Augustus at War

The Struggle for the Pax Augusta

By Lindsay Powell

2018

First Published

4.00

Average Rating

496

Number of Pages

15H09M

Audio Length

The words Pax Augusta - or Pax Romana - evoke a period of uninterrupted peace across the vast Roman Empire. Lindsay Powell exposes this as a fallacy. Almost every year between 31 BC and AD 14 the Roman Army was in action somewhere, either fighting enemies beyond the frontier in punitive raids or for outright conquest; or suppressing rebellions within the borders. Remarkably over the same period Augustus succeeded in nearly doubling the size of the Empire. How did this second-rate field commander, known to become physically ill before and during battle, achieve such extraordinary success? Did he, in fact, have a grand strategy? Powell reveals Augustus as a brilliant strategist and manager of war. As commander-in-chief he made changes to the political and military institutions to keep the empire together - and to hold on to power. His genius was to build a loyal team of semi-autonomous deputies (legati) to ensure internal security and to fight his wars for him, claiming their achievements as his own. Lindsay Powell profiles more than 50 of these men and their campaigns.

Avg Rating

4.00

Number of Ratings

5 STARS

33%

4 STARS

38%

3 STARS

24%

2 STARS

1 STARS

goodreads

Author

Lindsay Powell

Author · 7 books

LINDSAY POWELL is a historical detective. He is motivated to tell the stories of the under-reported personalities and events of history in the belief that they deserve to be told to complete our understanding of the past. A historian and writer, Lindsay has a particular passion for the military history of the Roman Empire. He scours ancient documents, inscriptions, coins and museums for stories, and archaeological, engineering, medical and scientific reports to reveal deeper truths. He was news editor of Ancient Warfare (2011-2016) and continues to contribute to the magazine. He has written for Military Heritage, Desperta Ferro and Strategy & Tactics magazines, as well as Pen and Sword Books, Osprey Publishing, The History Network and UNRV.com. Lindsay is a veteran of the world renowned Ermine Street Guard. His appearances include BBC Radio and The History Channel, He divides his time between Austin, Texas and Wokingham, England.