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CAESAR S LEGION

THE EPIC SAGA OF JULIUS CAESAR S ELITE TENTH LEGION AND THE ARMIES OF ROME
STEPHEN DANDO-COLLINS
Copyright 2002 by Stephen Dando-Collins. All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley Sons, Inc., New York
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CONTENTS

Atlas
Acknowledgments
Author s Note
I Staring Defeat in the Face
II Impatient for Glory
III Savaging the Swiss, Overrunning the Germans
IV Conquering Gaul
V Invading Britain
VI Revolt and Revenge
VII Enemy of the State
VIII Broken Promises
IX The Race for Durr s
X A Taste of Defeat
XI The Battle of Pharsalus
XII The Sour Taste of Victory
XIII The Murder of Pompey the Great
XIV The Power of a Single Word
XV The North African Campaign
XVI Caesar s Last Battle
XVII Mark Antony s Men
XVIII Philippi and Actium
XIX In the Name of the Emperor
XX Knocked into Shape by Corbulo
XXI Orders from the Emperor
XXII Objective Jerusalem
XXIII The End of the Holy City
XXIV Masada
XXV Last Days
APPENDIX A The Legions of Rome, 30 B.C. - A.D.
APPENDIX B The Reenlistment Factor
APPENDIX C The Uniqueness of the Legion Commands in Egypt and Judea
APPENDIX D The Naming and Numbering System of the Roman Legions
APPENDIX E The Title Fretensis
APPENDIX F Imperial Roman Military Ranks and Their Modern-Day Equivalents
APPENDIX G Sources
Glossary
Index
ATLAS

1. The West, First Century B.C.
2. Britain and Gaul, 58-50 B.C.
3. The East, First Century B.C.
4. Spain, First Century B.C.
5. Southern Italy, the Balkans, Greece, and Asia, First Century B.C.
6. The Middle East, First Century A.D.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book would not have been possible without the immense help provided over many years by countless staff at libraries, museums, and historic sites throughout the world. To them all, my heartfelt thanks. Neither they nor I knew at the time what my labor of love would develop into. My thanks, too, to those who read my research material as it blossomed into manuscript form and made invaluable suggestions.
Most particularly, I wish to record my appreciation for the role played by three people in bringing this work to fruition. First, I want to thank Stephen S. Power, senior editor at John Wiley Sons, for his enthusiasm, encouragement, vision, and guidance.
Then there is Richard Curtis, my wonderful New York literary agent, who over a period of several years supported my aspirations, provided direction, and finally married me with an excellent publishing house. It was Richard who suggested I break down one massive tome on all the legions into histories of individual legions. Without him, there would have been no Caesar s Legion . In this increasingly impersonal new-fashioned electronic age, I can certify without reservation that in a brownstone on the Upper East Side there sits a man who embodies all the old-fashioned qualities that a writer dreams of finding in a literary agent. For a man who embraces technology and is at the forefront of the electronic publishing revolution, you really are a gentleman of the old school, Richard.
And then there is Louise, my wife of almost twenty years. What a roller-coaster ride she has taken with me all these years, never with a word of complaint, always with words of encouragement. How can I describe the role she has played in making this book, in making this writer? Roman historian Tacitus put it best, I think, in his Agricola . He was describing the relationship between his mother-in-law, Domitia, and Agricola, his father-in-law, but his words equally express the way I feel about the relationship my beloved wife and I have shared these past two decades: They lived in rare accord, maintained by mutual affection and unselfishness; in such a partnership, however, a good wife deserves more than half the praise, just as a bad one deserves more than half the blame.
AUTHOR S NOTE

Never before has a comprehensive history of an individual Roman legion been written. This book comes out of thirty years research on the Roman military, in the process of which it was possible to identify the fifty Augustan and post-Augustan legions raised between 84 B.C. and A.D. 231 and to compile detailed histories of most of them.
The works of numerous classical writers who documented the wars, campaigns, battles, skirmishes, and most importantly the men of the legions of Rome have come down to us. Authors such as Julius Caesar, Appian, Plutarch, Tacitus, Suetonius, Polybius, Cassius Dio, Josephus, Pliny the Younger, Seneca, Livy, Arrian. Without their labors this book would not have been possible.
Enough material exists, from sources classical and modern-detailed in the appendices of this work-to write whole books on the 14th Gemina Martia Victrix, the legion that beat Boadicea (or Boudicca, as she was actually called); on the 3rd Augusta, the legion that saved the life of St. Paul the Apostle; on the 6th Victrix, the legion that kidnapped Cleopatra and gave rise to Julius Caesar s most famous message, I came, I saw, I conquered ; and on the 12th Fulminata, the legion that gained its fame and its name in Marcus Aurelius s battles against the Germans so colorfully depicted in the movie Gladiator . To mention just a few.
But unquestionably the most renowned legion in its day was the 10th- Legio X . In fact, it was described as world famous when it arrived to join the Judean offensive of A.D. 67. Personally raised by Julius Caesar, the 10th Legion is on record as taking the leading role in all his battles, from a bloody initiation in Spain to the conquest of Gaul, the invasion of Britain, and the battles of the civil war against Pompey the Great that eventually made Caesar Dictator of Rome. The 10th Legion marched for Mark Antony and for Augustus. It whipped the Parthians under Corbulo, it squashed the Jewish Revolt for Vespasian, and it took the Temple at Jerusalem for Titus. It conquered Masada.
During the research for this work, light was shed on a number of issues relating to the legions, such as the uniqueness of legion commands in Egypt and Judea. But the most enlightening aspect of all was the reenlistment factor. The legions of Rome were recruited en masse , and the survivors discharged en masse at the end of their enlistment-originally after sixteen years, later, after twenty. Replacements were not supplied in the interim. The reenlistment factor explains why particular units were crushed in this battle or that-in some they were made up of raw recruits; in others, they were comprised of men of thirty-nine and fifty-nine about to go into retirement. A later appendix elaborates on the reenlistment factor.
Now to the matter of dates and names. For the sake of continuity, the Roman calendar-which varied by up to two months from our own-is used throughout this work. Place names are generally first referred to in their original form and thereafter by modern name, where known, to permit readers to readily identify locations involved. Personal names familiar to modern readers have been used instead of those technically correct- Antony instead of Antonius, Julius Caesar for Gaius Caesar, Octavian for Caesar, Pilate for Pilatus, Vespasian instead of Vespasianus, etc.
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries it became fashionable for some authors to refer to legions as regiments, cohorts as battalions, maniples as companies, centurions as captains, tribunes as colonels, and legates as generals. In this work, Roman military terms such as legion, cohort, maniple, and centurion have been retained, as it s felt they will be familiar to most readers and better convey the flavor of the time.
However, because of a lack of popular familiarity with the term legate, general and/or brigadier general are used here. Colonel and tribune are both used, to give a sense of relative status. Likewise, so that readers can relate to their ranks in comparison to today s military, when referred to in the military sense praetors are given as major generals and consuls as lieutenant generals. In this way, reference to a lieutenant general, for example, will immediately tell the reader that the figure concerned has been a consul.
I am aware that this approach to ranks is akin to having a foot in two camps and may not please purists, but my aim has been to make this book broadly accessible.
This is the story of the men of the 10th Legion. Men who made Rome great-one or two extraordinary men, and many more ordinary men who often did extraordinary things. In many ways they were not unlike us. But one wonders if we today could even begin to do what they did, to endure what they endured, to achieve what they achieved.
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