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

By Stephen Dando-Collins

The 14th Gemina Martia Victrix Legion was the most celebrated unit of the early Roman Empire–a force that had been wiped out under Julius Caesar, reformed, and almost wiped out again. After participating in the a.d. 43 invasion of Britain, the 14th Legion achieved its greatest glory when it put down the famous rebellion of the Britons under Boudicca. Numbering less than 10,000 men, the disciplined Roman killing machine defeated 230,000 rampaging rebels, slaughtering 80,000 with only 400 Roman 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 military history aficionados a unique soldier’s-eye view of their tactics, campaigns, and battles.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
• Release date: Jan 25, 2011
• ISBN: 9781118040218

Stephen Dando-Collins

Stephen Dando-Collins is an award-winning military historian with numerous highly praised books on ancient history ranging from Imperial Rome to the American west to Australia, some of which include Legions of Rome and Caesar's Legion. Today, Stephen’s books appear in many languages and he has an army of loyal readers wherever his books are published around the world, in countries including Australia, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Poland, Albania and Korea.

Reviews for Nero's Killing Machine

[atomicmutant · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I found this to be an interesting, but wildly uneven book. Essentially, the author has done a massive amount of research to construct a timeline for a single Roman Legion over a period of a hundred years or so. It is fun to follow their movements as they intersect with great men of the era like Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, Nero, etc. and the effect that petty internal political squabbles had on the legions.Also compelling are the descriptions of the hardships and battles that the legionnaires endured from day to day and year to year as they completed their 20 year or longer service to the empire. There are some truly breathtaking battle scenes. It was a life of internal strife, constant battles, blood and guts, and fleeting honor. Due in part to the type of source, I think, though, sometimes the author settles in to lists of names and ancient locations that are tedious and difficult to picture. "So and so went here, and met so and so, who came from there, and he had so and so with him, and they talked about going over there". The writing at these points becomes list-like and unimaginative. It would have helped if there had been more, and more detailed, maps, that could have helped put some of these episodes in context.Overall a worthy illumination of the lives of legionnaires and the military campaigns of the time, but marred by inconsistent writing, in my opinion.