Hamilcar Barca

The Ostrogoths basicly came to spread their influence across the former Roman provinces following the fall of the Western Empire in 476AD, this led to the so called dark ages, a time which became notoriously popular for so-called gothic style architecture and such (even though the goths did not invent this). It wasn't really until the Renaissance that a sudden interest in Classical architecture and design came about again.

The Romans weren't more distinguished with their information train than anybody else of their day. A message from Londinium to Rome may take 2 weeks if all went well. Messengers traveling by horseback often got lost, were intercepted or ambushed, or simply ran behind schedule on account of the increadible strain put on their animals. This obviously caused problems in times of war when armies were kept waiting for vital pieces of information only to recieve orders to say, come to relieve a besieged town, by which time they would often arrive too late. It obviously worked to some effect though otherwise the Romans would of had a hard time getting anything done.

The only thing great about Mithridates was the fact that he stayed in power for as long as he did.. Mithridates was increadibly lazy, he didn't even attend the epic battles fought against Rome, at both Chaeronea and Orchenomus he was absent, sitting at his throne back in Pontus. It was his general Archalus who fought these battles for him - and lost them - badly.

I've only ever played the demo. I really need to get this game, and the add on... but my laptop sucks.

I'm not doubting that these events took place, what I am doubting is the increadibly high number of enemy killed, yet the battles themselves are not described in any detail. Basicly what I asking is if you were going to report on these events, would you include the casualty figures given? You must mean someone else, Polybius lived 100 years before Caesar showed up and Livy's books from this era have not survived.

How big a book were you thinking of making and what kind of detail would you be going into. An all encompasing history of the world book could be impossible to ever complete. However, have you seen the Times history of the world, thats a huge book but covers most topics very briefly, would you be going into far greater detail than that? In any case, I'd be happy to give any information regarding the civilisations of Carthage and Republican Rome.

I need feedback here. In more cases than not, the period of 214-211 in Spain is written off as a series of minor, uneventful engagements, generally not worth commenting on. However, Livy makes reference to a series of battles fought over this time which involved hugely outnumbered Roman armies inflicting high casualties on the forces of Hasdrubal, Mago and Gisgo. None of the other ancients make reference to such large figures. Does anyone else think the battles and losses recorded here are plausible? Or is it simply more of Livy's fictional, patriotic ramblings, designed to act as a counterbalance to the series of Roman disasters in Italy.

Insane.

Saw it. WOW. Outstanding. 2 1/2 hours of non-stop light sabre duels, star battles and all round kick arse action.

I see the irony and the points made but the movies are still entertaining.

Yoda is my favourite, probably followed by chewy.

Indeed, him and Don Jon (from Lepanto) are firm favourites of mine when it comes to cool names. In any case Krum was a legend.

You haven't answered my quote yet.

Sorry, I wasn't aware that this had already been done.

Star Wars III comes out on may 19, who else can't wait?

There are many that I probabaly didn't include but I felt that all these guys deserved immediate mention.

I believe that was Cicero to Marcellus. New Quote:

I'm having trouble finding the actual dates for the siege of Syracuse because different sources say different things. Which of these is correct? a.) 214BC - 212BC b.) 214BC - 211BC c.) 213BC - 211BC Anyone know?

Indeed, he was despicable in Troy but here he worked realy well. 6 hour uncut DVD? Wow, i've got to see that.

Actually pretty good, they and the movie were historically acurate in the greater sense. The battle of the Horns of Hattin was skipped to the aftermath but the siege and assault on Jeruselum was great: around 45 minutes of outstanding action, even though it did feel slightly like a rerun of LOTR. Overall, better than I expected.

I saw the movie, its pretty good. Not as good as Gadiator but still good. The Crusaders are portrayed as bloodsucking vampires though.

Yes but within 70 years Rome had conquered all of Italy and had access to far more troops. Roman territory at this stage was even smaller than what the Samnites had.

Well at this time Rome had alliances with several surrounding Latin based towns as well as Capua. However, Livy makes no mention of Rome's complete military strength. But from that you could probably make an estimate. So probably around 150,000 max strength. As for a hypothetical defeats at Sentinum (295BC), it was a decisive battle for Rome. If Rome had lost, they would of had a hell of a time recovering. The 35,000 stong force of Umbrians, Gauls and Samnites would have crossed the Appenines and caused some serious damage. Roman confidence would be smashed while the enemy's would be elevated to an all new level, this easilly could have caused Capua and other Latin based towns in alliance with Rome to desert to the Samnites. The Romans would then be fighting badly outnumbered in a war where they could be attacked from all directions. Even before they were holding off attacks from the Etruscans/Gauls in the North and the Samnites/Umbrians in the East. Sentinum was of massive importance. It would be like if Hasdrubal had defeated Nero at he Metaurus. After Sentinum the Romans convinced the Gauls to retire and from there it was all downhill. As for Aqualonia (293BC), well the Samnites didn't have a chance. Their confidence was virtually nought and they were fighting by threat of death from their officers. The Roman morale on the other hand was excellent and the Consul Papirius Cursor was a highly experienced and respected general. The Samnites were pushed back the entire battle and when they were led (falsely) to believe that Roman reinforcements were on the way, they all retreated, even the officers and generals. If by some miracle they had won then I think it would have only been a setback from their enevitable destruction. The Gauls and Etruscans were out of the picture by this stage and Aqualonia marked the last major stand by the Samnites. They had almost their entire force of 40,000 men there, if by some miracle it had been victorious it would of had to immediatly deal with another Roman army under the consul Spurius Carvilius who was at this time smashing another Samnite force at Cominium. They themselves knew this in the battle and it was the speculation that Spurius would appear that sent them to rout. So Sentinum was a must-win victory but Aqualonia was a sure-thing victory.

If you want some great examples of blatant racism or prejudice from the 1st C AD, look no further than the Satires of Juveneal. The man hated Egyptians with a passion.