Cleopatra's Kidnappers: How Caesar's Sixth Legion Gave Egypt to Rome and Rome to Caesar

by Stephen Dando-Collins

A powerful tale of war, romance, and one of history's most desperate gambles

Julius Caesar was nothing if not bold. When, in the wake of his defeat of Pompey at Pharsalus his victorious legions refused to march another step under his command, he pursued his fleeing rival into Egypt with an impossibly small force of Gallic and German cavalry, raw Italian recruits, and nine hundred Spanish prisoners of war-tough veterans of Pompey's Sixth Legion.

Cleopatra's Kidnappers tells the epic saga of Caesar's adventures in Egypt through the eyes of these captured, but never defeated, legionaries. In this third volume in his definitive history of the Roman legions, Stephen Dando-Collins reveals how this tiny band of fierce warriors led Caesar's little army to great victories against impossible odds. Bristling with action and packed with insights and newly revealed facts, this eye-opening account introduces you to the extraordinary men who made possible Caesar's famous boast, ""I came, I saw, I conquered.""

Praise for Caesar's Legion

""A unique and splendidly researched story, following the trials and triumphs of Julius Caesar's Legio X. . . . 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

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Historical, Roman History, Ancient History, Military History, Audiobook

304 pages, Hardcover

First published October 28, 2005

About the author

Stephen Dando-Collins is the multi-award-winning author of 48 books. British reviewer, noted playwright Robin Hawdon, says that Dando-Collins is "the modern age's foremost dramatizer of Greek and Roman history," while American reviewer bestselling military author Lt. Colonel Dave Grossman has described Dando-Collins as "a literary giant." Considered an authority on the legions of ancient Rome, Dando-Collins has written ancient and modern history, children's novels, scientific nonfiction, and biographies. The bulk of his works deal with military history, ranging from Greek, Persian and Roman times to American, British and Australian 19th century history and World I and Word War II.
Many of his books have been translated into foreign languages including Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Dutch, Russian, Albanian and Korean.
His most acclaimed book on the ancient military, 'LEGIONS OF ROME,' was the culmination of decades of research into Rome's imperial legions.
Dando-Collins aims to travel roads that others have not, unearthing new facts and opening new perspectives on often forgotten or overlooked people and aspects of history.
He has two new books in 2024: 'CAESAR VERSUS POMPEY: Determining Rome's Greatest General, Statesman & Nation-Builder,' (Turner, US), and 'THE BUNA SHOTS: The Amazing Story Behind Two Photographs that Changed the Course of World War Two,' (Australian Scholarly Publishing).

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stephen Dando-Collins has written a series of books detailing specific units of the Roman military. He uses this straightforward concept, however, to serve as a framework for looking at Roman history, society, the way in which Rome impacted the non-Roman societies within her area of influence and, of course, doing all this while telling some rousing stories of battle, glory and good old fashioned butchery.

Dando-Coliins' style is very conversational (sometimes a little two conversational) which makes for an easy, engaging read. To his detriment, he does not footnote, a problem at least from my perspective when one talks about history books. Although there are extensive bibliographies, I would like to know from which source he pulls which bit of info. Further, one defect of the structure are the gaps in the narrative. That is, even for "famous" legions, there are often spans of years - even decades - in which we have no information.

Still, these are fun and informative books. I wouldn't use these as my only source of Roman history; however, I think they belong on the shelf of anyone interested in Roman or military history.

[Ian Racey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good book, a well-written and well-researched, accessible history book for the general reader.

When Caesar defeated Pompey the Great at the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC, one of Pompey’s legions, the 6th, was split in two: half its men escaped and fled to Roman Africa (modern Tunisia), where other Pompeian survivors gathered for a last stand against Caesar, while two cohorts of the 6th were captured by Caesarian troops under Mark Antony. Caesar was able to persuade these nine hundred men to come over to his service, and, since the legions of his original army were now refusing to fight for him anymore (he had failed to give them the discharges or the bonus he had promised), they now formed the veteran corps for the new army Caesar now led into his famous campaigns in Egypt and Anatolia.

Cleopatra’s Kidnappers purports to be a history of the Caesarian 6th from the time they went over to Caesar until they served in Antony’s army at the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC, when Antony and Octavian defeated Brutus and Cassius following Caesar’s assassination. That’s only half of what it is,though; it’s also a more general history of political and diplomatic rivalries in Rome and the Hellenistic East during the same period. So here are Cleopatra and her intrigues with her brother-king Ptolemy and her sister and rival Arsinoe, all competing for the Egyptian throne; and here is a detailed account of Brutus and Cassius’ activities and movements on the famous Ides of March in 44 BC.

I have to knock off a star for the copyediting (as when the word “causeway” appears seven times in one paragraph, or when Popilius Laenas’ name is spelt correctly on his first appearance but then abruptly becomes Laenus for the next several paragraphs), but moreso for Dando-Collins’s penchant for overtranslation of ancient terms into modern forms. He does this with place names, so that Pharsalus is Farsala and the Janiculum is the Giancolo, and he does it with ships: larger warships are cruisers while smaller ones are frigates, terms that really make no sense when applied to a time when ships didn’t have rudders and were powered more by oar than by sail.

But it’s most noticeable with senior military ranks. The Roman legionary hierarchy did have strong social connotations, but they were very different from our modern officer/noncom distinctions. By talking of “major generals” or “colonels”, Dando-Collins not only prevents the reader from learning about the actual Roman military hierarchy, but forces upon them a whole lot of modern baggage that’s historically inappropriate.

For instance, the rank that Dando-Collins keeps giving is “colonel” is that of military tribune, the lowest rank an aristocratic Roman youth could hold—military tribunes were in their early twenties, doing their first year of public service before moving on to higher office. It’s even worse for the men he calls brigadier generals (quaestors and legates), major generals (praetors) or lieutenant generals (consuls), since these weren’t military officers at all, but elected magistrates (or appointed magistrates, once Caesar seized power): Roman legions were commanded by men who simultaneously held high governmental office. It’s as if, instead of having commissioned officers, being elected governor or being appointed a cabinet secretary also made you the commanding officer of nearby brigades of the US Army.

This is most striking when Dando-Collins insists on repeatedly referring to Cassius Longinus as “Judge Cassius” (making him sound like some nineteenth-century Virginian grandee), purely because Cassius was serving as a praetor at the time of Caesar’s assassination. Throughout the book, praetors have been called major generals, but since Cassius had no legions under his command in 44 BC, the author has to instead stretch to find an alternative, civilian facet or a praetor’s duties with which to oversimplify his office.

ANYWAY. Now that a rant about one aspect of the book that really, really irritated me has taken over this review, I want to repeat that I found the book a great read, and also to add that even the appendix was valuable—it’s a run-down of all those names of historians that readers of ancient history are so used to hearing mentioned (Tacitus, Suetonius, Plutarch, even Caesar), detailing exactly what their areas of expertise were and how reliable they’re each considered in comparison to the others.

[Adrian Roman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book for history lovers. I am not a fan of novels told only from the writer's perspective, I would love to hear the voices of the characters. That being said, the book has lots of interesting facts interpreted by the author and presented as a digerable story.

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was the third in Dando-Collins' series; this one is about the 6th Legion, formed under Pompey but serving Caesar faithfully in Egypt (hence the title, from their famous exploit there). Dando-Collins makes the history of the legions come alive. I just wish he would use period-appropriate terms (every time I read a modern title like "colonel" for "tribune," or a place name like "Durres" for "Dyrrhachium" and "Brindisi" for "Brundisium," I wince).

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

More like a 4.5. I felt at the end too much time was spent talking about Caesar's assassination and not focusing on the 6th Legion as much. Plus Dando-Collins has another book on the subject called The Ides: Caesar's Murder and the War for Rome. Otherwise another great addition to the line of Legion specific military history of Rome.

[Marc Dunham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dando-Collins brings the Roman legions to life in his series on the most famous of Romes legions. Not a detailed history but a rousing good tale of the life of the Sixth Legion.

[Sirli S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Caesar ja Kleopatra - Maria Helleberg (2007)

[Anthony Fischer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy this author's narrative style. I have read several of his books and really enjoyed them.

[Steve Switzer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Regimental history of a roman legion ..excellent

[Simon McCrum · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very detailed and highly enjoyable account of Caesar's last campaigns and of the legendary 6th Legion.

[John Warren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have really enjoyed his books about the legions very informative

[Peter Pereira · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a tough one to review. First and foremost, the title of this book is all wrong. It should have just been called Legio VI: Ferrata: A History of Rome's Most Feared Legion. Cleopatra is completely insignificant in this book, so if you are going to pick it up because you love Egyptology, don't. BUT, if you want to learn about Rome's legions, their inner workings, and detailed accounts of important battles in Caesar's time, this is THE book! I will be critical of one aspect in which I think the author could have done a far better job. The details of specific battles involving the 6th legion from Pompey to Caesar's assassination are just fantastic. Once the Ides of March roll into town, the battles just progress at such a frantic pace that you are just blown to bits with names/places/dates. No details, just outcomes spanning from Octavian to Vespasian. With that said. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and gained quite a bit of knowledge on Roman military strategy, and events leading up to those moments in time that defined where we stand today. Highly recommended. Especially up to Caesar's date with destiny.