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Who really said it

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

Attributed to Jean Lartéguy 1920–2011 · French novelist & war correspondent
Attributed In copyright

The earliest known text is the epigraph of Lartéguy’s 1960 novel Les Centurions, framed as a letter from the Roman centurion “Marcus Flavinius.” Lartéguy later disowned it: he wrote that the letter was a fabrication that had been passed to him. The English wording comes from Xan Fielding’s translation, and who actually wrote the text has never been settled.

Last verified 1 Nov 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Unconfirmed quote & credit

“If We Should Have to Leave Our Bleached Bones on These Desert Sands in Vain, Then Beware the Anger of the Legions” epigraph to Jean Lartéguy's novel Les Centurions (1960), tr. Xan Fielding (1962); presented as a letter from a Roman centurion, "Marcus Flavinius," and later disowned by Lartéguy as a fabrication. · Verbatim: “If we should have to leave our bleached bones on these desert sands in vain, then beware of the anger of the Legions!”

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Estate of Jean Lartéguy (French text); estate of translator Xan Fielding and the publisher (English translation)). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

Evoking the world of Jean Lartéguy — French novelist, journalist & war correspondent. Theme: "If We Should Have to Leave Our Bleached Bones on These Desert Sands in Vain, Then Beware the Anger of the Legions". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

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Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "If We Should Have to Leave Our Bleached Bones on These Desert Sands in Vain, Then Beware the Anger of the Legions". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

Where the line first appears

Work
Les Centurions (epigraph)
First published
1960, in French
Translation
The Centurions, translated by Xan Fielding (E. P. Dutton, 1962)
Presented as
A letter from “Marcus Flavinius, Centurion” of the Augusta Legion (no evidence he existed)

… if we should have to leave our bleached bones on these desert sands in vain, then beware of the anger of the Legions! Fielding translation

This is the closing line as Quote Investigator transcribes it from the 1962 English edition. Fielding wrote “beware of the anger.” The shorter “beware the anger of the Legions” matches the version reprinted in the 1966 Dictionary of Military and Naval Quotations.

Quote Investigator: the full investigation of the Marcus Flavinius letter

How the trail runs

  • 1960: The text appears as the epigraph of Jean Lartéguy’s French novel Les Centurions. Quote Investigator calls this the earliest known appearance (Quote Investigator ↗).
  • 1962: Xan Fielding’s English translation, The Centurions (E. P. Dutton), prints the closing line as “then beware of the anger of the Legions!” (Quote Investigator ↗).
  • 1966: Robert Debs Heinl’s Dictionary of Military and Naval Quotations (U.S. Naval Institute) reprints an altered version with no source, ending “beware the anger of the Legions!” (Quote Investigator ↗).
  • 2012: Researcher Garson O’Toole asks the American Dialect Society list whether the letter is fiction. He reports finding no evidence for it earlier than Lartéguy’s novel (ADS-L ↗).
In copyright

The line first appeared in Les Centurions (1960), a work by an identifiable modern author. The English wording shown here comes from Xan Fielding’s translation, first published in 1962. Both were published after 1931, so both are treated as in copyright in the United States.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

Who usually gets the credit

The line usually circulates as a real letter written home by a Roman soldier in the second century. No record of that soldier has been found, and the letter cannot be traced to any source earlier than a French novel published in 1960.

“Marcus Flavinius, Centurion, Augusta Legion” Fictional source

This is the letter’s stated author. Quote Investigator found no solid historical evidence for the letter or the man and concludes it is a fake whose first known appearance is Lartéguy’s 1960 epigraph (Quote Investigator ↗).

“Marcus Flavius” Spelling variant

Andrew Bacevich’s June 27, 2010, Washington Post op-ed credited the letter to a Roman commander under this spelling (Quote Investigator ↗).

“fury” / “wrath” of the Legions Reworded

Later retellings replace “anger” with “fury” or “wrath.” The 1960s text has “anger” (Quote Investigator ↗).

The earliest documented source is the epigraph of Jean Lartéguy’s novel Les Centurions (1960). In La Guerre nue (English: The Face of War, 1979) Lartéguy wrote that the letter was a fake, saying it had been fabricated by Roger Frey and reached him through Jean Pouget. Nobody has independently confirmed that account (Quote Investigator ↗).

Context

Why it caught on

Les Centurions follows French paratroopers from Indochina to the war in Algeria. The “Roman” letter at the front of the book complains that soldiers fighting far from home are betrayed by the politicians behind them, which matches the novel’s theme. Once the text was cut loose from the novel, it began circulating as a genuine ancient document.

It was later used to comment on American wars. A 1969 Cleveland Plain Dealer article tied it to U.S. soldiers in Vietnam, and Andrew Bacevich quoted it in the Washington Post in 2010, according to Quote Investigator ↗.

Beware the anger of the Legions.

Did Lartéguy write it himself?

We can’t say. Lartéguy published the letter first, but later denied writing it. In The Face of War (translated by Beth de Bilio, Bobbs-Merrill, 1979, pp. 291–292) he wrote that it “had been fabricated by Roger Frey,” according to Quote Investigator ↗. That is his own account, and no one has corroborated it, so the page credits the text to Lartéguy as its earliest known publisher without claiming he wrote it.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

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Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Quote Investigator: “Beware the Anger of the Legions”quoteinvestigator.com

The main investigation: 1960 earliest appearance, the 1962 Fielding translation, Lartéguy’s later disavowal, and the conclusion that the letter is a fake.
ADS-L thread: “Beware the fury of the Legions”listserv.linguistlist.org

Garson O’Toole’s March 2012 query to the American Dialect Society list, which started the research.
ADS-L follow-up on Lartéguy’s memoirlistserv.linguistlist.org

Follow-up post quoting a machine translation of Lartéguy’s later account, which calls the letter a fake “manufactured by Roger Frey.”
The Centurions (novel)en.wikipedia.org

Background on the 1960 novel and its English translation by Xan Fielding.
Jean Lartéguyen.wikipedia.org

Biography of the author (born Jean Pierre Lucien Osty, 1920–2011).
Les Centurions (Presses de la Cité, 1960)archive.org

Internet Archive record of a scanned 1960 French edition (borrow-only).

Credited author

About the earliest source

Jean Lartéguy

1920–2011 · French novelist, journalist & war correspondent

Jean Lartéguy was the pen name of Jean Pierre Lucien Osty. He served with the Free French Forces and later became a war correspondent, chiefly for Paris Match. His 1960 novel Les Centurions, about French paratroopers after Indochina, became a bestseller and was filmed as Lost Command (1966). The Marcus Flavinius letter first appears as its epigraph.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Earliest documented in

Lartéguy, Jean. Les Centurions. Paris: Presses de la Cité, 1960, epigraph. English translation: The Centurions, translated by Xan Fielding. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1962. Letter attributed within the novel to “Marcus Flavinius”; see Quote Investigator, “Beware the Anger of the Legions,” September 23, 2012.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘If We Should Have to Leave Our Bleached Bones on These Desert Sands in Vain, Then Beware the Anger of the Legions’?” Last verified 1 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/if-we-should-have-to-leave-our-bleached-bones-on-these/

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