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Roman Imperial Armour: The production of early imperial military armour Paperback – Illustrated, 30 Nov. 2011

by David Sim (Author), J. Kaminski (Author)
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 15 ratings
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The Roman Empire depended on the power of its armies to defend and extend the imperial borders, enabling it to dominate much of Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East. Success was, in large part, founded on well-trained, well-disciplined soldiers who were equipped with the most advanced arms and armour available at that time. This is the story of the production of that armour. Roman Imperial Armour presents an examination of the metals the armour was made from, of how the ores containing those metals were extracted from the earth and transformed into workable metal and of how that raw product was made into the armour of the Roman army. The policing and protecting of such a huge empire required a large and well-organised force and the book goes on to consider the organisation of the army, its size, composition, the logistics involved in its deployment and provisioning and the training, remuneration and benefits offered to its men at arms.
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  1. Print length
    180 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Oxbow Books
  4. Publication date
    30 Nov. 2011
  5. Dimensions
    17.02 x 1.52 x 23.88 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    1842174355
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1842174357
  8. See all details
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Product description

Review

[A] technical book which highlights the science behind the art of the blacksmith... [Sim and Kaminski's] focus is upon reconstructing techniques that would have been used to create armour for hundreds of thousands of infantry men under arms during the first and second centuries of the Western Empire.'--Murray Eiland "Minerva, July/August 2012"

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxbow Books; Illustrated edition (30 Nov. 2011)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 180 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1842174355
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1842174357
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 17.02 x 1.52 x 23.88 cm
  • Customer reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 15 ratings

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David Sim

David Sim

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Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
15 global ratings

Top reviews from United Kingdom

Susan C
5.0 out of 5 stars An Informative Read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 January 2012
With hundreds and thousands of men under arms at any one time, the production of armour was crucial for the maintenance of the Roman Empire. Roman Imperial Armour looks at the details of how Roman armour was made. The book focuses mainly on infantry armour from the first and second centuries in the western empire. It is not a book about the typologies of armour but about how Roman smiths made that armour. It does that admirably. There is a good colour section of plates and the chapters on helmet and scale armour (lorica squamata) production are particularly good. There are also numerous references to complement the detailed text. Overall the book has a strong focus on experimental archaeology and the reproduction of armour and makes a valuable adition to the corpus of books on Roman armour.
4 people found this helpful
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G. P. Watson
4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating if you want to answer the question "Was Roman armour any good? " but perhaps a little intense if you ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 November 2015
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The Haynes manual for Roman armour.Not just the nuts and bolts but the chemistry and physics too. Fascinating if you want to answer the question "Was Roman armour any good?" but perhaps a little intense if you are after a quick guide to what Romans looked like
One person found this helpful
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Nab
2.0 out of 5 stars Not a bad read but contents concerning metalwork is not very accurate
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 November 2017
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For a book that so much practical research went into making I was expecting to read a few eye-opening facts but unfortunately most of its contents is the stuff that anyone interested in armour will have already read a hundred times. Also, as a metalsmith I was a little annoyed how the authors describe the method of helmet making as raising (which is correct) yet the diagrams to go with the text show sinking which is the incorrect technique for making a double curvature vessel to the depth required to cover the head in the style that the Romans used, and also because it differs from the technique written in the text which will really confuse a novice who is interested in learning
2 people found this helpful
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Heather Armstead
5.0 out of 5 stars A thorough and practical examination of Roman armour
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 March 2012
There are endless books on Roman armour, many of which offer only a surface treatment of the field. While lorica segmentata is well represented in literature, rarely are we given any insights into other commonly used types of armour, much less how they were made. Sim and Kaminski offer an in depth look at the methods of armour production, from raw materials to the protection offered by it.

The authors raise insightful questions about Roman metallurgy:

- how did they create such clean iron, when hammering alone cannot remove slag content below 5%?
- if, as is commonly thought, the Romans did not use machines to produce sheet metal, how did they outfit so many men, and without tool mark evidence for hand production on the armour?
- how long does it take to repair scale mail? Can this be done in the field by a soldier?

Sim and Kaminski have contributed a well written piece of work which incorporates a great deal of technical metallurgical information in an easy to read format. I would recommend this book not only to a general readership, but also to anyone studying Roman armour from an archaeological or materials science angle.
6 people found this helpful
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Naomi Lawrence
4.0 out of 5 stars A Review
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 February 2012
Experimental archeologists like David Sim and Jaime Kaminski, with practical experience of blacksmiths and the economics of iron production, have explored the answers to 'how' Imperial Rome, with a standing army of perhaps 300,000 armed and armoured men was able to become so powerful an empire dominating so large an expanse of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, inhabited by perhaps sixty million people 2000 years ago.

To take particular examples from their book, how was Roman scale armour, made of high quality sheet metal, produced in sufficient quantity without some sort of industrial machinery being used? (which, largely made of wood, has not survived as physical evidence today). The conclusion reached by experiment was that sheet metal was made by using rollers.
The mass production of chain (ring) mail, needing 40,000 rings to make a coat of mail, needing 230 days work, and 760 meters of wire (nearly half a mile) drawn from an iron billet, shows the scale of the operation needed to keep the 300,000 strong army properly protected.

'Roman Imperial Armour' is a well researched and argued description of practical experiments designed to produce the evidence needed to explain why Rome was so successful, and the logistical and industrial backing so essential to success - and so little described in former textual history books.

I strongly recommend this book for those searching the historical past for the truth, rather than myth or legend, to answer that vital question for all historians:
"What's your evidence?"

There is plenty of evidence here to support the conclusions of the author's experiments.

Dr. E.P.Lawrence, MA., MB, BCh., FFCM.
Hexam, Northumberland
9 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

P. Neimoyer
5.0 out of 5 stars A scientific research paper.
Reviewed in the United States on 11 September 2023
Verified Purchase
I very much liked the anthropological format and research that went into this book. I was very impressed. It doesn't read like a book. It reads like a PHD dissertation.
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Cliente Amazon
2.0 out of 5 stars full of inaccuracies and meaningless theories
Reviewed in Italy on 11 August 2022
Verified Purchase
the book theorizes production methods for armor starting from various wrong bases, such as that metal sheets were used for the production of armor based on the uniformity of the metal pieces, uniformity that any expert blacksmith starting from a piece o f metal would be able to obtain, among other things, he also says how the chainmail was the most expensive armor of all because it was the most time consuming, apart from that even this statement could be wrong, the value at the time was mainly dictated by the cost of the materials not from the time of realization (principle also applicable to the medieval period)
the book is full of inaccuracies of this type and does not deepen the topics covered, I recommend it only to those who already have a knowledge of the topics covered and can find the inaccuracies but want a book with some info on specifics and metallurgy of the finds
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M. Sellers
4.0 out of 5 stars Very good specific resource, Not a general information book.
Reviewed in the United States on 8 February 2013
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This book is an awesome scholarly work on the production and distribution of Armour in Imperial Rome. It highlights the economy of the military machine that was Rome. Having said that, this is not a book to purchase for general information on Rome.
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bonnie_blu
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Reviewed in the United States on 24 July 2012
Verified Purchase
The authors present a thorough and detailed analysis of the production of Roman armor in the first and second centuries C.E. They examine torso armor, helmets, leg and arm armor, and shields. The authors clearly show that the Romans had a highly sophisticated understanding of metal working and even produced low slag iron and steel, which modern scholars and metallurgists can not explain. Modern low slag iron and steel were not produced until the invention of machine powered rollers in the 19th century. Clearly we still have much to learn about the ancient Romans.
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