Nero's Killing Machine: The True Story of Rome's Remarkable 14th Legion - Paperback

by Stephen Dando-Collins (Author)

The Glorious Saga of the Most Celebrated Legion of the Early Roman Empire

The 14th Gemina Martia Victrix Legion was the most celebrated military unit of the early Roman Empire. After participating in the A.D. 43 invasion of Britain, the legion achieved its greatest glory when it put down the famous rebellion led by Britain's Queen Boudicca. Numbering less than 10,000 men, the disciplined Roman soldiers defeated 230,000 rampaging British rebels, slaughtering 80,000 while incurring only 400 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 a unique soldier's-eye view of their tactics, campaigns, and battles and exploring the gruesome realities of war in the Classical Age. Based on his thirty-two years of painstaking research into the Roman military, Nero's Killing Machine paints a striking portrait of daily life in the legion as it traces its storied history--beginning with the disastrous day in 54 B.C. when, led into a trap while serving under Julius Caesar, the legion was wiped from the face of the earth.

Filled with previously unknown details about Roman military practices, Nero's Killing Machine is a riveting, eye-opening history of the mean who made Rome great.

Back Jacket

The Saga of the Most Celebrated Legion of the Early Roman Empire

In Nero's Killing Machine, the second in the author's definitive histories of the legions of ancient Rome, Stephen Dando-Collins brings the 14th Legion to vivid life. Drawing upon thirty-two years of research, he traces the legion's steps as they were wiped out while in the army of Julius Caesar, then reformed only to be savaged again. For decades the men of the 14th would struggle to regain their lost status, slowly climbing back to glory before eventually claiming a legendary victory over Britain's Queen Boudicca, despite being vastly outnumbered. Uncovering new information about the legionnaires' lives and Roman military practices, Nero's Killing Machine is military history at its finest.

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.