This book is an overview of the role of Roman military commanders told in the form of a series of case studies of 15 particular commanders spanning a large swath of the Roman Empire's history. In this way, it covers the interesting topics of Roman military doctrine, tactics, and structure, but it also infuses these concepts with a readability and sense of drama from the case studies. Thus, it is interesting and entertaining.

I have read several books by this author, and so many of his points about the way battles actually occurred and evolved were familiar to me, but they are likely to be even more interesting if you are less familiar with his other work. The figures are well chosen based on a combination of their intrinsic value as illustrations and the relevance of the source material we have to judge them. The scope even continues past the fall of the Western Empire into some campaigns of the Byzantine Empire. As with other Goldsworthy books, I wish there were more illustrations/diagrams and most especially more maps. I think given the uncertainty of the specific locations for ancient events, the author is hesitant to put forward maps of specific locations. However, even some large scale general maps of the areas covered showing obvious landmarks like rivers with putative locations of specific incidents would be a valuable addition.