Military History in a Nutshell

My interest in the "Roman Reaper" called the Vallus has led me to try to improve my knowledge of the overall Roman world. The reaper was set in a context that must be understood before attempting to furthur deduce the shape of the machine.
I've been listening to the audio version of Gibbon's verbose Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. A classic in the field, but difficult to follow with Gibbon's 18th century prose. I'm catching about half of it. I need Humanities Scholar Clay Jenkinson and his Thomas Jefferson character to translate for me.
Osprey Publishing offers a wide array of succinct, well researched and documented guides on military history. If you are looking for brief yet thorough introductions to various topic with great illustrations, these may be the answer.
Often books on historical topics do a great job with history, but fall short in the area of illustrations. Some of the previous books on my blog have fit this bill. Osprey provides books with illustrations that may just be worth the 1000 words they may have left out.