Roman Military Disasters

Roman Military Disasters PDF Author: Paul Chrystal
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473873959
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 343

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Book Description
Over some 1200 years, the Romans proved adept at learning from military disaster and this was key to their eventual success and hegemony. Roman Military Disasters covers the most pivotal and decisive defeats, from the Celtic invasion of 390 BC to Alaric's sack of Rome in AD 410. Paul Chrystal details the politics and strategies leading to each conflict, how and why the Romans were defeated, the tactics employed, the generals and the casualties. However, the unique and crucial element of the book is its focus on the aftermath and consequences of defeat and how the lessons learnt enabled the Romans, usually, to bounce back and win.

Roman Military Disasters

Roman Military Disasters PDF Author: Paul Chrystal
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473873959
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 343

Get Book

Book Description
Over some 1200 years, the Romans proved adept at learning from military disaster and this was key to their eventual success and hegemony. Roman Military Disasters covers the most pivotal and decisive defeats, from the Celtic invasion of 390 BC to Alaric's sack of Rome in AD 410. Paul Chrystal details the politics and strategies leading to each conflict, how and why the Romans were defeated, the tactics employed, the generals and the casualties. However, the unique and crucial element of the book is its focus on the aftermath and consequences of defeat and how the lessons learnt enabled the Romans, usually, to bounce back and win.

Roman Military Disasters

Roman Military Disasters PDF Author: Paul Chrystal
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781473873940
Category : TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


Roman Disasters

Roman Disasters PDF Author: Jerry Toner
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745665497
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
Roman Disasters looks at how the Romans coped with, thought about, and used disasters for their own ends. Rome has been famous throughout history for its great triumphs. Yet Rome also suffered colossal disasters. From the battle of Cannae, where fifty thousand men fell in a single day, to the destruction of Pompeii, to the first appearance of the bubonic plague, the Romans experienced large scale calamities.Earthquakes, fires, floods and famines also regularly afflicted them. This insightful book is the first to treat such disasters as a conceptual unity. It shows that vulnerability to disasters was affected by politics, social status, ideology and economics. Above all, it illustrates how the resilience of their political and cultural system allowed the Romans to survive the impact of these life-threatening events. The book also explores the important role disaster narratives played in Christian thought and rhetoric. Engaging and accessible, Roman Disasters will be enjoyed by students and general readers alike.

Rome's Greatest Defeat

Rome's Greatest Defeat PDF Author: Adrian Murdoch
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0752494554
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Book Description
In AD 9 half of Rome's Western army was ambushed in a German forest and annihilated. Three legions, three cavalry units and six auxiliary regiments - some 25,000 men - were wiped out. It dealt a body blow to the empire's imperial pretensions and was Rome's greatest defeat. No other battle stopped the Roman empire dead in its tracks. Although one of the most significant and dramatic battles in European history, this is also one which has been largely overlooked. Drawing on primary sources and a vast wealth of new archaeological evidence, Adrian Murdoch brings to life the battle itself, the historical background and the effects of the Roman defeat as well as exploring the personalities of those who took part.

Cannae

Cannae PDF Author: Gregory Daly
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134507127
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
On a hot and dusty summer's day in 216 BC, the forces of the Carthaginian general Hannibal faced the Roman army in a dramatic encounter at Cannae. Massively outnumbered, the Carthaginians nevertheless won an astonishing victory - one that left more than 50,000 men dead. Gregory Daly's enthralling study considers the reasons that led the two armies to the field of battle, and why each followed the course that they did when they got there. It explores in detail the composition of the armies, and the tactics and leadership methods of the opposing generals. Finally, by focusing on the experiences of those who fought, Daly gives an unparalleled portrait of the true horror and chaos of ancient warfare. This striking and vivid account is the fullest yet of the bloodiest battle in ancient history.

Triumph in Defeat

Triumph in Defeat PDF Author: Jessica Homan Clark
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199336547
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
Although a great deal of historical work has been done in the past decade on Roman triumphs, defeats and their place in Roman culture have been relatively neglected. Why should we investigate the defeats of a society that almost never lost a war? In Triumph in Defeat, Jessica H. Clark answers this question by showing what responses to defeat can tell us about the Roman definition of victory. First opening with a general discussion of defeat and commemoration at Rome and then following the Second Punic War from its commencement to its afterlife in Roman historical memory through the second century BCE, culminating in the career of Gaius Marius, Clark examines both the successful production of victory narratives within the Senate and the gradual breakdown of those narratives. The result sheds light on the wars of the Republic, the Romans who wrote about these wars, and the ways in which both the events and their telling informed the political landscape of the Roman state. Triumph in Defeat not only fills a major gap in the study of Roman military, political, and cultural life, but also contributes to a more nuanced picture of Roman society, one that acknowledges the extent to which political discourse shaped Rome's status as a world power. Clark's work shows how defeat shaped the society whose massive reputation was-and still often is-built on its successes.

Great Military Disasters

Great Military Disasters PDF Author: Julian Spilsbury
Publisher: Quercus Publishing
ISBN: 178429215X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Great Military Disasters tells the dramatic stories behind the world's most calamitous conflicts. From the French army's failure to understand the impact of new technology at Crécy to Hitler's blatant overconfidence at Stalingrad, military historian Julian Spilsbury provides thrilling accounts of each disaster, covering exactly what went wrong, how and why. Of course, a disastrous outcome for one side meant victory for another, so as well as exploring the reasons the conflict ended in disaster, Great Military Disasters also reveals the key to victory. Eyewitness quotations add another dimension to this intriguing study of human incompetence of the gravest kind.

Triumph in Defeat

Triumph in Defeat PDF Author: Jessica H. Clark
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199336555
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
Although a great deal of historical work has been done in the past decade on Roman triumphs, defeats and their place in Roman culture have been relatively neglected. Why should we investigate the defeats of a society that almost never lost a war? In Triumph in Defeat, Jessica H. Clark answers this question by showing what responses to defeat can tell us about the Roman definition of victory. First opening with a general discussion of defeat and commemoration at Rome and then following the Second Punic War from its commencement to its afterlife in Roman historical memory through the second century BCE, culminating in the career of Gaius Marius, Clark examines both the successful production of victory narratives within the Senate and the gradual breakdown of those narratives. The result sheds light on the wars of the Republic, the Romans who wrote about these wars, and the ways in which both the events and their telling informed the political landscape of the Roman state. Triumph in Defeat not only fills a major gap in the study of Roman military, political, and cultural life, but also contributes to a more nuanced picture of Roman society, one that acknowledges the extent to which political discourse shaped Rome's status as a world power. Clark's work shows how defeat shaped the society whose massive reputation was-and still often is-built on its successes.

Thirteen Roman Defeats

Thirteen Roman Defeats PDF Author: Ian Hughes
Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
ISBN: 1526726688
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
There is no doubt that Rome developed one of the most efficient and successful military systems of the ancient world. The famous legions conquered from the Atlantic to the Euphrates, from the Scottish Highlands to the sands of the Sahara, defeating all manner of enemies. Although their victories were many, they were never invincible and did suffer significant defeats. Ian Hughes looks at thirteen such occasions, narrating the course of the fighting (in as much detail as the sources allow), describing the forces involved, the strategy and tactics employed and the reasons for the Roman defeat. The chosen battles span the centuries, from the disastrous battle against invading Celts at the Allia River in (387 or 386 BC) to the naval defeat by the Vandals off Cap Bon in AD 468. They are selected either for the magnitude of the tactical defeat or the political and strategic significance of the outcome. Apart from the inherent interest in the individual battles, this study offers a survey of the development of the Roman forces evolving to survive.

The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest

The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest PDF Author: Charles River Charles River Editors
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781544875033
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 62

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Book Description
*Includes pictures *Includes ancient accounts describing the battle *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents "The details of this terrible calamity, the heaviest that had befallen the Romans on foreign soil since the disaster of Crassus in Parthia, I shall endeavor to set forth, as others have done, in my larger work. Here I can merely lament the disaster as a whole. An army unrivaled in bravery, the first of the Roman troops in discipline, vigor and military experience, was thus brought through supine leadership, the perfidy of the foe, and a cruel Fortune into an utterly desperate situation. The troops did not even have the opportunity of fighting, as they wished . . . and hemmed in by woods, lakes and the bands of ambushed enemies, were entirely cut off by those foes, whom they had used to slaughter like cattle...The savage enemy mangled the half-burned body of Varus. His head was cut off and sent to Marobodus [a barbarian king] and by him sent to the Emperor; and so at length received honorable burial in the sepulcher of his family." - Paterculus, ancient Roman historian Every great nation or empire has had at least one horrific military loss or disaster in their history, and the Roman Empire, perhaps the greatest empire that ever existed in the Western world, was no exception to this rule. While Rome certainly suffered defeats and outright massacres over the course of its long and storied history, none of them were as disturbing for the Empire as the battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 CE. This battle, which took place in Germany, is also known as the Varian disaster, named after the governor of the Roman province, Germania Publius Quinctilius Varus. Varus was not only the Roman governor of the Roman controlled sections of Germania, he was also the highest military authority, being able to make decisions as to the who, what, where, when, why and how of military maneuvers and operations. It was Varus, then, who was in direct command of the Roman legions destroyed in the battle. The battle remains pertinent not only to military historians and archeologists but also to modern military officers around the world as well. As recently as 2009, the United States of America's Army Command and General Staff College published a work that focused upon the Roman legions in the Teutoburg Forest. This work was an examination of the battle in order to help understand the failures made by Varus, and how to avoid them. While it may seem unusual for a modern military to examine the mistakes of the past, it isn't; the Army used the battle as an example of how a theoretically inferior force, the Germanic warriors, were able to defeat a superior force in the Roman legions. Indeed, the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest featured some of the finest fighting forces in the world - the Roman legionaries - and a group of people whom the Romans didn't consider human at all - the Germanic tribes. Nonetheless, the battle between these two forces, in the narrow confines of the Teutoburg Forest, would be a turning point in the histories of both nations. Never again would Rome seek to establish a colony and create a functioning province out of the Germanic area; in fact, the Romans never ventured east of the Rhine River after the disastrous expedition. For the Germanic tribes, while they would later suffer from punishment excursions by various Roman legions following the battle of the Teutoburg Forest, they proved that they could hold their own against the might of the Roman Empire and that their land was indeed their own. The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest: The History and Legacy of the Roman Empire's Greatest Military Defeat analyzes the infamous battle. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest like never before, in no time at all.