Nero's Killing Machine : The True Story of Rome's Remarkable Fourteenth Legion

by Dando-Collins, Stephen

• ISBN13: 9780470046388
• ISBN10: 0470046384
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-08-18
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

The 14th Gemina Martia Victrix Legion was the most celebrated unit of the early Roman Empire-a force that had been wiped out under Julius Caesar, reformed, and almost wiped out again. After participating in the a.d. 43 invasion of Britain, the 14th Legion achieved its greatest glory when it put down the famous rebellion of the Britons under Boudicca. Numbering less than 10,000 men, the disciplined Roman killing machine defeated 230,000 rampaging rebels, slaughtering 80,000 with only 400 Roman losses-an accomplishment that led the emperor Nero to honor the legion with the title "Conqueror of Britain." In this gripping book, second in the author's definitive histories of the legions of ancient Rome, Stephen Dando-Collins brings the 14th Legion to life, offering military history aficionados a unique soldier's-eye view of their tactics, campaigns, and battles.

Author Biography

STEPHEN DANDO-COLLINS is the author of Caesar's Legion: The Epic Saga of Julius Caesar's Elite Tenth Legion and the Armies of Rome, Cleopatra's Kidnappers: How Caesar's Sixth Legion Gave Egypt to Rome and Rome to Caesar, and Mark Antony's Heroes: How the Third Gallica Legion Saved an Apostle and Made an Emperor, all from Wiley. He is an Australian-born researcher, editor, and author who has spent the last three decades identifying and studying the individual legions of the Roman army of the late Republic and the empire of the Caesars.

Table of Contents

Atlas	v
Acknowledgments	xi
Author's Note	xiii
Facing the British Warrior Queen	1	(7)
Wiped Out	8	(18)
Rescue on the Sambre	26	(6)
Cicero's Blunder	32	(15)
The Uprising	47	(7)
The Rules of Plunder	54	(7)
The Hill at Lerida	61	(9)
Spitting in Scipio's Eye	70	(9)
Left Behind	79	(4)
Antony and the Assassins	83	(8)
Sextus, Sea Battles, and Suicides	91	(12)
Pain in Spain, Glory in Germany	103	(7)
Blood and Guts in Pannonia	110	(3)
The Varus Disaster	113	(17)
Mutiny on the Rhine	130	(9)
Going After Hermann the German	139	(13)
Showdown in Germany	152	(15)
Wrecked	167	(7)
Claudius's Invaders	174	(14)
Catching King Caratacus	188	(10)
Boudicca the Terrorist	198	(18)
Last Stand on Watling Street	216	(17)
The Year of the Four Emperors	233	(5)
Bloody Bedriacum	238	(12)
Storm on the Rhine	250	(7)
The Gemina's Revenge	257	(9)
Good-bye and Applaud Us	266	(37)
Appendices
Appendix A The Legions of Rome, 30 B.C.--A.D. 233	277	(4)
Appendix B Imperial Roman Military Ranks and Their Modern-Day Equivalents	281	(4)
Appendix C The Praetorian Guard, the City Guard, the Night Watch	285	(10)
Appendix D Sources	295	(8)
Glossary	303	(6)
Index	309