A new and penetrating assessment of Augustus as ancient Rome's military
commander-in-chief by an author rapidly establishing himself as one of
the leading historians of the period.
The words Pax Augusta - or Pax Romana - evoke a period of uninterrupted
peace across the vast Roman Empire. Lindsay Powell exposes this as a
fallacy. Almost every year between 31 BC and AD 14 the Roman Army was in
action somewhere, either fighting enemies beyond the frontier in
punitive raids or for outright conquest; or suppressing banditry or
rebellions within the borders.
Remarkably over the same period Augustus succeeded in nearly doubling
the size of the Empire. How did this second-rate field commander, known
to become physically ill before and during battle, achieve such
extraordinary success? Did he, in fact, have a grand strategy?
Powell reveals Augustus as a brilliant strategist and manager of war. As
commander-in-chief (imperator) he made changes to the political and
military institutions to keep the empire together, and to hold on to
power himself. His genius was to build a team of loyal but
semi-autonomous deputies (legati) to ensure internal security and to
fight his wars for him, while claiming their achievements as his own.
The book profiles more than 90 of these men, as well as the military
units under their command, and the campaigns they fought.
The book is lavishly illustrated with 23 maps, 42 color plates, 13 black
and white figures and 5 order of battle schematics. With a forward by
Karl Galinsky, this book breaks new ground in explaining the
extraordinary achievement of Caesar Augustus.
