Marius' Mules: The Conquest of Gaul [Paperback]

Marius' Mules is a good historical fiction novel that follows Caesar's conquest of Gaul, starting in 58BC. I have a little trouble with the name of the book, as it suggests the time of Marius and Sulla when something alluding to Caesar would feel more appropriate. The title is a reference to a legionary reform of Gaius Marius just before Caesar's birth, where the legionaries consolidated their personal kit so it could be carried individually on the march. Since some of the legions under Caesar's command in Gaul were born in the time of Marius, Caesar's uncle, it is a theme of the book.

The characters are believable and the historical content is quite good with lots of attention to detail that does not come at the expense of a good story. Turney does a good job of depicting the campaigns primarily through the eyes of senior legates and centurions, which of course brings people like Caesar and Labienus into the scenes without having them dominate the landscape. Labienus could certainly have played a bigger role, and as a character I would say he was grossly under-utilized.

I don't want to spoil the story by going into too much detail, and while my review focuses on some criticisms I want to stress that I enjoyed it very much. At times I found myself differing with the author's depiction of real characters and also some of the political motivations surrounding the events, but overall it is a very noble effort and I rarely read a historical fiction where this is not an issue. Having read this on the tail of Conn Iggulden's absolute garbage "Emperor" series, I welcomed the relief of discovering my trauma is not permanent and that I could enjoy a Caesar story once again.

There is one glaring problem with this book: it reads like a first draft that was not edited. We can all deal with a typo here and there, but, Marius' Mules reads like an unpolished DIY rather than a professional novel. This is really a shame because all the potential for a great book is present. There is literally a lack of editing visible on virtually every other page, from poor punctuation to double words or too many words and the occasional sentence that makes little or no sense. This makes for a very awkward read at times, and I found myself being conscious of it more than I would prefer, and I happily would have solved this problem for a free copy of the book.

A dialog of Caesar's, like, "This (money) is to be used sparingly, as it has to last, but should certainly be enough to cover these units", does not sound like the efficient Caesar I have come to know from the primary sources. A good editor would have axed "as it has to last". Or, "I can't really understand" instead of "I don't understand". Or, "I will want you commanding the cavalry" instead of "I want you commanding the cavalry" or "you will command the cavalry". I just opened the book and these jumped out at me; a few examples. Not nearly the most egregious but I wasn't taking notes.

Also, I have to say the dialog could certainly have been better, and at times it feels too modern. For example, a centurion at one point says something to the effect of, "Ours is not to reason why, it is to do or die". If I am not mistaken, this is from the Charge of the Light Brigade poem written in 1854. Perhaps it is appropriate, but something more original would be appreciated.

Overall I very much enjoyed this story, and with some extra editing it has the potential to be high quality historical fiction. On balance my complaints are minor, and I recommend people support this author by giving it a chance and hopefully he can tighten it up in the future.

I knew we were in trouble on the first page of this novel, when our hero doesn't know why Caesar is in Aquileia, reckons him a great general, has been listening to him make noises about the conquest of Gaul, is himself with the Tenth, and thinks about legionary commanders who move from unit to unit. Caesar was in fact in Aquileia to retrieve three legions which he had probably intended, before this, to use in campaigns to the northeast. Those plans had been disrupted by the decision of the Helvetii (inhabitants of what is now Switzerland) to cross the Rhone river into the Roman province in Gaul (what is now more or less Provence in southern France). The Tenth is thought to have been that 'one legion' which Caesar says was in the Gallic province when he arrived there from Rome. When this story opens, that one legion was holding the border defense against the Helvetii, which it had quickly assembled under Caesar's direction. All that before he sped back to Aquileia to retrieve the three legions encamped there. (And no, Caesar could not have been to Aquileia earlier to "check things out." He had not left Rome for nearly two years, after returning there from Spain by sea.) Prior to this spring of 59 BC, Caesar had had only one brief outing as a general, that in Spain a couple of years earlier, which had shown him capable but not among the top ten. Finally, legionary commanders were a post-Caesarian, or possibly a Caesarian, invention. He seems to have taken a significant step in that direction by assigning his legati (assistants) to such a post. Now, before our author sat down to write a series of novels about the conquest of Gaul and the first Roman forays into Britain, might he not have been wise to read Caesar's own "Commentaries," maybe a popular history of Rome, one of Adrian Goldsworthy's books on the army, and Lawrence Keppie's "The Making of the Roman Army"? This cannot be described as a historical novel of any merit or quality. It only serves to reveal the author's utter ignorance of things Roman and military.

Marius's Mules presents a meticulous attention to detail and to historic fact . But the line between fact and fiction is seamless and invisible thus offering an entertaining and unpatronising read. The characters, led by the worn persona of Fronto are supremely 'everyman' and therefore utterly believable.
Whilst one has historically been informed that Roman conquests were the result of the foresight and brilliance of men like Caesar, this book flies in the face of that concept, revealing a far more likely idea . . . that perhaps the ingenuity was in Caesar's weary officers, just as the muscle and effort came from the legions of men who fought for Rome.
Turney gives us idiosyncratic men of wry humour, with a healthy disrespect for authority and an even healthier belief that 'what doesn't kill one makes one stronger.'
The battle scenes are delivered with pace, movement and colour, full of cinematographic grandeur and laden with dust, guts and bravery.
I am ignorant of much of ancient history, but this novel offered so much information in such a measured way that it is impossible not to recommend it. Five stars.

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