Just as I was prepared to condemn all British historiography as a hopeless preserve of upper-class twits, I took the book by Pat Southern about the most interesting, in my view, and the least documented period of the development of the Roman Empire. Noticeably, she works outside of the academia. The book is a COMPILATION, heavily relying on French historian M. Christol, but it is eminently readable and wonderfully illustrated by Trish Boyle. My only criticism of the illustrations are maps, many of which are given without place labels as in XIX Classical Gymnasium geography class (pupils had to memorize all rivers and cities, etc.). But this is a brilliant book. Prurient details and personal eccentricities of the lives of Emperors and their entourage are omitted in true Victorian fashion, even for Heliogabalus (above). Even the military matters, which are frequently garbled by academic historians, while the professional military relies on less-than-trustworthy archival sources, are being competently described. But should I remember that 'vexillations' are the detachments of 'vexillarius' soldiers, i.e. the separate detachments of below-legion strength but having their own standard? Yet many kudos to Pat and I am looking to find her other books in the libraries accessible to me.
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