How it was

When Jon and I conceived the idea of a 3rd edition of Roman Military Equipment (which quickly expanded into what we termed Project B&C3), he was still in the process of writing his magnum opus on Trajan’s Column. We agreed I would press ahead with the necessary updates to my sections (and add a new one) whilst he finished that work, which had priority. He would then update his parts of B&C3, add another new one, we would swap them round to edit, amend, and enhance each other’s work, and so complete the main volume.

Or so we thought. When I saw him at the beginning of what would transpire to be his last week of life, we briefly discussed what should be done with the book. He had accumulated a large number of new bibliographic references of new or previously overlooked publications but, understandably, had not had time to do anything with them.

To understand the way that we worked together you need to understand my reliance upon Jon’s opinion of what I wrote. To my mind, there was no peer reviewer finer than him and what he said was gospel (except when I disagreed with it, obviously; in such cases I endeavoured to follow the spirit, if not the letter, of his views).

How it is

So here I am, faced with no review by Jon of my new text, no new text from him, and most crucially no giggly, late-night Skype calls where we bash out a final form that, mirabile dictu, is actually not half bad. That cannot now happen, so I am faced with the question: where do we go from here?

How it will be

We have Jon’s computer and full access to the files on it. Using his bibliographic additions, it will be possible to work out what he wanted to add into the text, whether in the form of new finds, new references to old finds, or just new ideas and concepts that he had embraced (18 years is a long time not to have changed one’s mind about anything!). I can add or substitute a selection of this new material into the existing illustrations in much the same way as I am doing for my sections.

We had intended adding two new sections, one mostly by me and one by Jon. As was our way, having written them we would have swapped them over for rewriting or comments etc. I had written mine but he had not had time to start his. This means I will have to take that on if I go ahead with the new sections (they are such that it will be both or neither going into the book).

We had never taken the book proposal to a publisher and had no contract (although we sort of assumed we would first offer it to Oxbow if only because they published the 2nd edition). That did not particularly bother us since, when push comes to shove, I could always publish and market it myself.

So that is the state of play. Nothing can happen to Jon’s section until his wife and I have successfully finished his Trajan’s Column book and sent it on its way, so completion for B&C3 before the end of 2025 seems unlikely. Unlikely, but not impossible; watch this space. And what about the other bits (source books, bibliography, and Introduction to RME)? They will still come, but the book will take priority.