Re-dating Caesar\'s Invasion of Britain

[Muzzaguchi]

No one has commented on this from the Newsfeed section: Caesar's Invasion of Britain redated (although that is Rogueclassicism's comments on a press release from Texas State university and not the publication of thier findings I think). Here is the astronomers' article:

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/communit ... 10774.html

Apparently there have been other criticisms (such as the assumption that the coastline is the same which it patently is not) but I thought that the full moon, equinox and tides being as close as there going to be for some time to those in 55 BC, utterly intriguing.

Cheers

Murray

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

I feel i have to dissagree with the statement that 'being from the Medeteranean, Caesar would have been unfamiliar with the tidal concept'. :?
They also have tides on the French side of the channel, as well as all along the european coast.....Caesar had been campaigning in Gual right onto the Atlantic coast for a few years by then had he not? Surely he would have gained information on tides and their relationships by then.

And a high tide would allow his ships to get as close to shore as possible?
I would imagine this would be a desireable feature?

[NightHunter24]

They also have tides on the French side of the channel, as well as all along the european coast.....Caesar had been campaigning in Gual right onto the Atlantic coast for a few years by then had he not?

And to add to your statement, Gaius, I'd say that even if (hypothetically speaking) Caesar hadn't been all too familiar they (the Romans) would have acquired some native seafarers who would have surely had much experience with the area. I'm pretty sure there was much going back and forth from the coasts of Britain and the coasts of Gaul. :?

[Carlton Bach]

I agree it's a bit of a simplistic thing to say, but even though the idea that a Roman would just be staring, mouth gaping, at the spectacle of the water going away is silly, tides in the North Sea and Channel are distinctly funny things and could certainly counfound people who don't understand them in great detail. The Romans lost ships (on one occasion IIRC during the Augustan campaigns a fleet) on the North Sea mudflats which to this day occasionally kill tourists who don't believe that the sea will indeed retreat several miles. On the Channerl coast, by contrast, local tides can be four metres or more, which also accounts for losses of boats every year whose owners are used to the gentler conditions of the Noth Sea or French Atlantic coast (Everyone who knows the North Sea or Atlantic coast, smile at that sentence).

He picked a pretty awkward part of the world to have a seaborne invasion.