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.
