If We Should Have to Leave Our Bleached Bones on These Desert Sands in Vain, Then Beware the Anger of the Legions.

Marcus Flavinius? Jean Lartéguy? Jean Pouget? Roger Frey? Apocryphal?

Dear Quote Investigate: I would like your help in determining the authenticity of an eloquent letter that was supposedly sent by Marcus Flavinius, a centurion, to his cousin in Rome. Flavinius was fighting in a military campaign overseas in the 2nd Century AD, and he stated that he and his fellow warriors were willing to shed their blood protecting the glory of the Empire. But he now feared that back in Rome there was conspiracy and treachery. He wanted assurance that the citizens supported the campaign, and he ended the note with a warning:

If it should be otherwise, if we should have to leave our bleached bones on these desert sands in vain, then beware the fury of the Legions.

Apparently it has been difficult to locate any historical record of a person named Marcus Flavinius. Is this letter legitimate?

Quote Investigator: The letter was probably a fake. The earliest known appearance of the text was in the epigraph of a bestselling French novel titled “Les Centurions” by Jean Lartéguy in 1960. The book was about the experiences of French military men in Vietnam and Algeria, and it was translated into English and published as “The Centurions” in 1962. By 1966 the letter had been reprinted without a source citation in the reference collection: “Dictionary of Military and Naval Quotations”.

Yet, Jean Lartéguy later claimed that he had been given fabricated information which he included in “Les Centurions”. He discussed this topic in his 1976 book “La Guerre Nue” which was translated into English and published as “The Face of War: Reflections on Men and Combat” in 1979. The supposed Roman letter from antiquity was part of the false information.

The text of the letter in French as it appeared in “Les Centurions” [LCJL] has been appended near the bottom of this post. Here is the English language version published in the 1962 edition of “The Centurions” [TCJL]:

We had been told, on leaving our native soil, that we were going to defend the sacred rights conferred on us by so many of our citizens settled overseas, so many years of our presence, so many benefits brought by us to populations in need of our assistance and our civilization.

We were able to verify that all this was true, and, because it was true, we did not hesitate to shed our quota of blood, to sacrifice our youth and our hopes. We regretted nothing, but whereas we over here are inspired by this frame of mind, I am told that in Rome factions and conspiracies are rife, that treachery flourishes, and that many people in their uncertainty and confusion lend a ready ear to the dire temptations of relinquishment and vilify our action.

I cannot believe that all this is true and yet recent wars have shown how pernicious such a state of mind could be and to where it could lead.

Make haste to reassure me, I beg you, and tell me that our fellow-citizens understand us, support us and protect us as we ourselves are protecting the glory of the Empire.

If it should be otherwise, if we should have to leave our bleached bones on these desert sands in vain, then beware of the anger of the Legions!

Marcus Flavinius,
Centurion in the 2nd Cohort of the Augusta Legion,
to his cousin Tertullus in Rome

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Sometimes a variant phrase is substituted for “beware the anger of the Legions” such as “beware the fury of the Legions” or “beware the wrath of the Legions”.

The publication date for “The Centurions” was 1962, but it was available to book reviewers by December 1961, and the Los Angeles Times published a review that included the final bitter sentence from the epigraph. The reviewer assumed that the ascription was accurate [LTTC]:

What the ancient Roman centurions resented was that while they spilled their blood on foreign soil they were hearing rumors of corruption at home. “If we should have to leave our bleached bones on these desert sands in vain,” wrote Marcus Flavinius, “then beware of the anger of the Legions!”

In 1966 a version of the letter appeared in “Dictionary of Military and Naval Quotations” published by the United States Naval Institute [DMNQ]. The text was very similar to the earliest known English instance in “The Centurions”, but some words were deleted and some words were altered. For example, “shed our quota of blood” was changed to “shed our share of blood”. In addition, the following sentence was removed and replaced by an ellipsis:

I cannot believe that all this is true and yet recent wars have shown how pernicious such a state of mind could be and to where it could lead.

Also, the word “of” was deleted in the final sentence. The attribution was unchanged, but no precise bibliographic citation was provided [DMNQ]:

If it should be otherwise, if we should have to leave our bleached bones on these desert sands in vain, then beware the anger of the Legions!

Marcus Flavinius: To his cousin, Tertullus, in Rome. 2d century A. D. (Flavinius was a centurion. 2nd Cohort, Augusta Legion.)

In 1969 the letter was reprinted in the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper in an article titled “Viet Parallel Found in Old Rome”. The prefatory words referred to contemporary experiences of U.S. soldiers in Vietnam in the 1960s [TCCP]:

The following letter, written home by a centurion serving in the Middle East shortly before the fall of Rome, was transcribed by the French author Jean Larteguy in his book “The Centurions.”

With some minor exclusions it could well be sent today by a company commander stationed at a place like Cu Chi, Chu Lai or Quang Tri City.

In 1976 “La Guerre Nue” was published, and the English translation: “The Face of War” was released by 1979. Jean Lartéguy stated that he was given false information from a person he trusted who was relaying data from a third person [FWJL]:

Jean Pouget, whom I’d met in Algeria at the time of the May thirteenth putsch, gave me precious information on Camp #1 in North Vietnam and on the long march of the survivors of Dien Bien Phu. That was the reason for the letter of the centurion Marcus Flavinius of the Augusta Legion which I used to open my book and which ends with that prophetic sentence: “Let people beware the wrath of the Legions!”

There was only one thing wrong with the information I received from Pouget, though I didn’t know it at the time. It had been fabricated by Roger Frey in the hope it would arouse the anger of the Algerian legions enough that they would chase a weak government from Paris, one incapable of solving Algeria’s problems, and name an emperor. That it did.

In 1984 the letter was printed in the Wall Street Journal twice. Once in an article about Cyprus [AAMS] and once in a feature called “Notable & Quotable” [NQWJ]. In both cases the reference work “Dictionary of Military and Naval Quotations” was cited for support.

In 2005 the letter attributed to Flavinius was discussed at the website empereurs-romains.net in French. An individual named Michel Eloy located the revealing passage in “La Guerre Nue” by Jean Lartéguy in which the author stated that the letter was apparently a fake. An excerpt from the website in French has been appended near the bottom of this post [ERJL].

In 2010 the Washington Post printed an Op-Ed piece titled “The making of four-star arrogance”. The article included excerpts from a letter credited to Marcus Flavius (a variant of Marcus Flavinius) [ABMF]:

Americans might do well to contemplate a famous warning issued by another frustrated commander from a much earlier age.

“We had been told, on leaving our native soil,” wrote the centurion Marcus Flavius to a cousin back in Rome, “that we were going to defend the sacred rights conferred on us by so many of our citizens [and to aid] populations in need of our assistance and our civilization.” For such a cause, he and his comrades had willingly offered to “shed our quota of blood, to sacrifice our youth and our hopes.” Yet the news from the homeland was disconcerting: The capital was seemingly rife with factions, treachery and petty politics. “Make haste,” Marcus Flavius continued, “and tell me that our fellow citizens understand us, support us and protect us as we ourselves are protecting the glory of the empire.”

“If it should be otherwise, if we should have to leave our bleached bones on these desert sands in vain, then beware of the anger of the legions!”

In conclusion, the first instance of the letter attributed to Marcus Flavinius appeared in a popular French novel by Jean Lartéguy in 1960. But he later stated that he had been given false information and disavowed the letter. No solid historical evidence supporting the letter has been found. QI believes it is a fake.

Note: Excerpts in French are located further below after the bibliography.

(Thanks to Leroy Huizenga whose inquiry inspired QI to construct this question and perform this exploration. Many thanks to Douglas G. Wilson who pointed out the very valuable discussion in French at the website empereurs-romains.net. Great thanks to John McChesney-Young who accessed three key books at Berkeley and created scans. Thanks also to Dennis Lien who independently visually verified the cite in “Les Centurions”.)

[LCJL] 1960, Les Centurions by Jean Lartéguy, [Written in French], Epigraph ascribed to Marcus Flavinius, Unnumbered Page, [Page 8 by backward count from numbered page 11], Presses de la Cité, Paris. (Verified with scans; Thanks to the library system of University of California, Berkeley)

[TCJL] 1962, The Centurions by Jean Lartéguy, [Translated from the French by Xan Fielding], Epigraph ascribed to Marcus Flavinius, Unnumbered Page, [Page 7 by backward count from numbered page 15], E.P. Dutton & Co., New York. (Verified with scans; Thanks to the library system of University of California, Berkeley)

[LTTC] 1961 December 24, Los Angeles Times, Paratroopers’ Tale of Woe by George W. Feinstein, Quote Page F21, Column 4, Los Angeles, California. (ProQuest)

[DMNQ] 1966, “Dictionary of Military and Naval Quotations” edited by Robert Debs Heinl, Category: Home Front, Page 149, Column 2, United States Naval Institute, Annapolis, Maryland. (Verified on paper)

[TCCP] 1969 December 21, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Viet Parallel Found in Old Rome, Page 4-A, Column 1 to 3, Cleveland, Ohio. (GenealogyBank)

[FWJL] 1979, The Face of War: Reflections on Men and Combat by Jean Lartéguy, [Translated from the French by Beth de Bilio], Pages 291 and 292, Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis, Indiana. (Verified with scans; Thanks to the library system of University of California, Berkeley)

[AAMS] 1984 January 27, Wall Street Journal, The Ardor of Athens by Michael Sakellaropoulo, Page 1, New York. (ProQuest)

[NQWJ] 1984 March 21, Wall Street Journal, Notable & Quotable, Page 1, New York. (ProQuest)

[ERJL] 2005 December 11 [Date listed on website], Website empereurs-romains.net, Note sent by Michel Eloy to the webmaster at empereurs-romains.net, Note contained an excerpt from “La Guerre Nue” (1976) by Jean Lartéguy. (Accessed September 23, 2012) link

[ABMF] 2010 June 27, Washington Post, The making of four-star arrogance by Andrew Bacevich, Page B1, Washington, D.C. (ProQuest) [Online title: Endless war, a recipe for four-star arrogance] link

Epigraph in “Les Centurions” 1960 [LCJL]:

On nous avait dit, lorsque nous avons quitté le sol natal, que nous partions défendre les droits sacrés que nous confèrent tant de citoyens installés là-bas, tant d’années de présence, tant de bienfaits apportés à des populations qui ont besoin de notre aide et de notre civilisation.

Nous avons pu vérifier que tout cela était vrai, et, parce que c’était vrai, nous n’avons pas hésité à verser l’impôt du sang, à sacrifier notre jeunesse, nos espoirs. Nous ne regrettons rien, mais alors qu’ici cet état d’esprit nous anime, on me dit que dans Rome se succèdent cabales et complots, que fleurit la trahison et que beaucoup, hésitants, troublés, prêtent des oreilles complaisantes aux pires tentations de l’abandon et vilipendent notre action.

Je ne puis croire que tout cela soit vrai et pourtant des guerres récentes ont montré à quel point pouvait être pernicieux un tel état d’âme, et où il pouvait mener.

Je t’en prie, rassure-moi au plus vite et dis-moi que nos concitoyens nous comprennent, nous soutiennent, nous protègent comme nous protégeons nous-mêmes la grandeur de l’Empire.

S’il devait en être autrement, si nous devions laisser en vain nos os blanchis sur les pistes du désert, alors, que l’on prenne garde à la colère des Légions!

Marcus Flavinius
Centurion à la 2e Cohorte de la Légion Augusta
à son cousin Tertullus à Rome.

The following excerpt is from the website empereurs-romains.net [ERJL]:

Michel ELOY (site PEPLUM – Image de l’Antiquité) écrit:

A propos de ce fameux texte, Jean Lartéguy a noté dans son autobiographie La guerre nue (Stock, 1976, p. 331) : «Jean Pouget, que j’avais rencontré en Algérie au moment du 13 mai, m’a fourni [pour Les Centurions] des renseignements précieux sur le Camp nÁ 1 et la longue marche des rescapés de Dien Bien Phu. Ainsi que la lettre du centurion Marcus Flavinius, de la légion Augusta, qui sert d’ouverture à ce livre, et qui se termine par cette phrase prophétique : «Que l’on prenne garde à la colère des légions !»

Il s’agissait d’un faux : je l’ignorais alors. Il avait été fabriqué par Roger Frey, dans le but de réveiller la colère des légions d’Algérie pour qu’elles chassent de Paris, la nouvelle Rome, un gouvernement faible, incapable de régler le problème de l’Algérie, et nomment un empereur. Ce qui fut fait [Charles de Gaulle].»