Triple line

[Paullus Scipio]

Paul B. wrote:-

I think one reason that the greeks and macedonians were incredulous at their defeat by Rome is that to a greek or macedonian the romans were essentially thureophoroi. Sarissaphoroi had been trouncing these for the better part of a century before facing the romans.

...interesting point, Paul ! One can well imagine Greeks and Makedones thinking this way, and after cynoscephalae putting the defeat down to "It was only because Philip foolishly allowed his army to be split..." ( as has been said above)

We often focus too much on the weapons system and forget the men.

...True, but we must not fall into the trap of thinking that any one group, or nation, have a monopoly on courage or skill that allows them to win all the time, or that 'Romans are better than Greeks'. It comes back to circumstances ( and also perhaps to motivation)..the same group of men who fight bravely one day, can play the coward another day.....nothing in battle is simple ( or can be generalised about too much :wink: )....but certainly the psychological/morale factors are as important, if not more so, than the physical - as Napoleon averred; "In War, morale factors account for three quarters of the whole, material strength accounts for only one quarter."