They could hire this chick as an adviser...
Posted on 11/02/2011 8:30:47 PM PDT by DogByte6RER
They could hire this chick as an adviser...
Someone go get the guys from Deadliest Warrior.
How about if the Hungarian canon maker who sold artillery to the Turks had been more interested in helping Christians than in making a profit, and the big guns had been pointing the other way?
Of course that could have played out for good — the city is saved, the next push by the Muslims, either the West or the Rus come to the aid of Constantinople in the ensuing war Islam is pushed back into Arabia or even eradicated — or for ill — the next siege, a generation and a half later, succeeds, and when the Turks push into Romania, Vlad the Impaler is long dead, they meet no effective resistance and overrun Europe.
And I wonder where they got THAT idea... ;)
Google Charles Heber Clark’s “Fortunate Island,” to see where Twain got that idea ;-)
L. Sprague DeCamp wrote that. He worked with Heinlein and Asimov in the NY shipyards.
Good book.
Freegards
Bingo!
Victor Davis Hanson’s Carnage And Culture covers that fairly well.
At the start of Australian author Birmingham's stellar debut novel, a United Nations battle group, clustered around the U.S.S. Hillary Clinton (named after "the most uncompromising wartime president in the history of the United States"), is tasked in the year 2021 with stopping ethnic cleansing by an Islamist regime in Indonesia.
And threw up a little.
Roman tradition specified that no Roman legion could be admitted within the city walls except in rare specified circumstances such as a triumph. Bringing troops into the city was considered treason to the state.
While this tradition may have been breached in the later stages of Empire, the fact that Roman Emperors were sometimes assassinated by their Praetorian Guards and the reins of governement turned over in a coup should prove that regular legions were not quartered in or near Rome to protect the Emperor.
I suspect it would be relatively easy for the Marines to off the head of the snake.
A heavily armed and well trained unit like a Marine expeditionary force could easily destroy any armed military units an Emperor might have in Rome. The majority of Roman troops were always out in the provinces, not near Rome.
Outlying legions in the provinces would take months to come to the relief of Rome and by that time it is likely that a new government would have been established.
As far as the population of Rome taking up arms to protect the government, the fact is that a very high percentage of the inhabitants were slaves with no reason to have any allegiance to the government or any particular head of state. In fact, the Marines might find it very easy to recruit spies and warriors to aid them who were familiar with the city and Roman tactics.
Having some facility with languages, I would wager that an intelligent Spanish speaker (of which a MEU would no doubt have any number of) could, in an immersion environment, develop a utilitarian pidgin with Latin speakers. If by chance, they had a Romanian speaker, they'd be even better off (slim chance I know, but curiously enough, in my first assignment to Ft. Riley as a lieutenant, our Battalion S2 spoke Romanian.)
Yep, relentlessness was their course of victory for centuries.
That's what made me think about these scenario in the first place. If one piece of advanced technology (for that era) could make such a difference, imagine what one piece of "modern" technology (ie. an M-2 machine gun) held by the defenders of Constantinople from the top of their walls would have done to Mehmed's 80,000 soldiers below the walls.
I haven't ready my Byzantine History in a while, but I remember reading somewhere that Hungarian engineer actually hoped to sell his ideas to the defenders of Constantinople, but dismissed him as a crank (or couldn't afford to pay him) - will have to do some research on that.
Then the Marines learn Latin, and teach the Romans about democracy..marry their women..
Does a good job of showing the quite significant limitations of superior technology, in combat and economics, especially when available only in small quantities.
For anyone interested, the first two books in the series are available online for free from Baen Publishing.
Both 1632 and 1633 are available in a number of formats for download, or you can read it online as html.
I've read the entire series, including the Gazettes, which are collections of short stories that take place in the '1632' universe.
ONE Super Stallion landing in Rome and claiming to be gods from on high could do the trick.
Especially if the unit had a Latin speaker or two.
I bet they'd run just fine on olive oil.
BFL
If you like Final Countdown, you’ll LOVE a Japanese Anime called “ZIPANG”.
“The newest, most advanced destroyer in the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, the JDS Mirai, sets sail from Japan on a training exercise with the United States Navy. Enroute, they encounter a strange meteorological anomaly, causing the Mirai to lose contact with her sister ships.
After a short time, the crew detects a fleet approaching, but can barely believe their eyes as a massive battleship passes by them. The crew soon identify it as the Yamato, a ship which was sunk in 1945. As the crew scans with their radar, numerous other ships, including a Nagato-class Battleship, are located. Two destroyers from the unknown fleet attempt to intercept the Mirai, but she manages to escape.
After examining the situation, the crew concludes that the ships they passed are part of the Imperial Japanese Navy and that they have somehow been transported back in time more than 60 years to June 4, 1942, the first day of the Battle of Midway.
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