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

by Stephen Dando-Collins (Author)

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

Front Jacket

They were as good as dead. When nine hundred battle-hardened veterans of Pompey the Great's Sixth Legion were surrounded by thousands of Caesar's troops at the culmination of the Battle of Pharsalus, each was prepared to fight on until the last of them perished. Shrewdly, Caesar promised to spare their lives in return for surrender, then he made them an offer they couldn't refuse: be sent back to Italy penniless and disgraced, or accompany Caesar in pursuit of Pompey and regain both honor and wealth.

Cleopatra's Kidnappers tells the gripping true story of the momentous events of 48-47 bc, during which, according to most history books, Caesar "dallied in Egypt." What those books don't mention is that his "dalliance" was a bitter seven-month life-or-death struggle; that Caesar was opposed by a well-equipped and determined Egyptian army that had just murdered Pompey and was now after him; and that without the Sixth Legion, Caesar never would have made it out of Egypt alive.

This third volume in Stephen Dando-Collins's widely celebrated history of the Roman legions focuses on how these few captured but undefeated soldiers became the invincible force that allowed Caesar to come, to see, and to conquer. From a front-line view, it re-creates the fierce battles in which this tiny band led Caesar's very small army to stunning victories against much larger and better-equipped forces. It takes you through months of vicious street fighting, which culminated in an all-out confrontation on the banks of the Nile and into the short but bloody Battle of Zela in Turkey immediately after.

Dando-Collins also investigates Caesar's kidnapping of the Egyptian royal family, which included the fifteen-year-old King Ptolemy and his elder sister Cleopatra. He examines Caesar's romantic involvement with a girl young enough to be his daughter--a girl to whom it was soon clear that the only way she could hope to survive was by attaching herself to a Roman strongman and hoping she picked the toughest.

Based on the author's thirty-year study of classical texts and inscriptions, primary sources and ancient commentaries, Cleopatra's Kidnappers takes you deep into the heart of the epic struggle to control an empire. There, you'll meet a host of fascinating characters--some famous, some long forgotten--whose real lives and extraordinary deeds have become the stuff of fiction, legend, and myth.

Back Jacket

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

Author Biography

STEPHEN DANDO-COLLINS is the author of Caesar's Legion: The Epic Saga of Julius Caesar's Elite Tenth Legion and the Armies of Rome and Nero's Killing Machine: The True Story of Rome's Remarkable Fourteenth Legion, both from Wiley. He is an Australian-born researcher, editor, and author who has spent the last three decades identifying and studying the individual legions of the Roman army of the late Republic and the empire of the Caesars.