PREFACE

There is no doubt that the army, that extraordinary instrument of power, organisation, technology, culture, language and civilisation was fundamental to the development, the extent and duration of the Roman State and of the Roman empire. In the final analysis, it is to the army that we owe the formation of that European and Western civilisation that assimilated and developed so much of the knowledge and spiritua l beliefs of the Orient, including Christianity, the majority of this knowledge collected and brought to Rome by its great military fleets and its legions.

It is to the Roman army that we owe some of the most extraordinary monuments of antiquity, such as the great galleries and ports built by Agrippa in the Phlegrean area, the aqueducts, division of property, works of reclamation, channelling systems an army that generated the nucleus of innumerable cities among the provinces of the empire.

There is no dearth of detailed studies and research on the many different aspects of this complex topic, such as the 19 89 book by Yann Le Bohec, L 'esercito romano. Le armi imperiali da Augusto a Caracal/a, translated into Italian, or the work of Michel Feuguere, Les armes des romains de la Republique a l'Antiquite tardive, Paris 1993, 2002, and The Late Roman Army, London 1996, by Pat Southern and Karen R. Dixon , in addition to the many well documented exhibits, with striking catalogues, such as the one on the Romans between the Alps and the North Sea, published in Mainz in 2000.

What had been missing until now was an informative book that illustrated both the period and the historical evo lution of the Roman army, in all its aspects, with particular and updated emphasis on the technological aspects. This gap, felt in Italy and abroad, has now been filled by the present volume by Flavio and Ferruccio Russo, the continuation of a ser ie s on specific topics that has enjoyed great critical and popular s uc cess, on particular and often novel aspects of the history, technology and culture of the Roman emp ire.

The English version allowed for wider circulation, expanding the increasingly narrow boundaries ofltalian book publishing and is doubtless a major and much appreciated innovation, even from an editorial aspect. This novelty, together with the quantity and quality of illustrations provided, will most certainly contribute to ensuring a wide readership and appreciation of historical and archaeological knowledge.

Pagano Superintendent ofArchaeological Assets for the provinces of Salerno, Avellino, Benevento and the Molise Professor, Universita Suor Orsola di Napoli and the Molise

Mario

11 mondo noto in eta classica secondo Tolomeo, Ill sec a C The known world in the Classical Age according to Pfolemy, Ill c