Posted on 10/28/2023 10:55:17 AM PDT by Roman_War_Criminal
A series of declassified satellite images from the Cold War era have revealed hundreds of undiscovered Roman forts in Iraq and Syria.
A total of 396 new sites have been identified from the images taken in the 1960s and 1970s, with the findings, published in the journal Antiquity, changing the perception of how the region functioned.
A previous 1934 aerial survey, conducted by French explorer Antoine Poidebard, recorded 116 Roman forts across the region.
They were previously thought to form a defensive line against incursions from Arabia and Persia along the Roman Empire’s eastern flank.
The latest findings, however, suggest Rome’s borderlands were more fluid than previously thought, as the forts are arranged along what appear to be strategic routes running east to west. This is leading researchers to suggest each marks a stage along a road network, with the outposts supporting caravan-based trade and communication lines as well as serving military purposes.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanmilitarynews.com ...
kinda looks like some of those satellite photos of Mars.
“A total of 396 new sites have been identified...”
That’s pretty incredible.
Arial and satellite photos tend to have a similar look.
How do they know they are Roman?
Could be Babylonian, Persian, Assyrian, Median, Turkish,...
Yeah, but when they are from two different planets...🤣
Who, has ever trusted the hordes known as Muslims, Mohammedans, Arabs, people of the desert?
The Romans made mistakes taking horrible losses in wars. Hannibal was very effective 200+ years BC. But he was from Carthage and way before Mohammed.
Interesting that the sites of forts are still visible.
A few decades ago similar studies and archaeology was done in Germany. Most historians thought the Romans ceased their German incursions after Teutoburg.
That was hardly the case as they found dozens and dozens of fortified sites and limes well north of Bavaria and east of the Rhine. And they probably existed centuries after Teutoburg.
I would imagine the Romans had a similar presence in the Middle East that lasted at least until the mid-4th century in modern day Iraq and Syria.
Once inside Europe, Hannibal more than likely used Celt-Iberians, Guals and other Celts for his forces against Rome.
Carthaginians were never that big of a population and their armies consisted heavily of mercenaries. Numidians and Berbers in North Africa were more in abundance than Arabs for their forces.
Similar to the routes that once stretched from the Nile to the Red Sea to handle trade in precious goods from India.
The Romans controlled this area of the ME for almost 700 years, from roughly 50BC to 638CE. Think what a survey of France looking for castles/fortifications from 1323-2023 would find.
Selections from the Roman Empire keyword:
Via Traiana Nova
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Via Maris (purple), King’s Highway (red), and other ancient Levantine trade routes, c. 1300 BCE.
The Via Traiana Nova or Via Nova Traiana (Latin for ‘Trajan’s New Road’), previously known as the Via Regia or King’s Highway, was an ancient Roman road built by Emperor Trajan in the province of Arabia Petraea, from Aqaba on the Red Sea to Bostra. It was specifically known as the Via Traiana Nova in order to distinguish it from the Via Traiana in Italy. It is occasionally also referred to simply as the ‘Via Nova’[1] or ‘Via Nova Traiana’[2] Its construction started shortly after the annexation of Arabia, supervised by governor Gaius Claudius Severus, and was completed under Hadrian.[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Via_Traiana_Nova
The Romans had a very standardized way of building their fortifications. Archeologists can look at photographs of most sites and tell who build them by the style and layout
There's a Science Fiction premise. Imperial Rome on Mars...
Rome had a standard template on what a fortification layout looked like.
A Roman soldier could go from any Roman fort to any other Roman fort and instantly know where everything in that fort was located.
Sorta important when you need to respond quickly to any attack, be it barbarians or diarrhea...
The Coalition installed similar sites in Iraq. Convoy Support Centers (CSCs) were built along the Main Supply Routes. Trucks would gather, refuel, refit and form-up convoys for the next day’s travels.
Banditry is older than civilizations.
“Rome had a standard template on what a fortification layout looked like.
A Roman soldier could go from any Roman fort to any other Roman fort and instantly know where everything in that fort was located.”
All true. If a Roman Legion camped for even just a night and there was even a remote chance of attack the basic fort was built. A legion could do one in just a few hours. Standard size with a ditch with a roughly waist high wall of wooden stakes behind the ditch. Enemy in a ditch looking up at a gladius (sword) or pilum (spear or lance) stabbing down.
As already said layout inside the camp was standard so commander, doctor, etc. were always in the same place.
If there was a chance of attack while camp was built half the legion stood guard while the other half built camp.
If camp was used for some period of time it would of course be improved.
It is thought that some of Spartacus early victories were because the Roman’s regarded his army as nothing but slaves not to be worried about and did not build the camps.
DNA, not to mention ancient writings make this very clear. They were most like Phoenicians, or related to those people.
Egyptians, were never "ARABS" nor black. The same is true of the Carthaginians, whose numbers were far larger than you suppose.There were THREE Punic Wars with Rome, which went on for two generations and absolutely NONE of the recorded history of that time mention different races/soldiers ( on the Carthaginian side, being anything at all other than Carthaginians!
And having to battle through reading and translating all of Cicero, in third year Latin ( a curse on him for ONLY writing in the Subjunctive case! ), and having a very good memory, w3what I have posted is 100% factual!
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