New department: Roman army in detail

Here in the office, we’re continuously trying to think up ways to keep our magazines fresh. For example, Christy Beall, our designer, has created a brand new interior layout for the next Medieval Warfare (issue VI.4), and she’ll be taking a stab at revamping Ancient Warfare in a similar fashion. We’re all very curious to see how you will respond to the new layout.

But it’s also important, I think, to periodically shake up the actual content of the magazine. With volume IX of Ancient Warfare, I introduced a new recurring department called ‘Hollywood Romans’, in which Graham Sumner and David L. Reinke take turns in discussing movies and television series set in the ancient world, such as most recently I, Claudius.

Issue X.5 of Ancient Warfare will debut a new department that I’ve tentatively called ‘Graphic History’. It’s a two-page spread with a comic on the right-hand page and a short article describing the source of the comic and some of the evidence on the left-hand page. The comic is written by the author of the accompanying article (i.e. yours truly), while the art is handled by the talented Fausto Bica.

Starting with issue X.6, we’ll have another recurring department that’s now being referred to as ‘The Roman Army in Detail’. Jasper Oorthuys, founding editor of Ancient Warfare, will be coordinating this new segment, which will take up about 2 to 4 pages in every issue of the magazine from X.6 onwards.

This new department will focus on discussing, as the title already suggests, a particular detail regarding the Roman army, such as types of swords, shield decoration, helmet crests, camp fortifications, and so forth. The first instalment will be handled by regular contributor Duncan Campbell, but you are free to submit proposals for future entries or, indeed, to send me questions that you would like to see answered in this series.

As always, you can send me your proposals or questions via our handy form.