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Our local charity shop has "Nero's Killing Machine - The True Story of Rome's Remarkable Fourteenth Legion" by Stephen Dando-Collins Wiley 2005 selling for £4. Is it worth buying and reading?
Had a scan through it and the author appears to use modern ranks for officers - Brigadier General, Colonel, Lieutenant General. That in itself is not a show stopper.
Alan
Lives in Caledonia not far from the Antonine Wall.
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(10-10-2022, 05:47 PM)Nathan Ross Wrote: (10-10-2022, 01:50 PM)dadlamassu Wrote: Stephen Dando-Collins
It's been a while since anyone discussed his books here! It used to happen a lot.
If you're interested, here are some brief discussions of Legions of Rome, and Blood of the Caesars, and The Great Fire of Rome. There are probably more too. Some of this stuff goes back many years though, so opinions may have changed. I can't find anything specifically on 'Killing Machine', but you'll get the general idea.
I think I would leave the final word to Evan Schultheis:
(09-10-2015, 11:27 PM)Flavivs Aetivs Wrote: Dando-Collins is the "Ancient Aliens" guy of Roman History.
You mean "Ancient Aliens" is not real history?
Thanks, I'll leave it alone then.
Alan
Lives in Caledonia not far from the Antonine Wall.
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Well, my son saw it and bought me it. He said he knew I liked "all things Roman". The sticker on the book showed it was reduced to £1!
Now that I have read it I can say that the book is written for the general public as opposed to historians. The research is presented in a way that appears more about the campaigns with, sometimes isolated, references to the participation of the XIV Legion. The use of modern ranks like "colonel" for "tribune" made it confusing and I had to make a note of the equivalents that he was using. It also, to me, "dumbed it down" and so lost the period flavour I was expecting. Modern ranks do not equate to Roman ones and vice versa. He also used "cruiser" for "trireme", "frigate" for anything smaller and "capital ship" for anything bigger. He did keep Centurion though.
Do I know much more about the legion? Well, I have had my knowledge of where it fought and some of the personalities associated with it refreshed. But little new about the legion itself than I knew before. Was it worth £1 - yes - bit not much more.
It will sit on my "Roman History Shelf" for a while but it will probably return to the charity shop when I need space.
Alan
Lives in Caledonia not far from the Antonine Wall.
