Contubernium: Eight legionaries from Gergovia to Alesia

By Domenico Felaco

The conquest of Gaul, the bloody military campaign narrated by Caesar in his Commentarii, has been reduced here to a superb frame within which are placed the vicissitudes of the eight legionaries who shared the tent, the contubernium, from the partial defeat of Gergovia to the final victory of Alesia. Although the rules for enlistment required men who spoke Latin and could read and write, in many cases semi-illiterate individuals were recruited from areas far away from Rome and had to be given several years of training before they could be considered ready to fight.The eight men who shared the tent in the story that is told here were no exception, apart from the presence of Primus and his brother Lucius who had enlisted after the economic collapse of their rich and cultured family.The description of the language, the eating habits, the weapons and armours, the combat techniques, the resistance during the marches, the construction of the camps, the disposition of the men in the tents, the visits to the brothels and much more are interwoven with the narration of the adventures of the eight legionaries of the tent, with particular attention to Primus and Lucius's desire for revenge against the quaestor Crassus, considered, along with his father, the main architect of their misfortunes.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B08NS9J6ZH
• ISBN13: 9798568250203
• Release Date: November 2020
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 166 Pages
• Weight: 0.51 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"