Primus Pilus

Go ahead and argue

As long as it is based on Rome or the ancient world in general, feel free to review it. We've already had several contributions from the community (Ursus and Pompeius Magnus, btw thanks again guys), and the more the merrier. Personally, since this is a Roman history website, I like to touch on accuracy as a piece of the review (I have only reviewed fiction novels so far), but not as the only thing. If you want to include that in your review of games, feel free, but if you aren't comfortable with it, don't worry about it. Games are supposed to be fun, so I suppose that's the main thing

The Republican legions, including those that faced Hannibal, were tactically handcuffed. Hannibal's great mobility came from the heavy reliance he placed on cavalry (which is something the Romans were never good at). In the Republic, the 'conscript' (I use that term to reflect that the armies were not full time professionals) Roman armies were still partially based on the old Greek phalanx system, which historically was very immobile. Lack of consistency through armies being assembled as needed, rather than constant training, etc., limited the capability of military tactics during that time. After the reforms of Marius, through the civil war period and into the Augustan Age, the Romans developed a professional standing army. The professional legions were the most mobile tactical infantries in the ancient world, where each piece (cohort, century, etc.) was capable of independent operation. The Imperial Legions (or Post Marian) were uniform in principle and strategy, meaning gear and training were the same for each soldier. One entire cohort (6 in a legion) could peel off the main body to flank or circumvent an enemy, and the cohesion of the whole wouldn't be compromised. In the Republican army, flanking was, for the most part, unheard of. Most battles in that era were straight on head to head engagements. When Hannibal came to Italy, his cavalry was able to run around the tactically inferior Romans at will, and his superiority as a battlefield general was established. The Romans however, learned a great deal from Hannibal, and his success began to change the way the Romans looked at warfare. The world can really give a great deal of credit to Carthage for Rome's eventual dominance of the western world.

Any idea when this is supposed to start... I'm currently getting HBO free for 6 months, lol

Well, if you understood it, then at least I'm on the right track

Latinum meus debilis, autem attentus possum I can read enough to get by, but if anyone else can read the above, you will clearly see I don't even have a passable grasp of writing it

Pompeii by Robert Harris 79 AD, the towns of Herculaneum and Pompeii simply ceased to exist. Mt. Vesuvius unleashed the wrath of the ancient gods, and over a period of 4 days, the blanket of ash preserved the ancient world exactly as it was 2,000 years ago. In Pompeii, Robert Harris recreates that Roman world with seemingly flawless effort. The description of that ancient way of life is beautifully crafted, leaving the reader with a true sense of the time.... ...read the full review of Pompeii by Robert Harris

Or you can quote an entire post just by hitting the 'quote' button in the upper right of every post.

There is the common misconception that Constantine officially made Christianity the state religion of Rome in 313 AD. All that the 'edict of Milan' did was enforce tolerance and freedom, thereby making Christianity an accepted form of religion within the empire. The Romans converted officially during the reign of Theodosius between 380 and 394. He mandated the destruction of pagan temples and outlawed pagan customs throughout the empire. Even the eternal flame kept by the Vestal Virgins was extinguished. The transformation from Pagan gods to Christianity was a very long process that obviously took nearly 400 years before completion. The Christian faith spread slowly at first, but its many similarities to Mithraism, which was highly popular in the legions, helped spur its growth in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. A hope for equal status 'in the kingdom of God' among the common masses helped drive it into the social fabric of the empire, and the growing strength of the organized church by the 4th century, slowly crippled resistance to the more free-spirited and less structured concept of Paganism.

I wouldn't take anything from that movie as historical fact, though I assume that was the reference they were trying to make.

Senatus Populusque Romanus.... The Senate and the People of Rome SPQR has its roots all the way back to the Etruscans (Populus being an Etruscan word) and its origin seems to have been mainly military. The slogan adorned military banners originally, and eventually came to be included on various public buildings.

Well, and Italians

It was a late addition, they weren't using them, at least not as a standard weapon, against the Macedonians.

Yes, we can't forget our pagan Winter Solstice folks... Perhaps the oldest of the late December holidays. (Is it older than Chanukah?) Still, I prefer the good old-fashioned wishing of a Merry Christmas, and to hell with political correctness. May I receive a lump of coal in my stocking for being so insensitive.

Difficult to say for sure. There is only limited evidence of actual legion standards dating that far back, so auxilia banners are hard to place. Depending on the situation, they likely would've provided their own standards which may have been supplemented by Roman auxilia standards. No, I'm afraid I don't. The Achaean League was mainly allied with Rome against Macedonia, but this doesn't necessarily mean there weren't forces willing to go to battle with the other side if the payment was right.

Rome didn't use mercenaries the way we've come to know them, but they did use auxilia. These were non-citizen forces fighting as allies of Rome. In eastern campaigns, phalanx units saw freqent action alongside the early legions. In the Fourth Macedonian War Rome extended the campaign south into Greece, and they most assuredly faced Greek phalanx forces, but these were not the classic armies of Greek golden age. The best example of legion vs. Greek style phalanx armies came in the earlier Macedonian Wars and against Pyrrhus of Epirus The post-marian reform legions saw considerable action against eastern forces, such as Sulla against Mithridates, and Pompey's campaigns. However, the Greeks as a military force were pretty much a non-factor in this stage of history.

Yup, 480 at full strength, though legions rarely ever achieved that while on campaign.

Glad to have you, Fafnir. We're a pretty diverse, and growing group,so we gladly welcome new additions of all types.

Everytime a bell rings... an angel gets his wings

Finally, another McCullough fan, lol.

Interesting... so its a collaboration of writers then? I will check it out.

Shall we assume you are the author?

In the east that's definately true. Latin was a common language among the people of Italy and other western provinces. It was sort of the opposite in the west. Greek was only really available to the well educated. In the east Greek was common and Latin was only known by the elite. Consider this... how would Latin have become so widely influential if only the elite used it? It wouldn't have, it only did so because it was a common tongue to the masses of western Europe. Keep in mind, I am no linguistic scholar, this is just what I believe, based on the evidence of Latin as a huge influence on all of the western 'Romance' languages.

I still haven't read the 'Last King' mainly because it hasn't received alot of great reviews, so I can't really comment. Still I can't imagine it would be that bad.

Yup, it just evolved into Italian and to some extant Spanish (though it is more heavily influenced by other languages than Italian). The Romanian tongue has many similarities to Latin, and is often considered the closest modern language to Latin, but that wa,s at least in part, because of a concerted effort to reinsert the Latin alphabet and words during the 19th century. French is a hybrid of Germanic (Frank) and Latin as well as others. English is a mutt language that has been influenced by many European tongues, which includes a great deal of Latin.