Customer Reviews

Caesar's Legion: The Epic Saga of Julius Caesar's Elite Tenth Legion and the Armies of Rome

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The critical reviews on this site utterly miss the mark. Do we not weary of the "historian's" tiresome delusions regarding objectivity? This is a delightful read and easily as "factual" as anything the "academic guild" can manufacture. Read it and enjoy it. There are many other wonderful books that I have seen criticized on this site by some failed academic whose tiny bit of the world is, at last, made interesting by a writer from outside of the guild. Save the general intellectual reading public from the professional historians.

This was a wonderful and easy to read book. What made it so great, is that it read like a novel, but it was real history. What is really great is that even though I knew how the history turned out, I actually looked forward to reading it, and was upset when it was finished. A book for anyone who enjoys ancient history, the Romans, or military tactics.

This proves to be a pretty interesting effort but I think it fall bit too short for my taste. I think this book was geared too much toward the general readers. Much of the information seem rather generic in nature and book as a whole, don't say too much. For beginner level Roman military history, its a pretty passable book but for experience reader like myself - and perhaps like some of the previous reviewers, I found the some of the information pretty questionable, unproven or simplistic. There seem to be little source to the facts given and as previously reviewers noted, there were two 10th Legions and there seem to be no fact linking Caesar's 10th to the 10th that took Masada!! There are other books far superior then this, try again.

As noted in other reviews, this book is seriously flawed. The author seems unaware that there was more than one Tenth Legion in the Roman army. Supposedly a history of Julius Caesar's legio X Equestris (later Gemina), the author erroneously attributes to it the feats of another legion - X Fretensis. The result is confused and misinformed. Dando-Collins is to be avoided at all costs; either he is just a sloppy researcher or, worse, he has altered the facts to suit himself. If you want the truth read Keppie's Making of the Roman Army or Cowan's Roman Legionary books.

This book plot goes around the story of the most famous Legion of all times: Spanish 10th Legion. Raised originally by Julius Caesar around 61 BC while in charge of the governorship of Farther Spain (nowadays Andalucia) he personally raised and trained a Legion originally meant for his conquest of Portugal and which would later become a part of history.

The author tells us how Caesar trained the legion, took it to Lusitania (Portugal) for its baptism of fire, and how it played a key and vital role in the Invasion of Britain and the querrel of Vercingetorix's rebellion in the Gaul.
Apart from that, he mentions anecdotes about Roman lifestyle and traditions whenever possible, making it more enjoyable.

I strongly reccomend this book for everyone interested in digging more about Roman History and Military Tradition.

"Caesar's Legion" is partly a unit history of the famous 10th Legion, and partly the story of Rome's military adventures from the Gallic Wars through the fall of Masada. The book seems to be very carefully researched and it is certainly well written--Dando-Collins is fascinated by his subject, and his enthusiasm shows.

The Tenth Legion was, for most of its history, an elite and honored unit. Like America's 82d and 101st airborne divisions, the Tenth enjoyed a world-wide reputation for skill in battle. Dando-Collins explains how the Tenth earned its stripes, from recruitment and training to victory as the legion that usually occupied the position of honor on Caesar's right flank. As he does so, he tells the story of the centurions and other soldiers in the legion--how they were recruited, how long their terms of enlistment could be expected to last, when they would be promoted (if they lived) and how they could expect to spend their retirement.

Dando-Collins also points out some things that are probably old hat to students of Roman military history, but are very interesting to someone who is new to the subject. He explains, for example, that Roman javelins were designed so that they would bend upon striking an enemy shield (or an enemy), thus preventing the weapon from being re-used against the attacking legion. He also describes the remarkable training, discipline and mobility of a legion--on campaign, a unit like the Tenth might disassemble its fortified camp, march a great distance, assemble another camp to precise military specifications, and then repeat the process day after day until the enemy was run to ground.

In battle, a Roman legion would fight in a tight, disciplined infantry formation and engage enemy units first with javelins, then with Spanish swords in what must have resembled a rugby scrum from hell. A well-trained legion like the Tenth won far more often than it lost--the Romans understood that a soldier should sweat in peace so that he didn't have to bleed in war.

The story of the Tenth is told in the context of the times. Dando-Collins follows the Legion as it helps Caesar pacify Gaul, crosses the Rubicon and fights a civil war, endures the assassinations of Pompey and Caesar, casts its lot with Antony at Actium, and finally captures the Zealot fortress at Masada. The Romans, it seems, were very skilled and very ruthless, and the Tenth Legion (for better or worse) represented the pinnacle of their military art.

I can't find much to fault in this book except the lack of maps. How in the heck are you supposed to follow battle descriptions without a field map? How can one understand the sweep of the empire without political maps?

This is the second review I have done of this book. After studying all the primary sources he lists I find that this author has made up facts to fill in the gaps of the history of the Tenth Legions (there were more than one). For example he claims a Spanish origin for the Tenth and other legions. There is no primary source that states this, nor is there archaeological or epigraphic evidence that supports this claim. He claims that Caesar raised this and other legions in Spain and that these units fought for Caesar there prior to the Gallic Wars, again no evidence, no support for this claim. He claims that the Tenth Legion Fretensis is the same as Caesar's Tenth (where more scholarly works like Keppies' The Making of the Roman Army point out it is more likely the Tenth Legion Equestris that is the direct lineage unit), again no evidence or support, the author merely states it and assumes the reader will accept and believe it. I cannot recommend this book and agree with the reviewer that stated this author would be better at writing historical fiction, making up facts to fit a framework of actual history. He has made a good start with this book.

The premise is good, but this is not historical research. The author tries to mix the histories of three different units in the Roman military, and leaves out anything that doesn't fit. Of course, history is never 100% certain, but if the author wants to differ from the historical record in a written book, he must give adequate proof of his sources.
This is a great Roman historical novel, with many attachments and references to history, but the author really messes up when he tries to ignore the proven history of Legio X Fretensis, saying it didn't really exist. Then he unsucessfully tries to fit the Roman civil/military officer into some framework of modern military ranks. If that doesn't confuse the dedicated historian, he again makes a leap of research and takes and mixes recruiting practises from the late Republic, the Caesarian civil wars, and the first century A.D. into a soup of concrete. It may look good on the surface, but it doesn't hold weight, and it is not good history.
This is a quick read, and has been the subject of a lot of discussion among Roman military historians when there isn't anything more amusing to discuss over dinner. If you desire to know the history of the Tenth Legion of Julius Caesar there is a good chapter in the book.
This is a cute Roman "military history" book, but please don't use it for serious research. Of course with the weak endnotes, lack of footnotes and glaring errors, even a weekend historian will want to choose something else when spending his or her hard earned money. (Buy this one used!)

You will learns TONS of historical truths while reading this book. It's written in a way that doesn't make it a boring "History Book". It actually gives you the impression you are reading a great ficticious novel when everything in it is actual History!!
I would say that once you've read this book, then the other books by the same author (regarding Roman History) are not that interesting (significant repetition in them). However, reading this particular book is a MUST! You will thoroughly enjoy the story line (what a story really!!!) of the 10th Legion of Rome and at the same time learn the History of Rome through the centuries and of those countries it affected (e.g. Britain, Israel, Spain, Italy, Greece, etc).
I highly recommend it!