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Rating: 
Summary: Good but not Superlative
Review: Montague's book is great as a definitive compilation of the wars of the classical Greco-Roman world. I, however, found it lacking because the author did not go into depth in any particular battle. Battlefield schimatics, which would bring an entirely more comprehensive depth to the text, are rare, and the military tactics of some of the world's greatest generals find themselves subordinate to the breadth of the subject itself.
Rating: 
Summary: Nothing but battles
Review: This book is sure to become a gem someday, at least for wargamers.Right from the start the author lists all the major and minor battles from the Persian Wars through to the end of the Roman Republic. When he can he lists the size and composition of both armies involved, a little background to the particular battle, what happened, and the end result. He also makes a mention of how "trusted" his data is for each battle. The battles are listed in chronological order, with a heading of each campaign or war they occurred. After each description are references to some more common original sources (Thycudides, Xenophon, etc) for those that wish more detail. He has some excellent geographical maps for the Hellenestic world, marking most major cities (on some level) involved or mentioned in this book. Montagu provides some excellent indicies & timelines of the battles, the partcipants, and the outcome. He also has a good discussion of the validity of his reported "facts" right at the start. This book could be helped out with more diagrams of individual battles - there are precious few of these. And this book is also not the end-all of information about any particular battle or war. But it will be an invaluable reference for me, and it contains more than enough information and references to be an excellent starting point for further research. This book is sure to grace the shelves of most wargamers' and military historians' libraries.
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