100 books like Legion XXII

I thoroughly enjoyed this gripping tale of war, whose central plot features individual heroism and the clash of civilizations. Faustus Valerianus is a legionary caught between two worlds: his mother's native Britannia and his father's Roman heritage. Valerianus is a complex character I won't soon forget. Following the death of his parents, he chooses to serve Rome under the eagles.

As legionary, he marches north with Agricola's Roman army to complete the conquest of Britannia. In a climactic battle, the Romans are victorious, and our hero is blooded and hardened into a warrior. He must now face the challenge of negotiating two worlds and threats from within and without. Hunter paints an entertaining introduction to the Roman world of conquest and the Britons' heroic efforts to keep their freedom.

In this no-retreat, no-surrender epic, I became captivated by the exploits of the First Nervana, an auxiliary cohort of the Roman army occupying Britain in 139 CE. I enjoy books whose characters appeal to me. I found myself rooting for the tribune Lucius Faenius Felix and his friend Cai Martis, prefect of cavalry. However, I admit to empathizing with the Britons fighting for their people and freedom.

Ultimately, Britons seeking Roman blood and an end to Roman rule surround our heroes and the First Nervana. Under siege, the First must hold until relieved—but can they? With plenty of blood, gore, intrigue, and romance, I found this epic tale a pleasurable read that caused me to ask for more of Lucius and Cai.

Another rip-roaring Roman adventure in Britannia with more bodies piling up than at a supermarket check-out line. Good fun, exciting characters, and a good look at the early years of Rome as it morphed from a Republic to an Empire. Julius Quintus Quirinius is a young man caught in Rome's civil war. With both parents recently deceased, he has few options. He must either serve under the eagles or face a life of slavery.

Following six months of arduous training, his cohort is sent south, where it suffers a humiliating defeat and is punished with decimation—the execution of one of every tenth man in each unit. The man chosen from his unit for execution asks Quintus to take care of his family back in Rome. With the remaining legionaries of his cohort, he heads south to defeat the tribesmen that had inflicted such a devastating defeat upon them. He shows… show more.

If I didn't know better, I would think the author was on hallucinogens when he began this series. It is a real hoot! While it follows the adventures of a Centurion, Ben Stiger, in a strange and bizarre world, it veers off into mysticism, magic, fantasy, witchcraft, the supernatural, and just about any other genre you care to name. Stiger is a brave, resourceful, and brilliant leader who has been given command of a company of misfits.

He must hone them into a first-rate combat unit as he attempts to quell a rebellion threatening the existence of the Empire he loves and serves. He journeys through another dimension of space and time with his two companions, an elf and a priest. Weird and engrossing. It is a book you'll pick up and not put down.

For writers of historical fiction, Eagle in the Snow has attained almost mythical status. First published fifty years ago, the book is still in print mainly through the enthusiastic recommendation of readers. Wallace Breem wrote only two other works and died in 1990, so there will be nothing more from his pen. It adds piquancy to the themes of the story: it’s a tale of the passing of things and the dying of an empire. It’s the tale of a man struggling against the fading of the light, even though he knows the struggle is hopeless. It’s a story of endings in a world that does not understand its mortality.

The end of the Roman Empire in the west is a fascinating but notoriously vague saga, which often seems to be composed entirely of footnotes. In this novel John Henry Clay takes a handful of those footnotes and rebuilds mid 5th century Gaul and Italy on a grand scale. The empire is on its knees, but the aristocratic elites of the southern provinces are still living the good life on their villa estates, until all is thrown into turmoil by the invasion of Attila and his Huns. Part family drama, part broad-canvas military and political epic, the first half of the novel reaches a climax in the defeat of the Hunnic hordes by General Aetius. But in its second half the story accelerates dramatically, as Avitus, the father of the central pair of characters, leads a Romano-Gothic army from Gaul to seize power in Rome. The ramifications of Avitus’s bid… show more.

A historical novel has to do more than just re-tell a part of history. The author has the duty to make history come alive for the reader, even if fictionalized. That means details about daily life and customs, not just buildings and battles. This book was enormously helpful in describing everyday Roman life. What the Romans were eating and wearing in Rome, they probably also ate (as near as they could) and wore in their colonies. Here I found everything from going to the barber to going to the circus.

This is a great read on the way that Rome became an empire. It puts the whole story of the city of Rome and what it developed into (i.e. the biggest power of the ancient world and a paradigm for many empires that followed) into context and into the history of the Mediterranean world. The book is so useful to read because it is well written and contemporary, but it also helps us to understand Hannibal. This is because Rome's version of Carthage and Hannibal is the only version that we have to deal with, Hannibal in many ways becomes a reflection of Roman ideas of their own imperialism.

What I really enjoy about this book is the engaging and lively way in which Emma Dench examines, across a broad chronological (third century BC to third century AD) and geographical scope, the various different ways in which local peoples, groups, identities, and cultures experienced and responded to Roman power.

I particularly appreciate how the emphasis is not on accepting a sense of loyalty to Rome but rather the importance of the political currency of Roman symbols of power within a complex and wide-ranging negotiation of identity in the Mediterranean world. Perhaps one of my favourite things about the book is the diverse range of places, peoples, and evidence explored.

The later period of Greek history, after the conquests of Alexander the Great, is considerably less well known that the history of Classical Greece, but it was a fascinating period that radically changed the society and culture of the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East. This book covers the period of Alexander's conquests, the fragmentation of his empire into multiple kingdoms after his death, and the Roman conquest and domination of the Greek world.

It outlines the rise and fall of dynasties and kingdoms, the Roman conquest, and the transformation of the region, firstly by the Greek culture promoted by Alexander and his successors, and then by Roman rule. It provides an accessible and informative narrative of a period in which the Middle East and Greek world underwent transformational changes.