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Rating: 
Summary: Too conscious of class
Review: Although Dodge has obviously dedicated a significant amount of time and energy into providing a technically accurate picture of the legions under Caesar's command and those armies that opposed him, he is obviously a product of an aristocratic upbringing. His consistent derision of the post Marian legions, those soldiers of the Capiti Censi was distracting and irritating, and detracted from his credibility as a source. As an infantryman myself in the US Army, and one from a fairly respectable aristocratice background myself, I have found that good soldiers know no class nor blood line. Whereas families may have traditions of service, that should not be equated to a tradition of greatness. I have served with both, and I can hardly imagine that class, other than the level of education, played a role in who was a successful warrior. Few things change with time. Soldiers, and people for that matter, are either good or bad. I dwell on this simply because it's a recurring theme in this book, which distracts the reader from the true importance of Caesar's campaign, which were his genius, his ambition, and his pure skill at commanding his fellow man.
Rating: 
Summary: Hard to put the book down
Review: I have found this to be an excellent account of Ceasars battles, my only criticism is the lack of information on the training and conditioning of the troops. The book tells of the excellent discipline and fighting skills of the legionaries but not how they got that way. Other than that the book was very hard to put down.
Rating: 
Summary: This is a worthy addition to your library!
Review: I use this as a reference work, but it is also written on a level where I can offer it to people with only a basic interest in Caesar, Rome or Ancient Warfare. A must for ancient's wargamers, historians and students of military history. There have been conflicting opinions, but this work is well worth the reading. If you came here looking for a good work on Caesar's military, or the Roman Army of the 50's BC, buy this one!
Rating:
Summary: True title should be: CAESAR'S ART OF WAR
Review: No politics, no love story featuring that useless midget Cleopatra. This book is a hard-core military book. Features VERY Detailed Accounts of the Campaigns of Julius Caesar.
Buy this book if you want to learn about how Caesar fought wars. How he made camp, how long trenches were. Detailed information about on how he designed the defensive perimeters. Continuing with... How he made siege on enemy fortifications and laid waste to way too many peoples.
You will learn the many goods, a few bads, and the one ugly on Caesar.
Rating:
Summary: True title should be: CAESAR'S ART OF WAR
Review: No politics, no love story featuring that useless midget Cleopatra. This book is a hard-core military book. Features VERY Detailed Accounts of the Campaigns of Julius Caesar.
Buy this book if you want to learn about how Caesar fought wars. How he made camp, how long trenches were. Detailed information about on how he designed the defensive perimeters. Continuing with... How he made siege on enemy fortifications and laid waste to way too many peoples.
You will learn the many goods, a few bads, and the one ugly on Caesar.
Rating:
Summary: Perhaps The Best On Caesar's Military Campaigns.
Review: Some time ago I read Dodge's book on Hannibal the Carthaginian General. It was an amazing book. For that reason I purchased and read his book on Caesar. This book was originally published in 1892 its author died in 1909. Although I have only a paper back edition the book is full of maps and line drawings. These illustrate many things. There are drawings of roman military formations, illustrations of how ships worked detailed drawings of siege lines, towers and the like. The work that has gone into the book is simply staggering. Dodge has not only compiled a history of Caesar's campaigns but he has written a treatise on war and how it was conducted towards the end of the Roman Republic. The narrative is fresh easy to follow and has not dated like so many other books from that long ago. Caesar is one of the more significant figures in history. He is known as an author who's works used to be the basis of teaching Latin to schoolchildren. His name initially became the title for the first Roman Emperors. His name became the title of the Russian autocrats "The Tsar" and somewhat later the title of the German Emperor "the Kaiser". His historical legacy was the end of the Roman Republic and the creation of the Imperial system. His career is remarkable. At the time he first assumed military command Gaius Pompeius (Pompey) was Rome's foremost citizen. Pompey had cleared the Mediterranean of pirates and had waged a successful campaign in the middle east. Caesar was given a military command of what is now northern Italy and Croatia. He used his army to expand that command conquering Gaul effectively an area that is equivalent to modern Switzerland, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Dodge describes every battle that Caesar fought in detail. The Gauls had been Rome's enemies for time immemorial. They were brave and talented fighters and their leader Vercingetorix was a first class soldier and a man who was charismatic and able to raise all of Gaul behind him. They key to Caesar's generalship was meticulous planning and the use of field fortifications. Again and again in his life Caesar was able to beat larger armies though careful planning and well thought our tactics. Prior to Caesar's victories the central authority of Rome had collapsed. The power was divided amongst a small number of eminent citizens who controlled armies in the provinces. Italy was neutral ground. By emerging victorious from Gaul Caesar had forged an instrument that would enable him to become the sole master of the entire Roman world. His armies who had by this time developed a fierce loyalty to him. Caesar decided to move on Rome and to provoke a civil war with Pompey. Pompey was not only a competent general but had armies in Spain and Greece that were loyal to him. Caesars actions must have seemed at the time foolhardy. However by meticulous planning Caesar was able to emerge victorious. He again used extensive field fortifications to even up the odds against Pompey's troops. After his defeat he went to Egypt had a brief dalliance with Cleopatra and then completed he conquest of the Roman World by defeating the remaining legions loyal to Pompey. Dodges book not only has illustrations to explain each aspect of ancient warfare but he provides clear maps of each battle with marked units so that the text descriptions are easy to follow. He has other larger territorial maps so that one can put the battle maps in context and follow the logic of the campaigns. Older books tend to become dated and generally newer books are more accessible to readers and contain information that has come to light in recent times. Dodges work is an exception to that rule and is still probably the best history of Caesar's campaigns.
Rating:
Summary: battle descriptions
Review: This and the Hannibal and Alexander books in the series provide very detailed descriptions of the battles. Unlike for the Alexander book, the author was able to visit the battlegrounds covered in this book to confirm the feasibility of claims made by prior historians. That in itself is useful. What is lacking is any kind of analysis of events and battle tactics and, more importantly, there's no synthesis whatsoever that addresses the Origin and Growth of the Art of War, the theme of the series. For that, the first volume of Delbruck's series is more insightful and the four books by Connolly, Hanson, Goldsworthy, and Warry on greek and roman warfare have more illustrative maps.events and battle tactics and, more importantly, there's no synthesis whatsoever that addresses the Origin and Growth of the Art of War, the theme of the series. For that, the first volume of Delbruck's series is more insightful and the four books by Connolly, Hanson, Goldsworthy, and Warry on greek and roman warfare have more illustrative maps.
Rating:
Summary: How the West Was Won
Review: You will enjoy Dodge's grand study of Caesar's military career once you accept its central premise: this is "purely" a military study. Dodge NEVER strays into either a description of the political scene, and is loathe to render moral judgments. This may be occasionally frustrating: the Egyptian sojourn, for instance, is merely a lesson on why a general should not separate himself from his main legion. Cleopatra is little more than a marginal note. The clashes with Pompey, and the fateful decision to cross the Rubicon, are purely a matter of assessing the strengths and dispositions of the competing legions. Once or twice, Dodge will stray from his pedantic terms of reference, for example, he joins many others in condemning Caesar's cruel and dastardly massacre of around 430,000 German tribesfolk during the Conquest of Gaul. But Dodge - like any good West Point man of the c.19th - is far more interested in the engineering feats, of fording and bridging rivers, of marching armies vast distances in a day, of fortifying camps, of digging trenches and of building elaborate siegeworks. In this respect, Dodge's study is methodical and brilliant.
Rating:
Summary: How the West Was Won
Review: You will enjoy Dodge's grand study of Caesar's military career once you accept its central premise: this is "purely" a military study. Dodge NEVER strays into either a description of the political scene, and is loathe to render moral judgments. This may be occasionally frustrating: the Egyptian sojourn, for instance, is merely a lesson on why a general should not separate himself from his main legion. Cleopatra is little more than a marginal note. The clashes with Pompey, and the fateful decision to cross the Rubicon, are purely a matter of assessing the strengths and dispositions of the competing legions. Once or twice, Dodge will stray from his pedantic terms of reference, for example, he joins many others in condemning Caesar's cruel and dastardly massacre of around 430,000 German tribesfolk during the Conquest of Gaul. But Dodge - like any good West Point man of the c.19th - is far more interested in the engineering feats, of fording and bridging rivers, of marching armies vast distances in a day, of fortifying camps, of digging trenches and of building elaborate siegeworks. In this respect, Dodge's study is methodical and brilliant.
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