Taylor, Don. Roman Empire at War: A Compendium of Battles from 31 BC to AD 565. Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2016.
Don Taylor has produced a handsome volume on the battles of the Roman Empire. While the book does provide some introductory material on the Roman army and the ancient and early medieval sources about this period, it is predominantly a list of battles with brief descriptions, some tactical maps, and lists of ancient sources for each battle. The latter is the best part and it is what sets this work apart from similar battle books, which merely provide descriptions and maps (e.g., An Encyclopedia of Battles). In addition, Taylor has provided a survey of the ancient authors with information on how readers can obtain translated copies (26-36). This is more helpful than Cambridge’s History of Greek and Roman Warfare, which provides its own list of ancient authors (485-497), but does not provide details on finding them in English.
As for the scope, Taylor covers battles from Actium (31 BC) through the reign of Justinian I (d. 565 AD). The battles are arranged alphabetically, but Taylor has thankfully provided a chronological list as well (42-45).
Taylor is upfront about the limitations of his book. He wanted to let the ancient authors speak for themselves, so he only derives his descriptions from them. That also means that he provides no analysis nor does reference any modern works that focus on the battles. Thus, students seeking the oldest texts possible with benefit, but they will need to do the groundwork to construct any historiography of the battles. In addition, Taylor has omitted battles that lack any recognizable name or place, as well as most sieges.
One frustrating, but easily forgivable aspect is that his narratives are not clear in how he reconciled any differences among the ancient accounts. If we take Adrianople (378 AD), a very popular battle, Taylor provides a 1-page narrative along with a tactical map (51-53). At the end, he cites 7 different ancient authors who described the battle. However, it is not clear how Taylor decided to interpret or even merge these accounts. For example, Taylor tells us that 20,000 Romans died in the battle, but he doesn’t explain that this is a modern estimate based on Ammianus Marcellinus’s list of units. ((Thomas S. Burns, “The Battle of Adrianople: A Reconsideration,” Historia 22, no. 2 (1973): 344n55.)) Thus, the reader will need to track down the sources and derive their own conclusions. This is partially what Taylor wants to provide and encourage—a starting point—but I would have loved to seen his own thought process, his analysis.
With more than 25 years as professor of European and Ancient History at Hardin Simmons University in Texas, I believe Taylor has much more to tell us about these battles. Still, undergrads and even grads will find Roman Empire at War immensely useful when beginning research of battles of the Roman Empire.