08-24-2001, 06:47 PM
I am about half way thru reading<br>
"In quest of the lost Legions, the Varusschlacht"<br>
by Tony Clunn, Minerva Press 1999, ISBN 0 75411 068 0<br>
<br>
Has anyone read it? From what I have read so far I warmly suggest you get the book. It is an interesting mix of dairies of the author, during the digs and detective work that led up to the discovery of a major battle at Kalkriese, and a fictional story telling of the Varus-Arminius battle, interspersed with effectively placed quotations from Tacitus and Cassius Dio. So far I like the book although it is frustrating that there are very few figures and maps. Indeed the author tells much of his field work and metal detector explorations describing hills, valleys, knolls and moors but it is difficult and somewhat tedious after the first series of such passages to continue to try imagine the scenery without at least a decent map. The maps included in the figure panels are almost useless if only because they are reproduced very poorly. In particular the movements of the legions could have been shown more effectively with only a little more effort (I think). I hope a future edition - maybe with an update of the finds and conclusions - can correct these obvious defects. The fictional parts get more subtantial and longer as the book progresses. I find them exciting and very plausible, especially well written in the descriptions of scenes. The dialogue is essential and doesn't distract too much from what was probably the author's real goal: reconstructing "atmospheres" and telling a sequence of things that probably happened rather than tyring to re-create personalities (those proposed are the standard ones but, as Goldsworthy says a few times in his Punics, without any sources to say otherwise it is best to stick to the only ones we have). Overall the one thing I am liking very much is the feeling that there is much work yet to be done to reconstruct what really happened during the roman occupation and the final confrontation.<br>
<p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub45.ezboard.com/ugoffredo.showPublicProfile?language=EN>goffredo</A> at: 8/24/01 8:51:32 pm<br></i>
"In quest of the lost Legions, the Varusschlacht"<br>
by Tony Clunn, Minerva Press 1999, ISBN 0 75411 068 0<br>
<br>
Has anyone read it? From what I have read so far I warmly suggest you get the book. It is an interesting mix of dairies of the author, during the digs and detective work that led up to the discovery of a major battle at Kalkriese, and a fictional story telling of the Varus-Arminius battle, interspersed with effectively placed quotations from Tacitus and Cassius Dio. So far I like the book although it is frustrating that there are very few figures and maps. Indeed the author tells much of his field work and metal detector explorations describing hills, valleys, knolls and moors but it is difficult and somewhat tedious after the first series of such passages to continue to try imagine the scenery without at least a decent map. The maps included in the figure panels are almost useless if only because they are reproduced very poorly. In particular the movements of the legions could have been shown more effectively with only a little more effort (I think). I hope a future edition - maybe with an update of the finds and conclusions - can correct these obvious defects. The fictional parts get more subtantial and longer as the book progresses. I find them exciting and very plausible, especially well written in the descriptions of scenes. The dialogue is essential and doesn't distract too much from what was probably the author's real goal: reconstructing "atmospheres" and telling a sequence of things that probably happened rather than tyring to re-create personalities (those proposed are the standard ones but, as Goldsworthy says a few times in his Punics, without any sources to say otherwise it is best to stick to the only ones we have). Overall the one thing I am liking very much is the feeling that there is much work yet to be done to reconstruct what really happened during the roman occupation and the final confrontation.<br>
<p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub45.ezboard.com/ugoffredo.showPublicProfile?language=EN>goffredo</A> at: 8/24/01 8:51:32 pm<br></i>
Jeffery Wyss
"Si vos es non secui of solutio tunc vos es secui of preciptate."
"Si vos es non secui of solutio tunc vos es secui of preciptate."