Mark Antony's Heroes: How the Third Gallica Legion Saved an Apostle and Created an Emperor

by Stephen Dando-Collins

Book Overview

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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0470224533
• ISBN13: 9780470224533
• Release Date: February 2008
• Publisher: Trade Paper Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Vintage Dando-Collins

Witness Roman history against a landscape of facts, ancient imagery, personalities, passions, and human resolve, in Mark Antony's Heroes. It is vintage Dando-Collins, in that one feels immersed in the fascinating world of antiquity. You will discover the true drama of stories and passions that the schoolbooks dare not reveal. There is suspense, and intriguing looks at this most interesting empire and its famous 3rd Gallica Legion. Mark Antony's story is brought into a whole new light relative to the popular history, as is Paul the apostle's story, and the fiery passion of the Jewish people. Here too you will read about how the 3rd Gallica Legion brought both King Herod and Vespasian to the throne, among other worthy exploits. I highly recommend this book.

interesting insights into the intersection of the Gospels and Roman history

the author does a good job of bringing facts together to shape an interesting storyline that informs as well as sparks a curiosity to dig further into the history of the Roman Legions.

The Legio III Gallica

Overall, Dando-Collin's biography of the Legio III Gallica is not a disappointment. With relative accuracy he traces the Legion's role in Roman history from its foundation (raised by Julius Caesar from Gauls in the 40's BC) to its decisive role in the Battle of Second Cremona, in which it helped to secure victory for Vespasian in the Roman Civil War. The book is fairly light reading and is well-written. There are a few minor things I disagree with. One is that the author assumes this had to have been the Roman Legion that saved Saint Paul from an angry Jewish mob after his conversion to Christianity. He assumes this on the grounds that he believes it was the only legion stationed in Judaea at the time (and is thus either ignoring or simply not aware of the Legio X Fretensis - which was stationed in Jerusalem for most or all of the 1st and 2nd Centuries). He also claims that he believes that the Book of Acts would suggest that the Roman soldiers involved in Paul's rescue were legionaries, not auxiliaries, though he gives no evidence for why he believes this. It was the auxiliary regiments, however, that got the dirtier jobs that the Roman soldiers of the Bible are known for - quelling riots, executing criminals, and in general playing the role of our modern policemen and firemen. The Third Gallic Legion would have spent more time watching the Parthians and keeping pesky Arab raiders out of the province. Another thing about this author's books in general that I do not appreciate is how he equates ranks in the Roman army to those in modern western armies (e.g. `general' in place of legate, and `colonel' in place of tribune). He also alternates between calling rank-and-file soldiers `legionaries' and `privates' though this doesn't irk me as much as both terms (legionarius and privatus) were used by the Romans. I personally feel that the language and culture of ancient peoples should not be disregarded to make reading about them more palatable for modern people - this will not educate but only bring about further ignorance. It is my opinion that he does our noble Roman predecessors a disservice by ignoring the proper titles of their military men. Overall, though, this is a decent book and I am not going to harshly criticize it - I will simply warn you not to take all of the author's opinions as historical truth, and not to let his books be a primary source for you on the Roman Army.

Living History

Stephen Dando-Collins writes very well, you get the history, facts I hadn't read before and real research without a million footnotes to distract from the tale. I have read his whole series on the legions. Excellent