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Gareth C. Sampson
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The Crisis of Rome: The Jugurthine and Northern Wars and the Rise of Marius Hardcover – June 16, 2010

by Gareth Sampson (Author)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 35 ratings
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In the later 2nd century BC, after a period of rapid expansion and conquest, the Roman Republic found itself in crisis. In North Africa her armies were already bogged down in a long difficult guerrilla war in a harsh environment when invasion by a coalition of Germanic tribes, the Cimbri, Teutones and Ambrones, threatened Italy and Rome itself, inflicting painful defeats on Roman forces in pitched battle.

Gaius Marius was the man of the hour. The first war he brought to an end through tactical brilliance, bringing the Numidian King Jugurtha back in chains. Before his ship even returned to Italy, the senate elected Marius to lead the war against the northern invaders. Reorganizing and reinvigorating the demoralized Roman legions, he led them to two remarkable victories in the space of months, crushing the Teutones and Ambrones at Aquiae Sextae and the Cimbri at Vercellae.

The Roman army emerged from this period of crisis a much leaner and more professional force and the author examines the extent to which the 'Marian Reforms' were responsible for this and the extent to which they can be attributed to Marius himself.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    192 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Pen and Sword Military
  4. Publication date
    June 16, 2010
  5. Dimensions
    6.25 x 1 x 9.75 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1844159728
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1844159727
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“…interesting account of an obscure but critically important period in the history of the Roman Republic, making good use of the admittedly limited sources to produce a clear picture of a series of wars that genuinely threatened the existence of the young empire.”
History of War

“…an intriguing account of one of Rome’s greatest warriors…”
Military Heritage

About the Author

After a successful career in corporate finance, Dr. Gareth Sampson returned to the study of ancient Rome and gained his PhD from the University of Manchester, where he currently teaches ancient history. He has made a detailed study of early Roman political history and in particular the political office of the tribunate of the plebs. He is currently engaged in a study of the power struggles and the civil warfare of the late Republic and its expansionist policies in the east.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pen and Sword Military; First Edition (1st printing), (June 16, 2010)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1844159728
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1844159727
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.35 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1 x 9.75 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 35 ratings

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Gareth C. Sampson

Gareth C. Sampson

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Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
35 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Gary
5.0 out of 5 stars Superb work of investigative history
Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2021
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Superb chronicle and analysis of the Roman conflicts with Numidia, the Teutones & the Cimbri. I especially enjoy how the author attempts to fill in missing events logically, which helps the reader construct a coherent picture of events. The great battles of Arausio, Suthul, Aquae Sextiae & Vercellae are also well explained.
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Katheryn Maddox Haddad
4.0 out of 5 stars but what it had was very good.
Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2016
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It covered a different era than I expected, but what it had was very good.
One person found this helpful
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Scott Bailey
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book on the Roman Empire showing the conduct of ...
Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2016
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Crisis of Rome describes the fighting between two fronts. One being in north Africa and the other being in Europe. This book tells the reader the key players and the fighting of the roman soldiers during this two front war. Great book on the Roman Empire showing the conduct of fighting a two front war. Great fighting spirt of the roman army. This was one of my first book on the Roman Empire and go a lot of information on it. Great book
One person found this helpful
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P. Greene
4.0 out of 5 stars A quality discussion of a neglected topic
Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2011
Gareth Sampson does a nice job with this overview of a very neglected figure in a lot of scholarship on the late Roman Republic. It's very difficult to find an English language, scholarly work on the Age of Marius...however, Sampson does a good job narrating events, interpreting ancient sources, and analyzing the political ramifications of the Marian reforms and exploits against Jugurtha and the Cimbri. Overall, a quality book, despite some issues with editing and clarity. That being said, a nice piece of work overall.
16 people found this helpful
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John Ben Green
2.0 out of 5 stars Jbg in Waco
Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2011
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If one is interested in descriptions of battles, weaponry, in deed details of any sort, save your money; however, the author does a thorough, if redundent, job of relating the lack of data regarding events. It appears the author was committed to a certain number of words for publication without restrictions on how often the same words and sentiments were utilized. After one reads the introduction, one need go no further.
12 people found this helpful
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x123y987z
1.0 out of 5 stars The description doesn't match this book!
Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2023
Rating is for the description, not the book. Please fix the description to reflect this book, which is NOT about WWI.
One person found this helpful
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biz
1.0 out of 5 stars Another Nonsample
Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2017
i love these samples. this one was supposed to entice me to pay over 13$ by generously allowing me to read the acknowledgements and list of illustrations of a little published author.
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Hector Javier Willys Duarte
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing story, very well narration
Reviewed in Mexico on March 21, 2023
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The Jugurthine and Northern wars are very interesting topics and key to understand the character of Marius. The author makes a great job narrating it in a clear and engaging way.
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Jean-Pierre Ollivier
5.0 out of 5 stars Very readable and excellent analysis
Reviewed in Germany on September 5, 2021
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This is a rare gem. A book that combines in depth research with analysis that allows us to piece together an obscure time in Roman history that was a time of crisis. The author sets out what we know, what the early sources say, compares them and works out plausible scenarios, while separating facts from assessments, all in a clear and enjoyable reading style. Kudos.
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I.S.
5.0 out of 5 stars A worthy read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 20, 2013
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A very descent work. Doesn't wonder around, provides exatly what you would expect from a book with this title and of this size. What makes it really worth reading is that the author tends to not just state the facts but also do a good deal of analysis.
The only problem that I had with this book is that I received a different edition (the cover was different). I can't say anything about the edition with Marius on the cover, but mine had an overall impression of having been poorly edited. Not mentioning a great amount of typographical errors throughout the whole book it had, for example a blank page titled: "List of illustrations to follow once images are finalized". For me this is the second book of Pen & Sword Military that has that kind of problem (other one being "Mithridates the Great: Rome's Indomitable Enemy"), which is kind of strange considering that quality of paper and cover is quite ok.
But that is a minor thing. Otherwise a really worthy read.
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JPS
4.0 out of 5 stars Good presentation of the period and its historiographical issues
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 16, 2014
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This is a rather good book which goes beyond what its title suggests. It is mostly about the war against Jugurtha, the northern wars and the rise of Marius. However, it is – and needs to be – more than just a narrative covering the last decade and a half or so of the second century BC.

This is because to understand what happened between 115 and 100 BC, there is a need to go back some thirty years at least, up to the destruction of Carthage and Corinth, or even further at times. This need to provided context is all the more necessary because the book is not only about three sets of events. Rather, the author manages to tell the story of how Rome adapted – or, perhaps more accurately, initially failed to adapt - to its imperial role. It also seeks to give the reader a feel of (almost literally) cut-throat ultra-competitive Roman politics, and how it became steadily more violent over the period.

In all these aims, the author has been largely (although perhaps not entirely) successful.

His first success is to show throughout the book, including in his set of appendixes, to what extent some of the assumptions currently made are in fact guesses which are not backed by any historical source. This is because we have gaps for critical parts and events of the period, including the lost volume of Titus Livius and the absence of any comprehensive narrative of the invasions of the Cimbri, Teutones (and others).

He also shows how little we really know about the supposedly sweeping “military reforms” that Marius – the “providential man”- allegedly introduced. Some of them were much less sweeping than historians have initially presented them to them. For instance, he did not, in fact, create a “professional army” because it was not a standing army. Both his legionaries, and those of the warlords that would come after him were paid a stipend while on campaign but demobilised at the end of each war. Moreover, the author shows that his “reforms” were practical at hoc measures to address very specific needs and that he was not the first to have introduced such reforms because these needs were wildly known.

One of these was the need to increase Roman manpower and this largely stemmed from the fact that the Roman Republic had become overstretched. Again, the author does a good job in showing to what extent this was the case, with the Republic getting embroiled in one war after another. This was partly as a result of previous expansion and partly because of competitive Roman politics, with each new Roman governor wanting to make a name for himself (and fill his pockets) during his tenure.

A fourth strong point of this book is to insert both the war against Jugurtha and the wars against the Cimbri and Teutones alongside all the other conflicts going on and showing their impact on Roman day-to-day politics. While this may lead to some back and forth and repetitions and force the reader to jump from one set of events to another, it does clearly show how these interacted.

Turning to the military campaigns, Gareth Sampson does again a rather good job in presenting the intentions of both sides, the problems that the various sets of opponents raised for the Romans. He is also good at analysing the various events. To some extent, his attempts to reconstruct the battles and to determine intentions may seem conjectural or even speculative at times, and it probably is. They nevertheless have the merit of being plausible or even quite likely. One element that I found particularly valuable was to show that the Roman armies were far from invincible. They were particularly vulnerable to ambushes, suffered from divided or poor command, and could break and be routed – as they were a number of times by the Cimbri and Teutones – especially when heavily outnumbered and deployed on unfavourable ground. Perhaps one of the best illustrations of this was the Roman disaster of Arausio which the author rightly ranks as being at least on par with Cannae.

Another valuable point is to show the tactical abilities of Jugurtha, but also to make sense of the apparently aimless wanderings of the “barbarian hordes” of Cimbri and Teutones (and a couple of other groups of tribes). Regarding the later, these seem to have been federations of tribes and, from a military point of view, they were probably not as crude as depicted by the Romans and seem to have learned quite a bit on how to fight them effectively from their victories against them.

There is however a few “glitches” in this book that prevent me from awarding it five stars. One is the existence of repetitions. These are at least partly a consequence of the author’s choice to tell several inter-acting stories in parallel. The existence of summaries at the end of his sections also leads to repetitions. These are also deliberate and probably intended to “remind” the so-called “general reader” of the main points which have just been made. They may (and, according to some of the other reviewers, have) put some readers off.

There are a few other problems as well. One is about numbers, where there is often a lack of clarity, especially with regards to the Cimbri and Teutones. These are alleged to have heavily outnumbered the Romans every time. However, the numbers given for these hordes – a quarter of a million for the smallest one and perhaps double that number for the largest with women and children all counted in – would not necessarily lead to an overwhelming superiority in numbers in all cases (even when considering that one out of every four Barbarian would be a warrior).

Another point that could have been discussed more in depth was the alleged “poor quality” of Jugurtha’s forces that the author contrasts with their leader’s military talent. The opposition is may be an over-simplification and a bit artificial. Numidian was renowned throughout Antiquity as first-class light skirmishing cavalry, and Numidian light infantry was not “poor quality”, even if perhaps not as good. What the author probably should have said was that neither was able to hold their ground in a pitched battle against more heavily equipped and better disciplined heavy Roman infantry operating in closed orders. Implying that one type of army is “poor quality” as opposed to the other because it is not fighting in the style it is equipped and trained to fight seemed a bit odd to me.
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Mr. R. S. Cuthbertson
5.0 out of 5 stars Jurgurtha was smart! Just not smart enough
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 3, 2012
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I have read this and the authors book the defeat of Rome and found both excellent reads. In this book I especially enjoyed the coverage of the Jurgurthine War. The northern wars were hard to follow in places due to the amount of guess work but this is no fault of the author asthe ancient sources paid more attention to the actions of jurgurtha rather than the far more deadly northern invasion. Great read
One person found this helpful
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