Roman Buckles & Military Fittings

Roman Buckles & Military Fittings. Softback, 286 pages, Illustrated colour, 19cm x 25cm.

This is a very informative and well illustrated book covering all you'll need to know about Roman buckles and Military Fittings as well as other snippets of Roman life. On the back cover: The history of Britain is intimately tied up with the Roman army which for almost 400 years kept most of this island Roman. Much of the story of the soldiers who lived, fought and died for Rome here, can today only be reconstructed from the remnants of the kit they wore. Over the centuries that the Roman army occupied Britain, its soldiers used a bewildering variety of fittings. Many of them are not easily recognisable to the modern eye, particularly when in fragmentary state. Too many important items are lying discarded in detectorists' junk boxes, because they are simply not being recognised for what they are. That small piece of twisted copper alloy could, in reality, be a Roman military fitting with a fascinating story to tell. In this book, Laycock and Appels set out to document and identify many of the items of Roman military kit encountered today by detectorists and archaeologists and set them in their historical and military context. Late Roman buckles, and their British derivatives, for instance, give a unique insight into the last decades of Roman rule in the country and ultimately may hold the secret to the collapse of Roman Britain. Did Roman power start to collapse 40 years before the end? Was the population of Britain armed in the late 4th century? Did the British tribes re-assert their authority and raise militias for renewed inter-tribal conflict? The next buckle or fitting uncovered could help answer these questions and many more about the history of Roman Britain. But they'll only provide answers if they can be correctly identified. Instead of just line drawings, this text is lavishly illustrated with hundreds of full colour photographs of surviving Roman military kit, most of them never before published. Some of these items are unique. Many of them are rare. This is a resource for detectorists, archaeologists, museum staff, collectors and re-enactors alike, and will be of interest also to many with a more general interest in the Roman military.

• Section 1 by Andrew Appels - 1st Century BC - 4th Century AD
• Roman Britain to AD 300
• The Roman Soldier to AD 300
• Roman Military equipment to AD 300
• Helmet fittings
• Sword and dagger fittings
• Armour fittings
• Shield fittings
• Belt plates & mounts
• Phalerae Belt studs
• Strap ends
• Belt buckles
• Apron fittings
• Horse harness fittings
• Other military kit
• Glossary.

• Section 2 by Stuart Laycock - 4th Century - 5th Century AD
• The Roman empire from AD 300 onwards
• Roman Britain post AD 300
• Manufacture & production
• Dolphin buckles and plates
• Head buckles
• Dot style buckles and plates
• Protrusion style buckles and plates
• Horse head buckles and plates
• Lion head buckles and plates
• Plain loop buckles and plates
• Dragon buckles and plates
• Crescent-shaped buckles
• Strap ends
• Belt stiffeners
• Suspension loops & belt loops
• Associated Military kit
• Bibliograph.