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| Europe |
| Roman Legion Against Macedonian Phalanx |
| 2021-05-08 |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #4 Rome had to re-learn maneuver during Second Punic War. I forget which battle, and I don't have my books handy, Rome defeated a Greek/Macedonian army simply by a parade demonstration. The Greeks, on paper a fair match, seeing themselves outclassed in command discipline, surrendered without a fight. What a lesson learned at Cannae, where Hannibal's Spanish and Gallic members, born and raised and successful in maneuver, were up armored with captured Roman equipment, were able to scrum and maneuver. These lessons must have been passed down enough for Caesar's Gallic and German Campaigns. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2021-05-08 17:07 |
| #3 The biggest advantage was that the smallest Roman unit was more like an individual Legoâ„¢ block. The smallest phalanx unit was a "file" of men, one behind the other, from a minimum of four (the Spartans were ferocious enough for this) to a normal to a more normal eight deep. Rearranging files was like shuffling a bundle of spaghetti in your hand --- not something you want to do in combat. |
| Posted by: magpie 2021-05-08 09:45 |
| #2 Very nice series thank you |
| Posted by: Unosing Scourge of the Platypi2169 2021-05-08 04:29 |
| #1 The video seems to completely skip over the war against Pyrrhus of Epirus -- an heir to a successor kingdom who led armies against Rome for the Italic cities that did not want to submit to Roman rule. That would have been Rome's first encounter with troops drilled by Greek/Macedonian veterans, and, tellingly, English took "Pyrrhic victory" from the results of those battles. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2021-05-08 01:01 |