To some extent this is a massive expansion of the second chapter in Dvornik's classic 'The Origins of Intelligence Services', but it also benefits greatly from renewed interest in how the Romans organized and operated their foreign and internal security in actual practice. Although the Romans did not have any organization we can now point to and call "the Roman KGB" or "Roman NSA" they did have spies, scouts, and conduct what we now call "human intelligence" to some degree of success -- as evidenced by the fact that their empire was kept reasonably well informed of internal troublemakers and foreign enemies.
This book is clearly written, well organized, and packed with information. Of particular interest is the way in which the author takes well-trod events, such as the disaster at Carrhae and Caesar's invasion of Britain, and breaks it down in terms of how information flowed in an intelligence cycle. Perhaps the most interesting chapter in the entire book is the one dealing with the Roman signalling systems on the frontier, which ranged from foot messengers to semaphore. The only fault I found with the book was the ridiculous amounts of whitespace that only serves to inflate the pagecount, and the poor quality of some of the map graphics.
This book makes an outstanding companion to Austin and Rankov's 'Exploratio', and deserves to be on the shelf of anyone interested in Roman frontier studies, the legions, or has an interest in how the Romans kept their population under control and their enemies under surveillance.
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Tinker, Tailor, Caesar, Spy
To some extent this is a massive expansion of the second chapter in Dvornik's classic 'The Origins of Intelligence Services', but it also benefits greatly from renewed interest in how the Romans organized and operated their foreign and internal security in actual practice. Although the Romans did not have any organization we can now point to and call "the Roman KGB" or "Roman NSA" they did have spies, scouts, and conduct what we now call "human intelligence" to some degree of success -- as evidenced by the fact that their empire was kept reasonably well informed of internal troublemakers and foreign enemies.This book is clearly written, well organized, and packed with information. Of particular interest is the way in which the author takes well-trod events, such as the disaster at Carrhae and Caesar's invasion of Britain, and breaks it down in terms of how information flowed in an intelligence cycle. Perhaps the most interesting chapter in the entire book is the one dealing with the Roman signalling systems on the frontier, which ranged from foot messengers to semaphore. The only fault I found with the book was the ridiculous amounts of whitespace that only serves to inflate the pagecount, and the poor quality of some of the map graphics.This book makes an outstanding companion to Austin and Rankov's 'Exploratio', and deserves to be on the shelf of anyone interested in Roman frontier studies, the legions, or has an interest in how the Romans kept their population under control and their enemies under surveillance.
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Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2009
To some extent this is a massive expansion of the second chapter in Dvornik's classic 'The Origins of Intelligence Services', but it also benefits greatly from renewed interest in how the Romans organized and operated their foreign and internal security in actual practice. Although the Romans did not have any organization we can now point to and call "the Roman KGB" or "Roman NSA" they did have spies, scouts, and conduct what we now call "human intelligence" to some degree of success -- as evidenced by the fact that their empire was kept reasonably well informed of internal troublemakers and foreign enemies.
This book is clearly written, well organized, and packed with information. Of particular interest is the way in which the author takes well-trod events, such as the disaster at Carrhae and Caesar's invasion of Britain, and breaks it down in terms of how information flowed in an intelligence cycle. Perhaps the most interesting chapter in the entire book is the one dealing with the Roman signalling systems on the frontier, which ranged from foot messengers to semaphore. The only fault I found with the book was the ridiculous amounts of whitespace that only serves to inflate the pagecount, and the poor quality of some of the map graphics.
This book makes an outstanding companion to Austin and Rankov's 'Exploratio', and deserves to be on the shelf of anyone interested in Roman frontier studies, the legions, or has an interest in how the Romans kept their population under control and their enemies under surveillance.
This book is clearly written, well organized, and packed with information. Of particular interest is the way in which the author takes well-trod events, such as the disaster at Carrhae and Caesar's invasion of Britain, and breaks it down in terms of how information flowed in an intelligence cycle. Perhaps the most interesting chapter in the entire book is the one dealing with the Roman signalling systems on the frontier, which ranged from foot messengers to semaphore. The only fault I found with the book was the ridiculous amounts of whitespace that only serves to inflate the pagecount, and the poor quality of some of the map graphics.
This book makes an outstanding companion to Austin and Rankov's 'Exploratio', and deserves to be on the shelf of anyone interested in Roman frontier studies, the legions, or has an interest in how the Romans kept their population under control and their enemies under surveillance.
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