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2 reviews for:
The Fate of the Ninth: The curious disappearance of one of Rome's legions
Duncan B. Campbell
3.5 AVERAGE
2 reviews for:
The Fate of the Ninth: The curious disappearance of one of Rome's legions
Duncan B. Campbell
3.5 AVERAGE
An interesting collection of the oddments of evidence that comprise the history of the Ninth Legion. Duncan presents the past arguments and their evidence, and then pursues a trail of roof tiles, literature notes, foreign monuments and carvings to piece together the activities of the legion after their supposed demise in 120 AD.
It is not an easy to read account, mainly because it is fragments of evidence drawn together without a great deal of discussion. The process of research is interesting, and Duncan does point out where theories originated.
It needed a good summary of activities of the Legion and also more discussion. Overall quite informative.
It is not an easy to read account, mainly because it is fragments of evidence drawn together without a great deal of discussion. The process of research is interesting, and Duncan does point out where theories originated.
It needed a good summary of activities of the Legion and also more discussion. Overall quite informative.
informative
slow-paced
I've always been fascinated by the Ninth Legion, at least ever since I can remember, because of Rosemary Sutcliff's The Eagle of the Ninth (a story that I'm pretty sure was told to me until I could read it myself, though my mother liked Warrior Scarlet best). This is obviously less thrilling, since it's non-fiction, and there's a lot of detail about how the Roman army worked, etc... more than I could remember in one go, really: in some ways, I kinda just took the author's word for it about the minutiae.
It did make me sad to learn from this book that the origin story of The Eagle of the Ninth is based on a wrong interpretation of an archaeological find-- the eagle found in Silchester was more likely decorative, perhaps on a fort, rather than being the eagle of a legion.
Despite destroying the basis of a favourite book, I did enjoy this. It pieces together the story of the IX Hispana through the textual records they left behind -- their stamps on tiles, the name of the legion on commemorative stones that discuss the careers of various Roman consuls and other officials -- rather than through more exciting archaeology. If you're not super interested in how Roman inscriptions can help date historical events, or the IX Hispana legion, it might not be of much interest, though! It's a little dry for that.