Rome's Enemies (1): Germanics and Dacians (Men at Arms Series, 129)

Rating:
Summary: Its an okay book
Review: Being a junior History buff, I looked into this book, interested in learning a little more about the traditional enemies (and allies) of Rome. This book wasn't too awfully dissapointing, but it wasn't all that great either, hence the 4 stars.
For one, there was a decisive lack of Dacians in this book. There was 1 Illustation for the Dacians (the cover illustration), and about a page and a half about them. Indeed, even with the Germans, there is a woefully short amount of imformation about THEM. The couple pages of historical quotes about them and their bearing in battle was interesting, but other than that, there was hardly anything of substance about these two people.
One thing though - if you are interested in Germanic and Dacians Standards, swords, axes, or shields, get this book. Half of the book, quite literally, is about the evolution of weapons and armor, their exact sizes, their shapes, etc. I did find this part helpful, since my father is in to weapons-making, especially archaic weapons. Using the diagrams in this book, we made 2 Franciscas, which came out quite nicely made.

Rating:
Summary: Nice Pictures but nothing written of substance
Review: Osprey's Men-At-Arms seriesmay be the greatest source for depicting how historical warrior's dressed and may give you a good pallette for painting wargames miniatures, but the facts they quote as history leave alot to be desired. The illustrations are wonderful and the b&w photos of artifacts are interesting but a serious student of history can find better sources other than this book. I give them 5 stars on the pictures but only 1 on the subject matter at hand.