Review: Authentic and engrossing -- a great story...
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 12, 2014
In common with this entire outstanding series, "Marching With Caesar--Final Campaign" has a gritty authentic feel to it that makes this novel into a page-turner. Until they invent time machines, this series and novel are perhaps as close as one can get to understanding what it might have been like to be a Roman Legionary. Add to that a solid linear storyline that actually goes somewhere, intrigue, and some true insight into human nature and the nature of Roman society in those days, and you have a five star novel.R.W. Peake does not attempt to conceal the often brutal and even unjust nature of the Roman Army, which regularly inflicted holocausts upon innocent tribesman who had something that Rome wanted. Even when these people did not have something Rome wanted this was no guaranty that the Roman Army would not sack the town, slaughter its men, rape its women, and sell the survivors into slavery. In this sense, the protagonist, Titus Pullus, while fundamentally a good man in many ways, nonetheless has blood on his hands and this story makes no attempt to convert him, or the Romans, into saints.This installment of the series has a more engrossing storyline than most. My review policy is to avoid spoilers, so I will only say that while this novel features the details of a typical Roman Army campaign, it also offers much more than that. I could not put this one down and I was sorry when it (and with it the series) ended. Highly recommended. RJB.