Sunday, July 13, 2008

Great Magazine!


I first heard about Ancient Warfare magazine on the Romanarmy.com Web site. Jasper Oorthuys, who is the site moderator, mentioned that he would be editing Ancient Warfare. At the time, I didn't want to commit to a full year subscription for about $70.00 plus shipping from Europe. Now, however, I can get it issue by issue from a local game store, The Panzer Depot, in Kirkland, WA. In a rapid cash expulsion moment, I bought the current issue plus all the available back issues, plus I went online to find other sources of the out-of-print issues. 

I am very happy with the magazine. It's not an in-depth scholarly publication, but the contributors have strong credentials as writers and historians with a specialty in the field. The illustrations are superb and are worth the $12.50 cost per issue alone.

I'm now committed to this subscription through The Panzer Depot, but have no buyer's remorse. I highly recommend the magazine to anyone who is interested in the ancients period (as you know from my earlier post that I am).

I've read through several of the articles in the issues I have with me and they are all very interesting, though it's sometimes obvious that English is not the first language of some of the writers. (Sometime syntax that is odd there appears.) Each issue is themed for a particular aspect of ancient warfare. For example, one issue was themed for the Roman conquest of Hispania from the Punic War to the time of complete subjugation during the reign of Augustus. Another issue (shown here) was devoted to light infantry and contained a terrific article by Ross Cowan on the lanciarii of the later empire. A future issue will be themed for the Ancient Near East. There is a lot to look forward to in coming issues.

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