature. However, much research has been done to connect these eras together. That said, Esposito is good about keeping the various tribes distinct in the mind of the reader. He doesn't spend much time talking about his sources, but I have also read most of them and maybe folks at an introductory level don't need to bother with reviewing the sources.
Esposito's analysis of weapons and tactics is left to a single, comparatively small chapter. Only here does he really talk about the increasingly sophisticated nature of Germanic warfare, which maybe could have been a recurring theme throughout the book as there were big differences between the particular Germanic tribes of the early Roman Empire compared the tribal confederations from the Marcomannic Wars to the mounted and armored Goths in the 4th century who became indistinguishable from Roman forces by the time of the Huns and later.
The volume is richly illustrated with photos of Bulgarian re-enactors of Germanics. The real shame is that these photos could possibly be organized by time period to show Teutones of the 2nd C. BC then Cherusci from the time of Augustus, then Marcommani et c. showing the progression from Iron Age spearmen to Dark Ages specialists like cavalrymen or archers. The clothing and shield blazons make the color photos especially valuable for wargamers. The recreated weapons, shields and equipment are as accurate as the most recent research and ancient iconography provide. There is a slight camp element to the photos that might be a little distracting for purists, but the effort is appreciated by this reviewer. This book would have benefitted from more maps. Despite the points of criticism I offer here, this book is solidly recommended.
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