Mark Antony's Heroes

Stephen Dando-Collins

Description

This fourth book in Dando-Collins’s definitive history of Rome’s legions tells the story of Rome’s 3rd Gallica Legion, which put Vespasian on the throne and saved the life of the Christian apostle Paul. Named for their leader, Mark Antony, these common Roman soldiers, through their gallantry on the battlefield, reshaped the Roman Empire and aided the spread of Christianity throughout Europe.
Acknowledgments.

Author’s Note.

Chapter 1. Get Up and Fight!

Chapter 2. For Pompey, Caesar and Antony.

Chapter 3. The Parthian Invasion.

Chapter 4. Routing the Parthians.

Chapter 5. Putting King Herod on His Throne.

Chapter 6. Mark Antony’s Mistake.

Chapter 7. The Bloody Retreat.

Chapter 8. The Sun-Worshipping 3rd.

Chapter 9. Riot Duty in Jerusalem.

Chapter 10. Saving the Apostle Paul a Second Time.

Chapter 11. To Caesar You Shall Go.

Chapter 12. The Centurion’s Decision.

Chapter 13. Cast Up on Malta.

Chapter 14. In Nero’s Rome.

Chapter 15. Fanning the Flames of Revolt.

Chapter 16. Victims of the Jewish Uprising.

Chapter 17. The Heroes of Ascalon.

Chapter 18 . The Execution of a Troublesome Jew.

Chapter 19. Blood for Blood.

Chapter 20. Slaughtering the Sarmatians.

Chapter 21. To Italy, to Make an Emperor.

Chapter 22. Prelude to a Disaster.

Chapter 23. The Bloodbath of Cremona.

Chapter 24. Storming Rome.

Chapter 25. Thanks to the 3rd Gallica.

Appendix A. Imperial Roman Military Ranks and Their Modern-Day Equivalents.

Appendix B. The German Guard.

Appendix C. Sources.

Glossary.

Index.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Military history of ancient Rome
• Vespasian
• Roman Empire
• Paul the Apostle
• Mark Antony
• History of Christianity
• History of Europe
• Christianity
• Rome
• Ancient
• History

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 17 février 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781118040805
• Langue: English

Extrait

Table of Contents
 
Title Page
Copyright Page
ATLAS
Acknowledgments
AUTHOR’S NOTE
 
I - GET UP AND FIGHT!
II - FOR POMPEY, CAESAR, AND ANTONY
III - THE PARTHIAN INVASION
IV - ROUTING THE PARTHIANS
V - PUTTING KING HEROD ON HIS THRONE
VI - MARK ANTONY’S MISTAKE
VII - THE BLOODY RETREAT
VIII - THE SUN-WORSHIPPING 3RD
IX - RIOT DUTY IN JERUSALEM
X - SAVING THE APOSTLE PAUL A SECOND TIME
XI - TO CAESAR YOU SHALL GO
XII - THE CENTURION’S DECISION
XIII - CAST UP ON MALTA
XIV - IN NERO’S ROME
XV - FANNING THE FLAMES OF REVOLT
XVI - VICTIMS OF THE JEWISH UPRISING
XVII - THE HEROES OF ASCALON
XVIII - THE EXECUTION OF A TROUBLESOME JEW
XIX - BLOOD FOR BLOOD
XX - SLAUGHTERING THE SARMATIANS
XXI - TO ITALY, TO MAKE AN EMPEROR
XXII - PRELUDE TO A DISASTER
XXIII - THE BLOODBATH OF CREMONA
XXIV - STORMING ROME
XXV - THANKS TO THE 3RD GALLICA
 
APPENDIX A
APPENDIX B
APPENDIX C
GLOSSARY
INDEX
Also by Stephen Dando-Collins
 
Caesar’s Legion: The Epic Saga of Julius Caesar’s
Elite Tenth Legion and the Armies of Rome
 
Nero’s Killing Machine: The True Story of Rome’s
Remarkable Fourteenth Legion
 
Cleopatra’s Kidnappers: How Caesar’s Sixth Legion
Gave Egypt to Rome and Rome to Caesar

Copyright © 2007 by Stephen Dando-Collins. All rights reserved Maps © 2007 by D. L. McElhannon
 
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey Published simultaneously in Canada
 
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ISBN-13 978-0-471-78899-7 ISBN-10 0-471-78899-6
 
ATLAS

1. The Roman World, First Century B.C.-A.D. First Century
2. The Roman East, First Century B.C.-A.D. First Century
3. The City of Rome, A.D. First Century
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book, the fourth in my Roman legion series, would not have been possible without the immense help provided over many years by countless staff at libraries, museums, and historic sites throughout the world. To them all, my heartfelt thanks. Neither they nor I knew at the time what my labor of love would develop into. My thanks, too, to those who have read my research material as it blossomed into manuscript form and made invaluable suggestions.
Once again, I wish to record my gratitude to several people in particular. To Stephen S. Power, senior editor with John Wiley & Sons, for his continued enthusiasm, support, and guidance. And to Wiley’s patient production editor, John Simko, and copy editor Bill Drennan. To Richard Curtis, my unrelenting and all-conquering New York literary agent, who launched the campaign for these legion books and has kept me on the march ever since.
And my wife, Louise, who has been at my side through many a battle for many years. As Shakespeare has Domitius Enobarbus say of Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra : “Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety.”
AUTHOR’S NOTE

The exploits of the 3rd Gallica Legion under the two Mark Antonys are well documented by Plutarch and Tacitus. There is no specific documentary evidence to say it was the 3rd Gallica Legion that saved the life of the apostle Paul or conducted him to Rome. That the 3rd Gallica was one of the legions of the Syria station in the first century there is no dispute. And, while some historians for many years put the view that only auxiliaries were stationed in Judea prior to A.D. 66, Josephus makes numerous references to legionaries, centurions, and their tribune commander based in Judea during this period, in both his Jewish War and his Jewish Antiquities. The Holy Bible, in Acts of the Apostles, also differentiates between foot soldiers (legionaries) and speermen (auxiliaries) stationed at both Jerusalem and Caesarea.
Acts, in describing the apostle Paul’s journey under guard from Caesarea to Rome, tells us that a centurion was in charge of the military escort. Centurions generally only commanded legionaries, and only legionaries, citizen soldiers, were permitted to escort prisoners who were Roman citizens, as Paul was. Various other references led me to conclude that the legion stationed in Judea in the A.D. 60s, while still part of the overall Syria garrison, and that was involved in saving Paul’s life on three separate occasions, was the 3rd Gallica.
Apart from Plutarch and Tacitus, I have referred to the works of numerous classical writers who documented the wars, campaigns, battles, skirmishes, and most importantly the men of the legions of Rome that have come down to us, Appian, Plutarch, Polybius, Cassius Dio, Josephus, Julius Caesar, Cicero, Pliny the Younger, Seneca, Livy, and Arrian among them. Without the labors of these writers the books in this series would not have been possible.
All speeches and conversations in this book are taken from dialogue and narrative in classical texts, and are faithful to those original sources. For the sake of continuity, the Roman calendar—which in republican times, until Caesar changed it in 47 B.C., varied by some two months from our own (it was a difference of sixty-seven days by 46 B.C., when Caesar corrected the calendar)—is used throughout.
Place names are generally first referred to in their original form and thereafter by the modern name, where known, to permit readers to readily identify locations involved. Personal names created by English writers of more recent times and familiar to modern readers have been used instead of those technically correct—Mark Antony instead of Marcus Antonius, Julius Caesar for Gaius Julius Caesar, Octavian for Caesar Octavianus, Pompey for Pompeius, Caligula for Gaius, Vespasian for Vespasianus, Trajan for Traianus, Hadrian for Hadrianus, and so on.
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries it was fashionable for some authors to refer to legions as regiments, cohorts as battalions, maniples as companies, centurions as captains, tribunes as colonels, and legates as generals. In this work, Roman military terms such as legion, cohort, maniple, and centurion have been retained, as it’s felt they will be familiar to most readers and convey more of a flavor of the time. Because of a lack of popular familiarity with the term legate, “general” and/or “brigadier general” is used here. “Colonel” and tribune are both used, to give a sense of relative status.
Likewise, so that readers can relate in comparison to today’s military, when referred to in the military sense praetors are given as “major generals” and consuls and proconsuls as “lieutenant generals.” In this way, reference to a lieutenant general, for example, will immediately tell the reader that the figure concerned is or has been a consul. I am aware this is akin to having a foot in two camps and may not please purists, but my aim is to make these books broadly accessible.
So once again I set you on the march with the men of a Roman legion, and lead you through hundreds of years of grueling campaigning. This time I tell the story of a unit that made a name for itself under Mark Antony, only for its early glory to fade. Then, bloodied and withdrawn from the fray, it turned its fortunes around, put an emperor on the throne, marching, ironically, behind another man named Mark Antony, to become dreaded by friend and foe alike. Most of these men were conscripts. Their life was extraordinarily tough. With a strong chance of being killed in action, they marched from one end of the Roman Empire to the other to fight enemies ranging from Parthians to Sarmatians, as well as their fellow Romans in various civil wars.
These are the men who made Rome great—one or two extraordinary men, and many more ordinary men who did often extraordinary things. I hope that via these pages I can help you come to know them.
I

GET UP AND FIGHT!
The sun would soon rise over the body-strewn battlefield, and victory looked no closer than it had when the fighting had begun seventeen hours before. Two Roman armies made up of thirteen legions, plus cohorts of the Praetorian Guard, numerous auxiliary units, and thousands of ca