Tenth Legion has long been considered the greatest - and most hilarious - book on turkey hunting. Yet until now it was only available in a privately published edition. Many people who hunt turkeys do so with an attention to detail, a regard for strategy, tactics, and operations, and a disregard for personal comfort and convenience that ranks second only to war. As for all cultists, it never occurs to them that they may be anachronisms. Supremely unconscious of the rest of the world, blind and deaf to logic and reason, they walk along their different roads in step to the music of their different drums.
"A unique and splendidly researched story, following the trials and triumphs of Julius Caesar's Legio X-arguably the most famous legion of its day-from its activation to the slogging battle of Munda and from Thapsus, Caesar's tactical masterpiece, to the grim siege of the Jewish fortress of Masada. More than a mere unit account, it incorporates the history of Rome and the Roman army at the height of their power and gory glory. Many military historians consider Caesar's legions the world's most efficient infantry before the arrival of gunpowder. This book shows why. Written in readable, popular style, Caesar's Legion is a must for military buffs and anyone interested in Roman history at a critical point in European civilization." —T. R. Fehrenbach, author of This Kind of War, Lone Star, and Comanches Stephen Dando-Collins paints a vivid and definitive portrait of daily life in the Tenth Legion as he follows Caesar and his men along the blood-soaked fringes of the Empire. This unprecedented regimental history reveals countless previously unknown details about Roman military practices, Caesar's conduct as a commander and his relationships with officers and legionaries, and the daily routine and discipline of the Legion. From penetrating insights into the mind of history's greatest general to a grunt's-eye view of the gruesome realities of war in the Classical Age, this unique and riveting true account sets a new standard of exellence and detail to which all authors of ancient military history will now aspire.
No book on Roman history has attempted to do what Stephen Dando-Collins does in Legions of Rome: to provide a complete history of every Imperial Roman legion and what it achieved as a fighting force. The author has spent the last thirty years collecting every scrap of available evidence from numerous sources: stone and bronze inscriptions, coins, papyrus and literary accounts in a remarkable feat of historical detective work. The book is divided into three parts: Part 1 provides a detailed account of what the legionaries wore and ate, what camp life was like, what they were paid and how they were motivated and punished. The section also contains numerous personal histories of individual soldiers. Part 2 offers brief unit histories of all the legions that served Rome for 300 years from 30BC. Part 3 is a sweeping chronological survey of the campaigns in which the armies were involved, told from the point of view of particular legions. Lavish, authoritative and beautifully produced, Legions of Rome will appeal to ancient history enthusiasts and military history buffs alike.
Turkey hunting is different. The humbling of nature, found only in the season of spring, is universally understood by those who hunt wild turkeys with a burning passion. There is an associated obsession, within the souls of turkey hunters, that is distinctly different than the mindset of those pursuing deer, duck, or any other realm of wild game. This book was written to celebrate, acknowledge, and ultimately pay respect to those who embrace the sounds, feelings, and appreciations that are experienced while chasing these birds. Through a series of stories, lessons learned the hard way, and a few unfortunate situations, you will find both helpful tips and entertainment from the author's outlook toward spring turkey season as he enlightens upon his journey. Some advice and how to is also provided for turkey calling, setup strategies, camouflage patterns, roosted gobblers, and more. Through memories complied from traveling across the southeastern and central states of the US, from his hometown in Mississippi, the author seeks to cure an addiction to the outdoor lifestyle, while providing a unique understanding to the heritage, history, and fulfillment found within the swamp bottoms of public land hunting areas. Each individual chapter is a new journey while unfolding how the mind of a turkey hunter processes the spring woods and the perceptions that eventually lead the author to create what is now known as Spring Legion.
In AD383, according to Bishop Eucherius of Lyon, flooding caused part of the bank of the River Rhone to collapse, revealing a massed grave of thousands of bodies. Eucherius identified these as a legion recruited for the Roman army from the Christians of the Theban district in Egypt, whom he claimed had been massacred nearly a century previously (near the modern village of St Maurice-en-Valais in southwestern Switzerland) for refusing to obey orders they considered immoral. This incident, asserted by Eucherius as matter of fact, is unrecorded elsewhere. Even the existence of this Theban legion is unclear.
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.
Wild Turkey hunters will be amazed to read and learn about Tom's techniques, equipment and tactics. I know I was. When Tom and I produced the DVD, it became clear to me that Tom hunts by reason not by chance. The things he does in the woods are planned and acted upon based on the land, weather, season, timing and past experience. The only odd ball thing in his method of Wild Turkey hunting is the Wild Turkey. Who, Tom described so poetically in his 1973 classic, “Tenth Legion, by saying, “the bird possesses a remarkable ability to turn arrogance into hopelessness.”
Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great were two of the greatest generals Rome had ever produced. Together they had brought vast stretches of territory under Roman dominion. In 49 BC they turned against each other and plunged Rome into civil war. Legion was pitched against legion in a vicious battle for political domination of the vast Roman world. Based on original sources, Adrian Goldsworthy provides a gripping account of this desperate power struggle. The armies were evenly matched but in the end Caesar's genius as a commander and his great good luck brought him victory in 45 BC.
