Osprey Men-at-Arms 129 : Rome's Enemies (1) : Germanics and Dacians

In about 1554, Augerois de Busbeck, a French traveller, came across a people he described as Goths on the shores of the Black Sea in the Crimea. After careful analysis of their language from examples surviving at the time of their discovery, philologists identified it as Gothic, with some alteration due to Slavonic influence. Chance references to all that remained of the once numerous and powerful Gothic nation cannot now be verified by the sophisticated anthropological methods available to us today. Thankfully, however, extensive skeletal evidence, not only of the Goths but of many other ancient Germanic peoples from the migration period, does exist. This fact has allowed anthropologists to establish the racial identity of peoples we should otherwise know by name only - colourless wraiths of the imagination. These vigorous northern 'barbarians' were the destroyers of the Western Empire of Rome. It was they who delivered the coup de grâce to the dying colossus in the south, subsequently creating medieval Europe, the feudal system and chivalry. It was their direct descendants who were the knights and men-at-arms. In every sense, they were the creators of the modern world; it is ironic that most of us know virtually nothing about them. Peter Wilcox explores the organisation, history, weapons and uniforms of the Germanics and Dracians who fought Rome two thousand years before our time. Accompanied by illustrations by Gerry Embleton.

Contents
• Chronology
• Introduction
• The Warrior
• Weapons
• Warfare
• Glossary