[starman2003]

This is another beautifully illustrated Osprey title but it has a number of errors, one admitted in the book itself. The painting depicting the death of Julian in 363 shows Roman soldiers in lorica segmentata, which went out of use over a century earlier. And the interpretation of Naqsh-i-Rustem repeats the same old mistake of calling the kneeling figure Valerian. A painting based on that misinterpretation shows Valerian kneeling before Shapur. I emailed them about this and they'll check on it.
The book is still interesting and informative in places. Despite the aforementioned error the painting of the 363 confrontation is pretty neat: A Sassanian cavalryman with a winged helmet and armored face mask is shown impaling a Roman officer with a lance, while Sassanian war elephants come into action. Even the elephants have a kind of helmet and scale armor even covers their trunks.