How really \'different\' were the Romans?

[Bryan]

And that's only the start of the problem. Because military effectiveness depends greatly on culture. US military advisors - who do know how US troops are trained! - can't get modern Arab troops to behave like US ones, because their cultural background is so different. See eg
www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/AD_Issues/amd...deatkine_arabs1.html

A little O.T., but I wonder why no one applies that same rationale to the effectiveness of gothic troops fighting for the romans (entirely different martial culture...discipline vs individual heroism)

It could explain a lot more. Evidently the Macedonians didn't think their infantry methods and tactics could be transfered over to other cultures. Experiments were conducted bu no other non-Greek/Hellenic society ever fully developed the phalangite for the long term.

The Romans had a similar issue with training foreign bodies of warriors to fight in their system. If I remember correctly, multiple other cultures like Numidia and Pontus attempted it but couldn't pull it off.

Cultural reasoning is often used as a probably cause for the great military reforms of the Later Roman army in equipment and tactics. It could merely be that the new "Corps" of the army said "We tried it your way for years, now we do it our way."