⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ for this popular military history of the Legio X Equestris, a Roman legion, that was levied by Julius Caesar in 61 BC during his governance of Hispania Ulterior. Surprisingly, its legionaries were often middle-aged man, even older. Despite, or perhaps because of that, they were able to sustain marathon-sized forced marches day after day, on barely 1500 calories, carrying roughly 80 lbs in armor and weapons and tools, none of it made for comfort like modern equipment is. The legions fighting spirit is best described by the author’s quote:
“It was a great day to die. And before the sun had set, thirty-four thousand men would lose their lives in this valley. The men of the loth Legion would have had no illusions. They knew that some of them would probably perish in the battle that lay ahead. Yet, to Romans, nothing was more glorious than a noble death. And if the men of this legion had to die, there was probably not a better place nor a finer day for it, on home soil, beneath a perfect blue sky.”

The Tenth was the first legion levied personally by Caesar and the instrumental tool to Caesar’s martial success. Acting as his shock troops, it was chiefly responsible for not only his greatest victories but also was able to stave off defeat when all but utter disaster seemed imminent for the greatest of all Roman generals.
Dando-Collins manages to put together a magnificent account of the greatest of all legions from various ancient sources, including citations, comments and the well-known texts by Tacitus. So then what are we waiting for get that book for it is a good day to read. ( )

Spoiler: Caesar dies about tenth of the way in. That was to be expected, after all it's the legion that's the subject but to be honest, turns out its history wasn't all that interesting. Maybe if the book also included some more background on how legions operated, the technology of the day, tactics etc. it could've been more interesting. As it is it's just barely more than summaries of a few big battles the legion took part in. ( )

Roman empire, military history

Worth reading, though the writing needs an uptick in quality. A nice bit of history to learn by reading this book. ( )

Interesting and novel-like writing style make this an attractive volume although without sources cited and footnotes it becomes frustrating to understand how the authors concludes the points that he asserts. He does provide an appendix of sources but he does not identify where he collects information from. Also, the volume would have been helped with illustrations of campaigns and depictions of the soldiers he describes. There is value in the several appendices.