02-16-2017, 03:48 PM
Agreed. The Romans of this conflict were nearly all veterans of the 2nd Punic War. They fought tooth and nail to get to join Galba's legions destined for Macedonia. Fighting there meant wealth, since all knew the Hellenic monarchs were super rich. Booty, plunder, slaves, all could help the veterans because the entire Roman society was hurting very badly economically after Hannibal's War.
The Macedonians weren't all inexperienced, Philip had been fighting some wars previously, but a large enough part of his army (likely the infantry) were missing that necessitated the large conscription of old men (likely veterans) and boys (tiros, no experience at all). I think Livy's anecdote, if even partly true, largely deals with the latter, plus whatever other softies Philip had in his army who didn't know how viciously Romans fought.
There was a major cultural difference in comparison with the Romans. It surprised the Hellenics during the Pyrrhic War, as the Romans threw themselves into the Sarissa heads, and it popped up against when the Romans showed no mercy at Cynoscephalae and Magnesia when they slaughtered entire phalanxes who'd lifted up their sarissa in surrender, not understanding the gesture, or just not caring.
The Macedonians weren't all inexperienced, Philip had been fighting some wars previously, but a large enough part of his army (likely the infantry) were missing that necessitated the large conscription of old men (likely veterans) and boys (tiros, no experience at all). I think Livy's anecdote, if even partly true, largely deals with the latter, plus whatever other softies Philip had in his army who didn't know how viciously Romans fought.
There was a major cultural difference in comparison with the Romans. It surprised the Hellenics during the Pyrrhic War, as the Romans threw themselves into the Sarissa heads, and it popped up against when the Romans showed no mercy at Cynoscephalae and Magnesia when they slaughtered entire phalanxes who'd lifted up their sarissa in surrender, not understanding the gesture, or just not caring.
