“The Roman Legions”, by H. M. D. Parker

296 pages, Barnes & Noble Books, ISBN-13: 978-0880298544

The Roman Legions by H. M. D. Parker was first published in 1928 (the edition reviewed here is a Barnes & Noble reprint from 1993 of the 1956 revised edition) but was considered then – and now – as a major contribution to our understanding of the internal organization of the legions, the areas from which they drew their recruits, and the conditions in which they served, as well as being the first on the subject in English. Although outdated by works published in the 80+ years since Parker’s first hit the shelves, this is still an interesting book, as it is still very readable for the most part. The period selected for study starts with the Marian army reforms and ends with the accession of Septimius Serverus, and an attempt has also been by Parker made to trace the movements of the legions in the first two centuries of the Principate, the circumstances in which new units were raised and the normal orders of battle and march, while in the Introduction the stages by which the army developed in the pre-Marian Republic have been sketched in an outline. There are also some really tedious parts about minutiae of when legions were formed (the author is refuting ideas from other authors), while the book alo contains numerous Latin and Greek quotes that are not translated which will be frustrating to those who don't know Greek or Latin (like me).

“Cortes: The Great Adventurer and the Fate of Aztec Mexico”, by Richard Lee Marks

347 pages, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., ISBN-13: 978-0679406099

Hernan Cortes – the quintessential conquistador, who in his conquest of Mexico set the pattern for Spanish expansion in the New World – was a puny, sickly baby and a dropout law student who, in Richard Lee Marks’ vivid biography, enjoyed a long, carousing youth that lasted well into his 30’s. As captain of Spain's expeditionary force to subjugate the Aztec empire, this gadabout transformed himself into a resolute, ambitious adventurer, and in this book a full-fleshed view of Cortes and a perception of the epic clash of Christian and Aztec cultures that is deeply sympathetic to both sides.

Born of good blood and small means in 1485, Cortes grew up in that heady time when Spain was celebrating its liberation from the Moors and its discovery of America. First studying law at Salamanca, then lustily pursuing the pleasures of youth on the islands of Hispaniola and Cuba, he at last finagled for himself the captaincy of an expedition sent to colonize the newly discovered mainland of Mexico. The Aztec civilization he encountered there was the product of millennia of human evolution in utter isolation, and to the Europeans it seemed both glorious in its flamboyance and shocking in its rites of human sacrifice and cannibalism. But both Cortes and the Aztec emperor, Montezuma, saw potential benefits in peaceful accommodation. A six-month period of peace-seeking ended when the greed of other Spaniards pursued Cortes and when the frustration of the proud Aztecs erupted. Caught between these two forces, Cortes and his men were nearly annihilated, yet a year later they won a more drastic and tragic victory than they desired. But powerful men in Spain and Cuba, hungry for Mexico’s gold and silver and envious of the conquistador’s fame, tried to topple Cortes. Intrigues surrounded and frustrated him, a man torn between the New World and the Old, and at the end of his life, he remained unconsoled for the glory he and Montezuma had lost.

Tapping firsthand accounts by Indians and Spaniards as well as historical chronicles, Marks disputes the conventional notion that Aztec emperor Montezuma was terrified by a prophecy that his rule was coming to an end – a view promulgated by accommodating Aztec priests who testified to Franciscans after the conquest. It’s more likely, claims Marks, that Montezuma saw himself in a trial partnership with Cortes and his men and was happy to regard them as descendants of Quetzalcoatl, the bearded white god and quasi-historical Toltec chief. Instead of the image of Cortes as a ruthless, bloodthirsty conqueror, Marks portrays a stubborn man who tried to succeed by guile rather than by armed combat, and who, by imposing Catholic ritual and Spanish law, ushered in 300 years of stability and peace in Mexico.

Here, then, is the complete Hernan Cortes, the conqueror of Mexico, a man of explosive vitality, of passion, of principle, of piety, of treachery, of humor in the face of death; Cortes the converter of the heathen; Cortes the conniver; Cortes the man in full.

“Great Harry: The Extravagant Life of Henry VIII”, by Carolly Erickson

428 pages, Summit Books, ISBN-13: 978-0671400170

Great Harry: The Extravagant Life of Henry VIII is as thorough a book on Hal the Eighth as you're likely to come across. In her Preface, Dr. Erickson declares that her principal aim is “the retelling of Henry’s personal story…a life of a man rather than a life of a King”. Her principal method is to construct from the Calendars of Spanish, Venetian and Milanese state papers, and the Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, “a composite image of the King from these slivers of his reality”. By this method I learned a great deal about his very young life that is rarely mentioned in other biographies, such as how his father (Henry VII) kept him a virtual prisoner by not allowing anyone to be near Henry without his knowledge. By the age of 13 he is being instructed in government (how much influence does this have over the rearing of Henry’s own son and heir, Edward?)

Henry VIII is a fascinating character who cannot be easily pigeonholed, but in Erickson’s work, he remains unexamined and, therefore, lifeless. Dr. Erickson, with over four hundred years between her and the libel lawyers and every private paper at her disposal, could have afforded to be bolder in her work; instead, we have statements of the obvious – “Each servant knew exactly where his or her duties began and ended, and if those limits were not observed, conflicts arose” – or pieces of vapidness – “The torch-lit presence chamber of Hampton Court had never been more resplendently decked than on the night of January 2 1527”. At best, Dr. Erickson seems to know exactly the kind of minor details we in the 21^st Century find most interesting. For instance, From the 1530s onwards the wardrobe accounts show payments to tailors for letting out the King’s doublets and jackets, and we learn that his amazing increase in weight took place, in effect, within five years: in 1536 (when Henry was 45), his chest was 45 inches and his waist 37, measurements only a little larger than those he had at the age of 33, but by 1541 his chest had grown to 57 inches and his waist to 54. Henry should have lain off the ding-dongs.

One excellent passage describes the unlooked-for side-effect of Henry’s policy of killing off the great and nobly born all around him was the catastrophic dwindling of the ranks of the Knights of the Garter. It was really very irritating for the King, who had a particular attachment to St. George’s Day (from which he calculated his years on the throne and on which he celebrated his royal birthday) that by 1540 the annual assembly was a miserable affair, with the ghosts of the so many slaughtered knights hovering in the shadows. Sadly – and rather surprisingly for a female author – very little is mentioned about his wives who must have been strong motivators in his life. They are alluded to but little is said of them.

There is nice portrait of Catherine Parr, the only of Henry’s Queens to outlive him (in her company, wrote a contemporary, “every day was a Sunday”); Charles Brandon is the subject of a further good character sketch, and his importance in the reign is understood; the tarnishing of Whitehall towards the end of the reign is well conveyed…and with that, the King’s life draws to its close, and the book is over. There is no conclusion, and it remains sad to see such erudition and enthusiasm going to waste.