The Life of a Soldier
The Life of a Soldier Roman soldiers fighting against the Dacians by Nicolas Beatrizet, 1553.Credit...Heritage Art/Heritage Images, via Getty Images By Thomas E. Ricks In his encyclopedic GLADIUS: The World of the Roman Soldier (University of Chicago, $30), Guy de la Bédoyère collects pretty much every fact known about what it was like to be in the military arm of the Roman Empire — which was pretty much the only limb of government power outside Rome. Rome’s soldiers were surprisingly literate, because the Roman Army emphasized precise record-keeping. They also were a remarkably divers...
Source: nytimes.com