Ceasar's Legion

Stephen Dando-Collins. Caesars’ Legion: The Epic Saga of Julius Caesar’s Elite Tenth and the Armies of Rome. New York: John Weiley & Sons, Inc. 2002.

They were the most famous and accomplished military unit of their day, raised personally by Juluis Caesar as the first step in his relentless quest for power and glory. Caesar’s Tenth Legion took the lead role in all their battles, from their bloody initiation in Spain and Portugal to the conquest of Gaul, the invasion of Britain, and the battles of the Civil War. Stephan Dando-Collins provides and extraordinary detailed history of the Tenth Legion- it’s officers, it’s men, and it’s incredible string of victories, which continued even after Caesar’s death with the siege of Jerusalem. Based on the author’s thirty years of painfulness research into the Roman military, using sources ranging from classical texts to tombstone inscriptions. The ambitious Roman military built reputations through conquest, raw recruits, became harden foot soldiers, and the Tenth Legion became a killing machine. Marching, digging, charging, ramming down gates, scaling battles, storming through towns and villages, and slaughtering anyone whom stood

Caesar was one of the greatest generals in the history of the world. He had an ambition and desire to conquer anything and everything that stood in his way. According to Suetonius, during Caesar’s first posting to Spain, while gazing at a statue of Alexander the Great in Cadiz, Caesar was to lament to his associates that at his age Alexander had already conquered the entire world. In Cadiz, Caesar gave an order to his chief of staff, Lucius Corneluis Balbus to raise a new legion. Following the pattern of Pompey, Caesar gave the new legion the number ten and Legio X was born. Caesar appointed six tribunes, all young colonels in their late teens and early twenties. Roman Legionaries average 5’4” in height, primary because of their diet. This will come to be important in a later battle in Britain. The Tenth was capable of marching 25 miles a day with a pack weighing up to 100 pound in their back. Collins credits Polybius, who describes the construction of legion camps in great detail. They would build a 12 feet high wall with a trench 12 feet deep and 3 feet across. They would do this day in and day out after walking 25 miles a day with their heavy equipment as part of their initiation. In Lusitania many legionaries killed their first man. In those month of the spring and summer of 61 B.C., the 10th stormed through towns and villages, cutting down anyone who stood in their way and the 10th Legion became a killing machine. After his campaigns in Spain, Caesar promised the 10th that if he ever had an opportunity to lead troops in the service of Rome again, he would send for the 10th Legion.

Julius Caesar did not have sole power for long. Brutus would have struck, Caesar would have gasped in Greek, “You, too, my child?” How could Brutus done such a thing after Caesar spared his life in Pharsalus? According to some classical historians, Caesar covered his head like Pompey when he died. The elite 10th marched with Antony and Augustus, and Vespian. From the Battle of Masada to Jerusalem and the Dacian Wars, by 144 A.D. not a single Spaniard would have marched in the ranks of the 10th Legion

in their way. Dando-Collins reveals unknown details about Roman military practices, conducts as a commander from Julius Caesar and his relationship with officers and legionaries. Stephan Dando-Collins is an Australian-born researcher, editor, and author who has spend the last three decades identifying and studying the individual legions of the Roman army of the late Republic and the empire of the Caesars.

In the battle of Gaul, Caesar and his troops were trapped. Heavily outnumbered the 10th plowed into their flanks at the charge. According to Plutarch, the 10th displayed human courage and loyalty to their general that day. After an initial cavalry skirmish, German leaders came to the Roman Camp to discuss peace. Caesar broke the international rules of neutrality by making them his prisoners, an act that brought him much

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