RARE edition of the French translation from Latin of Vegetius` "Epitoma Rei Militaris" - a rare reliable and useful insight into the success of the early Roman Empire, the only ancient manual of Roman military institutions to have survived intact, much studied in the Middle Ages. Contains b&w fold-out plan. 145x75mm. [XIII] + [XLVIII] + [260] + [56] pages. Brown leather Hardcover with ribbed spine. Cover rubbed and worn. Rear cover coming loose from binding. Cover edges and corners peeling. Three small wormholes on front cover, single small wormhole on rear cover and front inner cover. Spine almost wholly missing. Binding loose. Binding mostly broken between pages 40-41, 120-121, 170-171 and 182-183 (binding strings still intact). 2 front whitepages bottom part detached from binding. Small pen marks on whitepages upper edge. Small worm-mark on inner edge of pages 1-38 - NO damage to text. Some pages slightly dog-eared. Pages yellowing and slightly age-stained. [SUMMARY]: This extremely rare early French edition of the classic Roman military treatise has suffered some external damage to cover and binding, but is internally in good reading condition.