|
Roman advantages
Advantages of Rome are:
1. Superior siege weapons. (i.e. the Ballisti, and the trebuchet)
2. Superior armor. Roman soldiers wore both scaled, and chain mail armor. Their armor was so heavy that they were a lot like dismounted knights of the middle ages.
3. Fighting on their own back yard. Though this could be normally considered a disadvantage; but in the ancient times, when the other guys' backyard is three thousand miles away, this could be an advantage to the defender. Also considering the Romans could easily get reinforcements.
4. The Imperial road network. They were able to move a large numer of troops in a very short time frame.
5. Their sheer size. The Mongols would have been hard pressed to take all of the Empire.
6. Terrain. The Roman Empire, in the West anyway, was mountainous, and heavily forested.
7. Roman ability to adapt. Upon seeing a new enemy that fought differently, and who had superior flexibility on the battlefield would have caused the Romans to choose the battlefield carefully.
8. The Roman legion. The legion was a diverse fighting force. At the empire's height, during the time of Caesar Augustus, a legion contained 6,000 swordsmen, and an equal number of auxillary troops. The Troops contained several thousand professional calvary, and archers.
9. The testudo. This formation was an example of a human tank. Romans, with their 6-foot shields, would form up close-knit, and advance on the enemy; pausing only to completely close up when archers attacked.
And one might note one more thing. When the Huns invaded the empire in the 5th century, the Goths sided with the Romans against them because the Huns were the common enemy of the Goths, and the Romans. The combined army defeated the Huns at Chalons-Sur-Marne in 451.
__________________
"I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever."
- Thomas Jefferson
|