Paal_101 Posted June 6, 2004 Report Share Posted June 6, 2004 Well, its been a while since I posted a new history article, but two new Roman articles are up in the history section of the 0 AD site One is a brief history of Rome and the other is a collection of the greatest battles of Roman history. At the moment I am preparing to turn this into a series of articles, one for every civ in the game, much like my articles on weapons and armor. Hope you enjoy them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wijitmaker Posted June 6, 2004 Report Share Posted June 6, 2004 Nice work Paul! You should get up your article on the Roman technologies too; remember, that one you already wrote Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paal_101 Posted June 6, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2004 Thanks Will do Jason Needs a little bit of editing but not a whole lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fire Giant Posted June 10, 2004 Report Share Posted June 10, 2004 Nice work, Paul. You did a really good job on that "Great battles" article. Still, I think there was at least the same amount of heroism in the thousands of small conflicts and battles on the border lines of the empire - the guarding legions at the "limes" in Germania managed it to keep away the Barbarians for almost three centuries, quite a nice job considering the number of attacks made on the fortifications. Same goes for the Hadrian Wall in Britain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Op Posted June 10, 2004 Report Share Posted June 10, 2004 Too bad the battles couldn't have more detailed summaries but I'm sure some other article writer can make articles for those battles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paal_101 Posted June 11, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2004 Thanks guys @ Malte - For sure, but they make for boring reading If you think of anyother biggies that I missed, let me know.@ Black Op - LOL yeah they are short, I initally wrote them to be companions to a larger Roman article, but that didn't work out. They'll probably be edited in future. The Greek one that is progress is a bit more detailed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fire Giant Posted June 11, 2004 Report Share Posted June 11, 2004 @ Malte - For sure, but they make for boring reading If you think of anyother biggies that I missed, let me know. Well, sure, in an article like this, they'd be boring, but there's quite interesting books about that theme... like "The Eagle of the Ninth" (Rosemary Sutcliff), which starts with a rebellion in a small border town. By the way, I've just been reading two books by Simon Scarrow - "Under the Eagle" and "The Eagle's conquest", both featuring the invasion of Britain in the first century A.D. - anyone here who read them as well and has an opinion on them ? I'd really like to discuss some points... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paal_101 Posted June 11, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2004 Haven't read them, sounds like I should Any more details on them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fire Giant Posted June 11, 2004 Report Share Posted June 11, 2004 Well, rough outline:Rosemary Sutcliff - The Eagle Of The Ninth: The book is about the Roman auxiliary centurion Marcus Aquila, whose father was the commander of the first cohort of the Ninth legion which disappeared in Northern Britain in a great uprise of the Scots and the tribes that live north of Hadrians Wall. He (Marcus) got into the army at 18 and now just got his first command position, being sent to Britain. There he hopes to get some information about his fathers fate and what happened to the 9th Legion.But first, Marcus is being sent to a border fort in Isca Dumnoniorum, commanding one Gallian cohort who needs to protect the area. He has a good time and doesn't think of anything bad when rumors about a druid being in the area and calling people for a revolution against the Romans start coming up. Due to being very careful and doing the right thing in the right time, he can avoid that the fortress is being taken by a suprise attack in a new moon night. Still, his cohort is much too weak to withstand the enemy for a long time, and the weather is foggy, so he can't call for assistance. The next day, after having lost about 80 men in fierce battles, the Roman patrol sent out on the day before the rebellion started is being sighted and Marcus decides to lead the Romans out of the fortress in order to save their friends who otherwise would be massacred right below the walls. In the following battle, Marcus manages to save the patrols men, but when they retreat to the fortress, they are being attacked by chariots which they can't stand against. So Marcus, seeing a small chance to block the approaching chariots, decides to sacrifice his own life for his comrades and stands against the chariots alone. Still, he only gets severly wounded and since his cohort doesn't want to see their leader getting killed and they come back to stand by him, he survives but is badly injured and gets unconscious. When he wakes up again, he learns that some days after the battle reinforcements came and the rebellion got crushed by his troops and the reinforcement legion. But they also tell him that he can't serve the army any more because his leg is injured and won't allow him to make long marches any more. So, Marcus Aquila has to leave the army after only six months in his command position. But the story doesn't end here - this is more or less the beginning. Later, Marcus lives at his uncles house when he hears some rumors about the golden eagle standard of the 9th Legion having been seen in a druid "temple" at the coast of Caledonia (Scotland). He decides to start a search for the Eagle and his fathers and the legions fate and starts off to the barbarian lands north of the Wall together with his former slave Esca, a Briton who got captive in the Icenii uprise. Together, they have to cross a hostile land and try to get the Eagle back to the south - not an easy job, and quite dangerous as well.I won't reveal the ending, but I think this book is quite great (even though being a "child" book and not having any too brutal battle scene in it). It concentrates on the relationships between the characters and their life in the Roman provincial society of the 2nd century A.D.Rating/Comments: A great book, though not historically accurate at some points and having some flaws regarding Roman army life as well (Marcus is being called Centurion but commands a cohort; the auxiliary troops are using a turtle formation and bow and arrow together and other stuff), worth reading it again and again. There's quite a strong relationship to the main characters, and you don't feel like you have to hate the "evil" barbarians, and this is mainly a result of Rosemary Sutcliff's great style of writing. My first book on ancient Roman army life ever, and a one I still love to read.More info: The book is available on Amazon.com here. There's a description as well as the option to take a look at the first pages of the book.Hmm, that text got quite long... any idea if we could use it as an article for the website (with corrected spelling of course) ? I'll probably write up the same stuff for the other two books tomorrow if I have enough time - and could also make some more reviews of antiquity-related books I got. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paal_101 Posted June 11, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2004 Wow! Sounds like a great book, gonna have to look for it. What's up with this stuff about Roman infantry being armed with bows or on horses? If anyone does a little bit of research they'd know they did neither of these things, legionnary or auxillia infantry That's a cool idea: reviews of historical books for the site Could have "The 10,000", "Gates of Fire", "River God", etc up there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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