With nearly 500 votes, I can confidently say that the themes for next year are based on the wishes of a significant part of our readership. It's interesting to see that the runners-up of 2011 have now won in every case, even without the boost of 25 votes they were assigned for their performance last year. In fact, bar issue VI.6 all results are very clear-cut with a good distance separating the winning themes from the others. That is great for us, as that likely means these issues will all be wildly popular!

It's always very exciting to me to see how many people feel sufficiently engaged with Ancient Warfare to submit their own ideas and wishes for the magazine's themes. I certainly can't complain about the suggestions for next year (Themes of 2012). As always, I have had to pin down the first one (V.1: Archaic Greek warfare), as I have to start solliciting proposals for that issue. I am still thinking about themes for next year's Special issue (suggestions still welcome!). That leaves the themes of five regular issues for you to vote on:

I know, 2011 has hardly started, but I figured it couldn't hurt to start thinking about next year. That'll ensure at least that we'll always have a nice long list of future themes to publish!

Readers of Ancient Warfare will surely be interested to read this careful review of Raffaele D'Amato and Graham Sumner's recent book The Arms and Armour of the Imperial Roman Soldier: From Marius to Commodus, 112 BC-AD 192. London 2009, at the Bryn Mawr Classical Review.

I've been absolutely swamped with well over 60 suggestions (Themes of 2011) for just six issues of Ancient Warfare in 2011. I've decided to pick one (V.1: Gaius Marius at War), as I have to start solliciting proposals for that issue. The theme for the Special has been set as well, though not with complete certainty. Next year is the 2500th anniversary (yes, next year, there's no year 0) of the Battle of Marathon, so that's almost a given. That leaves the themes of five regular issues for you to vote on:

On behalf of Dr.Mike Bishop, we're polling interest in a (re-)launch of the academic Journal of Roman Military Equipment Studies (JRMES).

It's that time of year again where I ask the readership for suggestions for themes of next year. This method seems to work well even though, as I said last year, some make me "go bald with worry about appropriate photography..."

If you're a regular listener to 'a certain general gaming podcast' The D6 Generation, you'll have noticed that though they discuss mostly non-historical games, they are not averse to history. Craig Gallant especially has expressed his love for Romans on more than one occasion.

Ross Cowan added some of his own thoughts on Murray Dahm's article in issue IV.2. Read Ross's blog here.

By David L.Reinke

"A victory? What have we won? We've won a rock in the middle of a wasteland, on the shores of a poisoned sea."

– Flavius Silva in the 1981 mini-series Masada

I vaguely remember watching at least part of Masada when it was first broadcast in 1981.  A direct result of the record-breaking success enjoyed by Roots, Masada was part of that Golden Age of the Television Mini-Series when the viewing public had an insatiable appetite for long form epic dramas of historic events.  So long as it was “Based Upon A True Story” the audience would seemingly buy anything, and lots of it.