Book Review: ‘Post-Roman Kingdoms: ‘Dark Ages’ Gaul & Britain, AD 450–800’

A short, yet thorough study of post-Western Roman Empire armies

"Post-Roman Kingdoms: ‘Dark Ages’ Gaul & Britain, AD 450-800" By Raffaele D'Amato Osprey Publishing

When the Goths sacked Rome in A.D. 410, it marked the end of the Western Roman Empire and the beginning of what became known as the Dark Ages. There are countless books on the subject, or rather, subjects, but Raffaele D’Amato and Andrea Salimbeti have taken a different and more specific route on the subjects.

The new work “Post-Roman Kingdoms: ‘Dark Ages’ Gaul & Britain, AD 450–800” is less about the kingdoms and leaders that arose throughout the Late Roman world and more about the armies that fought for those kingdoms and what they fought with, such as wardrobe and weaponry.

Breaking Down Events and Armies

The new book, published by Osprey Publishing, is an intricately detailed work. The authors pull from numerous sources from the oral traditions of the Celtic and Germanic kingdoms that were eventually transcribed starting in the ninth century. Early in the book, there’s a chronology of events starting with the year of the sack of Rome to the end of the eighth century. The events in the short chronology typically center around military conflicts and their outcomes.