Nero's Killing Machine

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.

Table of Contents

Atlas.Acknowledgments.Author's Note.i. Facing the British Warrior Queen.ii. Wiped Out.iii. Rescue on the Sambre.iv. Cicero's Blunder.v. The Uprising.vi. The Rules of Plunder.vii. The Hill at Lerida.viii. Spitting in Scipio's Eye.ix. Left Behind.x. Antony and the Assassins.xi. Sextus, Sea Battles, and Suicides.xii. Pain in Spain, Glory in Germany.xiii. Blood and Guts in Pannonia.xiv. The Varus Disaster.xv. Mutiny on the Rhine.xvi. Going After Hermann the German.xvii. Showdown in Germany.xviii. Wrecked.xix. Claudius's Invaders.xx. Catching King Caratacus.xxi. Boudicca the Terrorist.xxii. Last Stand on Watling Street.xxiii. The Year of the Four Emperors.xxiv. Bloody Bedriacum.xxv. Storm on the Rhine.xxvi. The Gemina's Revenge.xxvii. Good-bye and Applaud Us.Appendices.Appendix A: The Legions of Rome, 30 b.c.-a.d. 233.Appendix B: Imperial Roman Military Ranks and Their Modern-Day Equivalents.Appendix C: The Praetorian Guard, the City Guard, the Night Watch.Appendix D: Sources.Glossary.Index.

Reviews

"Stephen Dando-Collins tracks the history of the 14th Legion...drawing on 30 years of research for the second of his definitive histories of ancient Roman armies. A fitting chronicle." (Military History)

About the Author

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 (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.