Раффаэле Д'Амато — новинки

An illustrated study of Rome's key enemies from the Late Principate and Dominate: the western Visigoths and the eastern Ostrogoths.

The Goths were a Germanic people who, under pressure from the Huns, migrated during the 2nd century AD to the Balkans, where they split into the Visigoths to the west, and the Ostrogoths to the east. After first raiding and looting Roman territory, some eventually came to serve as allies to the Empire, but this allegiance would collapse following a Hun advancement that saw the Goths forced south against the Danube. Failure to negotiate settlement in this new, Roman-held territory led to wars, during which the Ostrogoths won a decisive victory over a Roman army at Adrianople (AD 378), and the Visigoths finally sacked Rome itself (AD 410).

In this fascinating study, Roman military historians Raffaele D'Amato and Andrea Salimbetiand Andrea Salimbeti examine Rome's fierce clashes with the Gothic peoples, exploring their role in the fall of the Western Empire and eventual transition from Roman to early medieval Europe. Newly commissioned artwork, artefact photos and expert research combine to bring to life key events in the Goths' history, including the Ostrogoths' defeat by Emperor Justinian in the 6th century, the establishment of Gothic kingdoms in Italy and the Iberian Peninsula, and their service as subjects and soldiers in Byzantine Crimea.

A fully illustrated account of the large-scale reformation of the Roman Army from the reign of Diocletian to the fall of the Western Empire in AD 476. After the 50-year chaos of the mid-3rd century AD, Emperor Diocletian (r. AD 284–305) and his successor, Constantine I (r. AD 306–37), the first Christian emperor, undertook major administrative reforms to reflect…

Richly illustrated, this title describes Anglo-Saxon monarchs, warlords and their warriors and households in Anglo-Saxon Britain, from the first post-Roman mercenaries to the Norman Conquest.

In a country fragmented by Roman withdrawal during the 5th century AD, the employment of Germanic mercenaries by local rulers in Anglo-Saxon Britain was commonplace. These mercenaries became settlers, forcing Romano-British communities into Wales and the West Country. Against a background of spreading Christianity, the struggles of rival British and Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were exploited by the Vikings, but eventually contained by the Anglo-Saxon king, Alfred of Wessex. His descendants unified the country during the 10th century, however, subsequent weak rule saw its 25-year incorporation into a Danish empire before it finally fell to the Norman invasion of 1066.

Scholars of the early Church have long known that the term 'Dark Ages' for the 5th to 11th centuries in Britain refers only to a lack of written sources, and gives a false impression of material culture. The Anglo-Saxon warrior elite were equipped with magnificent armour, influenced by the cultures of the late Romans, the Scandinavian Vendel people, the Frankish Merovingians, Carolingians and Ottonians, and also the Vikings.

In this volume, co-authors Raffaele D'Amato and Stephen Pollington access their extended knowledge to paint a vivid picture of the kings and warlords of the time with the aid of colour illustrations, rare photos and the latest archaeological research.

Meticulously researched, this book examines the evidence for the post-Roman military forces of France and Britain during the 'Dark Ages', reconstructing their way of life and the battles they fought in compelling detail.

The collapse of the former Western Roman Empire during the so called 'Dark Ages' c. AD 410 was gradual and piecemeal. Out of this vacuum arose regional tribes and leaders determined to take back kingdoms that were theirs and oust any Roman presence for good. However, the Roman guard was tenacious and survived in small pockets that emerged in both Gaul and Britain. These areas of Romano-Celtic resistance held out against the Saxons until at least the mid 6th century in Britain and against the Visigoths and the Merovingian Franks until the late 8th century in France.

Drawing on archaeological finds, contemporary sculpture and manuscript illuminations, Dr Raffaele D'Amato presents contemporary evidence for 5th to 9th-century Gallic and British 'Dark Age' armies and reconstructs their way of life and the battles they fought. The text, accompanied by photographs and colour illustrations, paints an intricate picture of how these disparate groups of Roman soldiers survived and adapted on the fringes of the Roman Empire.

Drawing upon the latest literary and archaeological research, this is an in-depth study of the Roman Army units based in the Eastern Provinces during the turbulent third century of the Roman Empire.

In this book, eminent Roman historian, Dr Raffaele D'Amato, looks at the notoriously under-represented history of the Roman armies during the middle 3rd Century whose records have been obscured by the chaotic civil wars of that period between usurpers to the Imperial authority of Rome. Following on from the previous title, MAA 527, Roman Army Units in the Western Provinces (2): 3rd Century AD, this book considers the evidence for troops in the Eastern half of the Empire specifically around the Balkans, Mesopotamia, the Middle East and North Africa and looks at the weakness of Imperial central authority which inevitably led to local particularism and a wide range of appearance in regional commands.

Dr D'Amato uses literary, painted, sculptural and archaeological sources to reconstruct this little-understood period of Roman military history and meticulously charts and reconstructs the appearance and campaigns of those Roman forces stationed in the East.

Gaius Julius Caesar remains the most famous Roman general of all time. Although he never bore the title, historians since Suetonius have judged him to be, in practice, the very first 'emperor' - after all, no other name in history has been synonymous with a title of imperial rule. Caesar was a towering personality who, for better or worse, changed the history of Rome forever. His unscrupulous ambition was matched only by his genius as a commander and his conquest of Gaul brought Rome its first great territorial expansion outside the Mediterranean world. His charismatic leadership bounded his soldiers to him not only for expeditions 'beyond the edge of the world' - to Britain - but in the subsequent civil war that raised him to ultimate power. What is seldom appreciated, however is that the army he led was as varied and cosmopolitan as those of later centuries, and it is only recently that a wider study of a whole range of evidence has allowed a more precise picture of it to emerge. Drawing on a wide range of new research, the authors examine the armies of Julius Caesar in detail, creating a detailed picture of how they lived and fought.

In the twilight of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th-6th centuries, the elite of the field armies was the heavy armoured cavalry - the cataphracts, clad in lamellar, scale, mail and padded fabric armour. After the fall of the West, the Greek-speaking Eastern or Byzantine Empire survived for nearly a thousand years, and cavalry remained predominant in its armies, with the heaviest armoured regiments continuing to provide the ultimate shock-force in battle.

Accounts from Muslim chroniclers show that the ironclad cataphract on his armoured horse was an awe-inspiring enemy: ‘...they advanced against you, iron-covered - one would have said that they advanced on horses which seemed to have no legs'. This new study, replete with stunning full-colour illustrations of the various units, offers an engaging insight into the fearsome heavy cavalry units that battled against the enemies of Rome's Eastern Empire.

Preceding and simultaneously with the conquest of England by Duke William, other ambitious and aggressive Norman noblemen (notably the Drengot, De Hauteville and Guiscard families) found it prudent to leave Normandy. At first taking mercenary employment with Lombard rulers then fighting the Byzantine Empire in southern Italy, many of these noblemen achieved great victories, acquired rich lands of their own, and perfected a feudal military system that lasted for 200 years. As news of the rich pickings to be had in the south spread in Normandy, they were joined by many other opportunists - typically, younger sons who could not inherit lands at home. Steadily, these Norman noblemen fought their way to local power, at first in Apulia, then across the Adriatic in Albania, and finally in Muslim Sicily, defeating in the process the armies of Byzantium, the German 'Holy Roman Empire', and Islamic regional rulers. Finally, in 1130, Roger II founded a unified kingdom incorporating southern Italy and Sicily, which lasted until the death of Tancred of Lecce in 1194 - though its legacy long outlasted Norman political rule.

This beautifully illustrated title explores not only the Norman armies, but the armies of their opponents, with full-colour plates and expert analysis revealing fascinating details about the fighting men of Normandy, Byzantium, the Arab armies and more.

The Late Roman Empire was a period of significant change in the designs of standards and in the costumes of standard-bearers. During the middle decades of the chaotic 3rd century, evidence confirms the continued use of the old legionary eagle and the signa of the old cohorts and centuries, alongside flags and Imperial images. The two major trends over the later generations were the adoption of Christian symbols on standards (e.g. Constantine the Great's Chi-Rho), and the proliferation of different types of flags. This had begun in the late 2nd century with the adoption of the 'barbarian' dragon standard, the windsock-shaped draco, which continued to be displayed alongside various other flags in the Greek-speaking Eastern Empire, whose influence increased greatly. Meanwhile, the growing employment of foreign units was such that by the 5th century we have evidence of the use of Hunnic symbolism among a Roman general's suite of standards. The costumes of standard-bearers also evolved as 'Persian' styles spread from Constantinople.
This title explores all these changes in depth, charting the development of various costumes and designs and the waxing and waning influence of various cultures and religious considerations. The text is supported by specially commissioned illustrations and artist's reconstructions of the standards and their bearers.

The appearance of Roman soldiers in the 3rd century AD has long been a matter of debate and uncertainty, largely thanks to the collapse of central control and perpetual civil war between the assassination of Severus Alexander in 235 and the accession of the great Diocletian in 284.

During those years no fewer than 51 men were proclaimed as emperors, some lasting only a few days. Despite this apparent chaos, however, the garrisons of the Western Provinces held together, by means of localized organization and the recruitment of 'barbarians' to fill the ranks. They still constituted an army in being when Diocletian took over and began the widespread reforms that rebuilt the Empire - though an Empire that their forefathers would hardly have recognized. Fully illustrated with specially chosen colour plates, this book reveals the uniforms, equipment and deployments of Roman soldiers in the most chaotic years of the Empire.