Flexibility matters. “That flexibility becomes decisive because of what I’d argue is a real Roman equipment advantage, which isn’t really a technological advantage, per se. The only new technology the Romans are using is mail armor, which, to be fair,… Read More »Collections: Phalanx’s Twilight, Legion’s Triumph, Part IVc: Perseus
Religious people are often contempt with one book. Whole religion lasted for thousands of years just talking about the one book. People even disagree or interpret the same part of the same book differently, but they all think that the… Read More »Is One Book Enough?
It’s complicated.
Logistics wins wars. “It is striking that while Philip V is never really fighting the Romans in this war more than 80 or so miles (as the bird flies) from the Macedonian heartland, the Romans, operating more than 500 miles… Read More »Collections: Phalanx’s Twilight, Legion’s Triumph, Part IVa: Philip V
Why don’t we? “Just to give a fun sense of how wild these years were, in brief what happens is: Pyrrhus gets hard shut out by Lysimachus’ much larger army in 286, retreating back to Epirus with his tail between… Read More »Collections: Phalanx’s Twilight, Legion’s Triumph, Part IIIb: Pyrrhus
It is important to delegate and build capable leaders to.have a large state or an organization. “Eleven independent commands. And that wasn’t an abnormal year! And then all of these experienced commanders head back to the Senate, where they’re available in… Read More »Collections: Phalanx’s Twilight, Legion’s Triumph, Part IIb: Handfuls of Maniples
How Romans fought. “An enemy that has broken formation to pursue the velites which then slams face-first into the hastati while tired and out of formation is going to have a very bad time” https://acoup.blog/2024/02/09/collections-phalanxs-twilight-legions-triumph-part-iia-how-a-legion-fights/
Coordination and decision making is hard. “in the premodern world—when processing information and coordinating action were both extraordinarily expensive, because communication was slow and coordination outside of relatively small kinship groups was difficult—firms tended to be local concerns, centered either… Read More »How the spreadsheet reshaped America
They don’t work how you think they do.
Gladiators weren’t the NFL of Rome. “I think that’s part of the underlying fundamental problem with this film: it needs Rome to be about gladiators and thus for the Colosseum to be the symbol of Rome and the utmost expression… Read More »Collections: Nitpicking Gladiator II, Part II