[Multi AAR] History of men

[Kallum]

It's not much but I hope I could be of any help

[Biggles]

Nice signature Kallum. But maybe you wanna take away that Europa Barbarorum? He's gonna use more than that mod you know

Hell, I ain't the one who's gonna use it, just giving my reflection. It looks good otherwise!

[Kallum]

good point but I thought that as he also used the mod Paeinsula Italica which is in his sig, why not use EB for his next sig

[Fixiwee]

Hey. You made a nice sig actually. But I'm actually looking to keep the current style, maybe make some minor changes, but your sig has major differences

Compare the first sig with the actual sig and you know what I mean!



But thanks for the effort nevertheless!

[SonOfAlexander]

Glad to hear it . I'm really looking forward to it - ROP and PI are interesting alright, and the history and battles were great, but I want to see how you portray the Republic/Alexander and the sorts of battles that I've heard of , if you know what I mean

[Fixiwee]

Glad to hear it . I'm really looking forward to it - ROP and PI are interesting alright, and the history and battles were great, but I want to see how you portray the Republic/Alexander and the sorts of battles that I've heard of , if you know what I mean

Yeah I know what you mean. This period is better known by the general audience here. What I am trying to do is to focus first on the wars (with Carthage) and the military expansion.
I will try to concentrate more on the institutional problems and internal affairs when I arrive at the civil war period.

Which means, RP wise I will write a lot about the wars at first. It will take a bit of time till I concentrate on a single person like for example Scipio Africanus.
In that sense my AAR might be different to the other EB AARs who mostly start by conentrating on RP with a single character early on.

[Fixiwee]

The wheel of time, educational schoolbook, Uppsala 1995

4th Samnite war

After the 3rd Samnite war it looked like the Romans were finally controlling most of the Italian peninsula. But the Samnites allied themselves in 298 BC with the Etruscans, Sabines, Umbrians and Gauls. This alliance was the last try to shake off the Roman dominance. Rome had to fight on nearly every border at once, but with a decisive victory for the Romans in 295 BC at Battle of Sentinum (which was the largest battle on Italian soil to that date) the tide was turning. The allies made separate peace over the years with only the Samnite fighting to the end in 290 BC.

War with Pyrrhus

The Romans and the Greek city of Tarentum had a diplomatic dispute which led to war between the two city states. Tarentum sent for help on the Greek mainland and a General from Epirus, King Pyrrhus came to help the Romans in 280. Pyrrhus was a successor to Alexander the Great to a certain degree, his armies fought in the same manner as Alexander’s army. This was a first class army facing one of a second class. He marched to battle against the Romans numerous times, allying with the Samnites (some historians call that the 5th Samnite war), but even though he won all of them, he was not able to win the war. The term “Pyrric victory” comes from there.



What is this?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

This schoolbook update serves as a simple and quick interlude between PI and EB. It consists of semi-historical events, or rather an adapted version of historical events to the AAR.

[Fixiwee]

Diplomacy is the art of saying "Nice doggie" until you can find a rock.

-Will Rogers

First punic war

The Roman Empire, by Wolfgang Schreier, Bonn 2003

With Pyrrhus gone from Italy, the Romans were exhausted from a century of war, after facing a total of five wars against the Samnites. But the war was not completely over yet, Pyrrhus left a small garrison at Tarrentum, but otherwise he did not support his Oscan allies. The Oscans raided the the southern Roman border, but that seemed to prove counterproductive. In 271 BC a consular army Lucius Quincitus Caudinus marched on Tarentum itself and stormed the city after a brief siege.



Rome in the winter 272 BC. A Oscan raiding band can be seen atacking Campania.


Consul L. Quintus Caudinus is ready to take the city by force.


Bruttian Infantry from Calabria played an important role in taking of the Tarentum.


The fightings in the city were unlike for antiquity, but from time to time street fighting like here occured.


Roman cavalry securing a small alley conecting two major routes. Much fighting took place in small groups in small alleys like this one.

A Roman envoy reached Epirus the next year and made a final peace treaty that settled the south Italy as a Roman sphere of influence. In conclusion the Romans lost most of the battles against Epirus, but nevertheless won the war.



The following year, 269 BC, the Romans had one last problem to deal with in south Italy. During the 4th Samnite war Rhegion, modern-day Reggio Calabria, was garrisoned with Campanian and Roman troops who declared their independence from Rome. The Roman senate did not respond well to that kind of mutiny and sent an army to the city which was besieged more then a year and starved to submission. While the city it self was preserved from looting and destruction some 300 captured Roman renegades were beheaded on the Roman forum.




Rome besieging Rhegion. The city was well fortified by experienced soldiers. It took the Romans over a year to take it, and that only by starving the city to submission

Now the Romans had all the land they could possibly use for their own needs and most Roman citizen and senators agreed that the last wars were long and bloody and that Rome needed some rest. But that would not happen.


The situation in Greece:


In Greece the new Epirote king Alexander II defeated the Macedons under King Antigonos Argeades in 258BC and gained the city of Pella. In the meanwhile the Macedons, though weakend, were not idle and pressed against Athens and caputred it in 256 BC. Attempts to take Sparta failed.


Silanos – Historiai
(written about 130 BC)

Who is Silanos?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Silanos was a greek historian who lived from 200BC to 120 BC. He came to Rome [under reasons that have not happend yet - this will be edited]. His account on the Roman history are of high value since he followed the pragmatic histiography like Demosthnes of Ancyle.

Book IV
[…] In the year that M. Atilius Flaccus and D. Iunius Caudex were consuls [264BC] the Mamertine, which means “Son of Mars”, mercenary captain Ennychos from Messana in Sicily started raiding the Bruttium [modern Calabria] coast with small ships, ignoring the fact that there was still a consular army stationed in Rhegion. It is hard to reconstruct the reason for Ennychos brutal attacks. Possibly he was trying to achieve more wealth to fight of his main enemy, Hieros from Syracuse. Nevertheless it is very likely that Ennychos was looking for a quick way to get his hands on some booty, being unaware that he would start a war between two other nations.
The Romans on the other hand were hoping that the problem would go away by itself, doing nothing at first. The following year Ennychos repeated his attacks once more and the Roman senators grew weary by the raids. What happened then was changing history significantly so it is most important to describe the details in length here.
The Romans had a long history of a friendly relationship with the Carthaginians, both sides traded vividly with each other and in some cases Carthage even sent the Roman military aid, for example during the war with Pyrrhus (source: Kalisthos of Syrakousai). However the diplomatic contact of both city-states was rather weak and both powers missed the important chance to talk about the sphere of influence in Sicily. Not at one point either of the states declared a border to the other. From this perspective the Punic war might be seen as a simple mistake, but there is also something deeper then this.
Growing tired of Ennychos the Roman senate debated over the possible actions. But being stressed out from the numerous wars with the Samnites and the Oscans, and possibly also being aware of the danger about leading an army to Sicily many Senators under the lead of L. Cornelius Arvina, spoke out against taking action to Messana, but rather fortify Bruttium with Roman colonies to annihilate Ennychos. The senators could not agree on this matter so they decided to let the Comitia have a decision over the matter. The voters of popular assembly also showed hesitation for they also thought that Rome needed rest from the wars, but eventually the opinion was swayed by the idea to lead a consular army to Sicily and swiftly gain booty and wealth. This was seen as a simple military expedition without aim to gain permanent hold on the island itself, something Carthage didn't know. Next year the army was lead by the consul C. Fabius Caudex, with him was a man called L. Conerlius Scipio, who I will talk later in greater detail.


Raids by Messana as described by Fabius.


A history of Rome, by Prof Alfred Kennard, 2002 New York

The consular army that crossed the strait of Messina in 262 was lead by Consul C. Fabius Caudex. This act would ultimately lead to war with Carthage, since a small band of Carthaginian troops were stationed close to Messina and violence broke out when Roman scouts reached the Carthaginian outpost. It is hard to tell if that event was intentionally used as a reason for both sides to wage war against each other or if the whole act was accidental. It is not unlikely though that a diplomatic solution could have been achieved. The Carthaginian could have had Messina, while the Romans would have controlled the straight of Messina which seemed to be the key of the conflict.

Ennychos was dealt quickly with. The citizen of Messina had enough of Ennychos reign of terror and opened the gates to the consular army. The mercenary captain did not surrender and barricaded himself in the inner city. It took two days of fighting after which about 2000 Roman troops and 800 Mamertines were killed in the struggle.
With the open conflict that emerged against Carthage the Roman senate decided to hold Messina, since they didn’t want to let the city fall into enemy hands.
Despite the open conflict both sides hesitated with attacking the other for the first few years and the first phase consisted of very minor skirmishes and mostly shadow boxing. Oddly enough there were no diplomatic talks; both Fabius and Silanos confirm that.
In 258 BC the Romans were able to gain the support of Syracuse, leaving Hieros in office, who joined an alliance with Rome, sending money and troops for their cause. Two years later, L. Cornelius Scipio was elected Praetor, which was significant for the war since he was sent to Sicily to organise Roman rule on the island.



Carthaginian troops land on Sicily in the winter of 256. The following year the Romans would also strenghten up their forces.

In the following year, 255 BC, both sides built up their forces and a massive clash of war seemed to become inevitable. The Carthaginians had two armies stationed on Sicily lead by Hamalcar the Elder and his son Hamalcar the Younger. The Roman consular army started campaigning in the west of Sicily, but Hamalcar the Elder tried to wear out Roman supply and resources, thus avoiding direct confrontation. It wasn’t until 254 BC when the consul L. Valerius Maximus marched on Lilibeo, the most important city on Sicily, so that Hamalcar the Elder decided to attack the Romans.

What followed was one of the bloodiest battles of the war. […]

[messiah]

Epic!

[Kallum]

brilliant

[Legio]

Can't wait to see it!

[SonOfAlexander]

Ah yes, the famous Sicilian conflict begins! VERY eager to see it!

[Seleucid king]

Nice!

[Ariovistus Maximus]

Brilliantly done!

Sorry if this has been asked before, but... how, if you are playing as one faction in a historical battle, do you make sure that the other faction does what it's supposed to to make it realistic and true to history?

[Fixiwee]

Brilliantly done!

Sorry if this has been asked before, but... how, if you are playing as one faction in a historical battle, do you make sure that the other faction does what it's supposed to to make it realistic and true to history?

Don't worry. No one has asked this before.
First of all, I play EB with ALEX.EXE. As you can see in the battle, the enemy actually flanked me since ALX has a better AI after all. That led to this awesome battle I played.
The other side of the coin is, that not all that is told here is true. All the source of information here is delivered by a 3rd person, mostly someone who hasn't been there. This is not a first person narrative, nor is it a collection of facts.

In that sense, it allows me, as a writer, to adjust whatever I want. I do it in a reasonable manner to maintain a authentic feel.

edit: for those you klick on "last page" rather then "newest post since last visit", go back a page and read the awesome battle update

[Ariovistus Maximus]

Ah-HAAA!

So then, my understanding would be that the battle of Mazana (or whatever other battle) DID really occur, and you try to stay roughly accurate to the facts you have, but it's no biggie when the game just does... game stuff.

Or are there some fictional battles thrown in there too?

Either way I think it's great! I just... like to know the nuts and bolts of stuff I guess; hope that's OK.

[Fixiwee]

AAR is not dead yet. I was away for a week and besides that I was quite busy with college papers. Anyway, because of the workload the next update (which is already written, need to corect and review more properly this time ) will be a bit shorter in lenght and detail. This is because of the work load and I also hope to enchance the quality over the quantity. I hope people will be interested in the update despite all this.
Update should be on this evening if nothing goes wrong.

[Biggles]

Great! Great! Great! Looking forward to it!

[SonOfAlexander]

Ooooohhhh painful pyrrhic victory - owch!
ANyway, epic battle, but some of your dialogue and speech sounded a little drunk, like:

Maximus: Listen up my fellow Legates. My plan is to fight in a greek fashion, our army will be set up in the same way the greeks tought us to fight. Let our army be a Phalanx where Hamalcar will burst asunder with his troops. That way our troops will compensate for the inferiour number. Nothing can stop us now.

Were you updating late at night? I don't get this part - he says we will fight like greeks (never heard of the romans doing it but im not the historian here). Let our army be a phalanx - it's not. Some of the Carthaginians are, but none of Rome's are. Even if it's just a simile, he says about Hamilcar breaking it open. wtf? He's claiming that they cannot fail because they're using a greek tactics and phalanx even though they're not and that Hamilcar is going to nail them because of it.

[Fixiwee]

Were you updating late at night? I don't get this part - he says we will fight like greeks (never heard of the romans doing it but im not the historian here). Let our army be a phalanx - it's not. Some of the Carthaginians are, but none of Rome's are. Even if it's just a simile, he says about Hamilcar breaking it open. wtf? He's claiming that they cannot fail because they're using a greek tactics and phalanx even though they're not and that Hamilcar is going to nail them because of it.

I'm hardly sober when I write stuff.
I already rewrote the passage.

But you are absolutley right. I accidently skipped that passage when I reviewed; and in general I could not concentrate so well because the updates get longer and longer and longer. I should spend more time reviewing what I write, but I always get so eager to release the update.