03-23-2005, 02:47 PM
Crassus made all the bad moves one could make.<br>
The first one was a strategic error which several other Romans did: he tought that invading Parthia would be a piece of cake, Alexander the Great's style.<br>
Three centuries later the emperors Valerian, then Julian made the same mistake. Some people never learn.<br>
But it happens so that the Parthians/Persians had learned the lessons of the past regarding fighting a set piece battle with an european army (See Alexander..)<br>
And they did not fight set piece battles any longer. They used the very efficient combination horse archer/heavy cavalry, perfectly adapted to harass and evade the roman foot soldiers.<br>
To this strategic error may be added faulty intelligence, or rather contempt for the enemy's tactics, which has always been a big mistake.<br>
The second error was logistic and stems from the first one: namely he did not have the right equipment/troops. Not near enough horse and no missile troops. I suspect that a couple of cohorts of slingers/bowmen would have saved the day.<br>
The third error was tactical: he was led by the nose, by a "guide" obviously at the Parthian's service, to the very unfavourable place the Surena wanted him to be.<br>
A second tactical error was to use his cavalry as an offensive force instead of as a screen for his infantry.<br>
As for the penetrating power of bows, we must realize that the Parthian horse archers shot at almost point blank range: the legionaries had no missiles to keep them at bay.<br>
At a distance of say, twenty feet or less, a bodkin arrow shot with a bow drawing 75 pounds will go easily through armour, whether it be mail or plate. Unless some kind of hardened steel is used like in the later middle ages, I suspect it will rip open the mail --even riveted-- and punch through iron plate like the umbos of the legionaries' shields. <p></p><i></i>
The first one was a strategic error which several other Romans did: he tought that invading Parthia would be a piece of cake, Alexander the Great's style.<br>
Three centuries later the emperors Valerian, then Julian made the same mistake. Some people never learn.<br>
But it happens so that the Parthians/Persians had learned the lessons of the past regarding fighting a set piece battle with an european army (See Alexander..)<br>
And they did not fight set piece battles any longer. They used the very efficient combination horse archer/heavy cavalry, perfectly adapted to harass and evade the roman foot soldiers.<br>
To this strategic error may be added faulty intelligence, or rather contempt for the enemy's tactics, which has always been a big mistake.<br>
The second error was logistic and stems from the first one: namely he did not have the right equipment/troops. Not near enough horse and no missile troops. I suspect that a couple of cohorts of slingers/bowmen would have saved the day.<br>
The third error was tactical: he was led by the nose, by a "guide" obviously at the Parthian's service, to the very unfavourable place the Surena wanted him to be.<br>
A second tactical error was to use his cavalry as an offensive force instead of as a screen for his infantry.<br>
As for the penetrating power of bows, we must realize that the Parthian horse archers shot at almost point blank range: the legionaries had no missiles to keep them at bay.<br>
At a distance of say, twenty feet or less, a bodkin arrow shot with a bow drawing 75 pounds will go easily through armour, whether it be mail or plate. Unless some kind of hardened steel is used like in the later middle ages, I suspect it will rip open the mail --even riveted-- and punch through iron plate like the umbos of the legionaries' shields. <p></p><i></i>
