This edition offers a compact portrait, in peace and in war, of the ancient Roman army, one of history’s most famous and successful military organizations. Twelve literary passages combine with nine epigraphic and other documents to show soldiers who don’t merely fight: Between battles, they march, drill, camp, construct public works, eat, drink, and—sometimes illegally—marry and have children. At times, and invariably with bloodstained results, troops also involved themselves in Roman politics. With selections from a variety of sources and a time span ranging from the First Punic War to the reign of M. Aurelius, this compact reader is like no other currently available. SPECIAL FEATURES * Introduction to the Roman army * 858 lines of unadapted Latin text in 21 selections: 12 from literary works (Cato _Origines_, Cicero _Ad Atticum_, Caesar _Bellum Civile_, Livy _Ab Urbe Condita_, Juvenal _Satires_, Tacitus _Annals _and _Histories_, Vegetius _De Re Militari_, Suetonius _Gaius_ and _Claudius_) and 9 from documentary sources * Notes at the back and complete vocabulary * Suggested reading; appendices of original texts and chronologies * Two maps and seven illustrations