The Lessons of the Roman Empire for America Today

Heritage Foundation ^ | December 19, 2005 | Rufus Fears

[MNJohnnie]

You read the entire article in under three minutes?

Did not comment on the article. Commented on the large number of historical inaccuracies in the 1st 2 paragraphs

[ichabod1]

Take a look at Caesars campaigns against the Gauls. He had 25,000 men and he was able to defeat armies 10X that size. No one had seen invincible military power like that of Rome. No, the biggest difference to me is that we don't govern others, we just influence.

[Just another Joe]

Well put.
I've said many times that we went into Iraq to pull the terrorists onto ground that wasn't ours to fight.
You're right, it was a military decision and not about oil.

[philman_36]

During the Roman Empire.. everyones armies pretty much had the same technology .. swords, bow/arrows, maces, etc ... the playing field was about equal as for wartime technology.. the only thing that was different was the size of armies, the conducting of the war, and how well trained the soldiers were.
That is just so wrong that it cries out for a response. The technologies were not the same. Who else had ballista?

Who else had catapults?

Nobody else had the discipline, weapons and training comparable to the Romans. Most of the peoples the Romans fought still fought wars as single combat, not in formations, such as the testudo(tortoise) formation and other basic formations, as the Romans did.

[conservonator]

This guy is a PHD?

Hay as soon as I can come up with the $500.00 and a valid email address, I'll be one too! ;>

[ichabod1]

One thing I think confuses people making the historical analogy with Rome is the speed at which things happen today. We only really attained superpower status 60 years ago, and this business about being the only one is brand new still.

[flutters]

Excellent post!

[MNJohnnie]

Read First, Then Post. There is no prize for first comment.

RT if would be really refreshing if you took your own advice JUST ONCE rather then going on your personal pet rant without even bothering to read the comments made. How about actually responding to what was posted rather then just cling to your desperate need to go off on your usual rant about people not reading the WHOLE post? The comments I made were about the factually INACCURACY in the 1st two paragraphs. If you had bothered to actually READ my point instead of tearing off your pre programed emotional response, you would off seen THAT your comments were completely irrelevant to the point being made.

I STRONGLY suggest in the future you take your own advice before having the arrogance to lecture anyone else about ANYTHING

[ichabod1]

I'm not sure enslavement is necessary for this

I'm really thinking here about the bleeding idiots who say things like Iraqis aren't ready for/don't want freedom. Invariably said by people who do not have the empathic skills, because of wealth and plenty, to imagine what life must have been like under Saddam.

[MNJohnnie]

Absurd Nonsense. Not even slightly based in historical fact.

[r9etb]

You're not worth any more of my time. Please try again when you can behave like an informed adult.

[ichabod1]

You must fight against the nonsense of this program called Rome, some degraded spectacle on HBO.

That program called Rome is friggin' awesome. It portrays Roman life -- what might have gone on in the Aventine, or behind the scenes of a Triumph. I have never seen a television program that approaches it. Not entirely historical, but based on history, I would recommend Rome to anyone that wanted to get interested in Roman life both at the Noble and the Plebian level.

[rattrap]

There is no factual inaccuracy in those sentences (your speedy comment only quotes the first paragraph). It a comparison, a literary device. The author isn't implying that the Romans and the Egyptians were patrolling the same streets as our Troops but that they were patrolling lands that they occupied.

Keep watching your mailbox for the first comment prize.

[PhilipFreneau]

>>>Piled Higher and Deeper...<<<

When I was in college I heard it this way...

When you get your BS you think you know everything. But you cannot get the job you want without an MS, so . . .

You get your MS. But now you realize you know very little, so . . .

You get your PhD so no one will suspect it.

[ichabod1]

Until we invaded Afghanistan in 2001 the historical assumption was that you could not fight and win a war in Afghanistan against the Afghanis. It all depends on how you do it.

It was the conventional wisdom that you couldn't beat the Serbs in the former Yugoslavia until Clinton (to our everlasting shame) gave them a lesson in applied American Air Power.

[philman_36]

"...the peoples the Romans fought still fought wars as single combat..."
Adopting the Roman form of formation fighting, seizing hardware and equipment also helped foreign armies defeat them.
Consider Hannibal. He had learned their tactics during the previous years of war against Rome. Though he got beat in the end he did put on a good war.

[r9etb]

FWIW, the last "catapult" is in fact an onager -- powered by twisted ropes. I've built one: it's amazing how much power you can get from those ropes. And they squeeze like anything -- my throwing arm is a hickory axe handle, and the ropes actually leave indentations in the wood!

[ichabod1]

That's not quite right. Hannibal was using tactical formations when the Roman's didn't know much beyond how to march over someone with large numbers of troops. This is during the 2nd Punic War. After getting slaughtered at Lake Kasimere, the Romans adopted a strategy of absorbing the enemy, much as the Russians would do later.

It was Scipio Africanus who was with his father at his fathers death at Lake Kasimere, who studied HANNIBAL's tactics and turned them back on him and ended up conquering Carthage.

To me one of the grand lessons of history is this: No one likes to have their own tactics used against them.

[beebuster2000]

bump for later

[ichabod1]

So an Onager is still a weight activated, crank powered artillery piece. Can you say how an Onager differs from the Trebuchet?