Crispus<br>
A couple of corrections<br>
1) St Augustine lived in the V century<br>
2) It was Caesar himself the one who burned the Alexandria library when sieged by young Ptolomaeus (half brother of Cleopatra)<br>
On the Church and knowledge from Ancients<br>
1) Many copies of ancient works come from Constanople libraries, brought by greek scholars after the fall of the city in 1453<br>
2) The Church actively selected some works, it was very conscious of its role as the only source of education.<br>
3) The Church always opposed every other source of knowledge out of the bible, and Aristoteles, not only in the XVI century.<br>
In all I think a "druidic" religion based upon transmigration, or just the old roman religion would have been less damaging to civilaciton than the Christian Church, no offense to believers, this is just an historcial hypotheses. I am not particularly anticlerical BTW but then if would live in a country in which the Church (or any other organized, dogmatic religion) was as dominant as it was in Europe in the past, I would certainly be. <p></p><i></i>
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Quote:</em></strong><hr>Church of the Sixth century when the opposing figures of Martin of Toures and St. Augustine were both active as missionaries, the first being restrained from his overzealous activities and the second encouraged on his peaceful activities by a conscientious and well meaning Pope Gregory. <hr><br>
Erm, no. St Martin of Tours lived during the 4th century, St Augustine during the 5th. I wouldn't call either of them 'missionaries' though, especially not Augustine.<br>
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Quote:</em></strong><hr>True, the emperor Theodosious ordered the destruction of the library of Alexandria<hr><br>
Did he? The Serapeum was destroyed dusring his reign, but that was not the main library. Apparently enough of it existed during the Arab takeover in the 7th c.<br>
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Valete,<br>
Valerius/Robert <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p200.ezboard.com/bromanarmytalk.showUserPublicProfile?gid=vortigernstudies>Vortigern Studies</A> at: 11/9/04 2:03 pm<br></i>
Greetings dear Sir,<br>
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I do agree with your words concerning the companions on their superb training and their very good armor. Also, yes the Germanic mercenary cavalry were more numerous.<br>
However, in every battle that was fought by Alexander, the companions were allways under strength, with the exception of Chaeronea.<br>
Numbers meen little if your opponent uses speed and much violence very effectivelly. Alexander's companions were masters of the shock tactic. The German cavalry were very formidable warriors but were not disciplined troops.<br>
In the end, one would rather have disciplined troops fighting in unison than numerous warriors fighting like individuals.<br>
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"Always attack. Even in defence, attack. The attacking arm possesses the initiative and thus commands the action. To attack makes men brave; to defend makes them timorous. If I learn that an officer of mine has assumed a defensive posture in the field, that officer will never hold command under me again" Alexander to Ptolemy, at Ephesus<br>
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<p></p><i></i>
Easy killer...<br>
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How dare U call The Man, Alexander an ancient Hitler.<br>
Read and get educated about the issues before you open your big mouth.<br>
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I come to bury the man, not praise him...From Julius Caesar <p></p><i></i>
Xenophon old buddy, if that's aimed at me I suggest you take your own advice. Didn't notice any rebuttals in your post to the issues I raised.<br>
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Better to do that rather than descend to personal abuse. <p></p><i></i>
Back to the original topic: Caesar had the benefit of almost 300 years of military history to learn from that King Alexander didn't have. Not that he needed the extra credit anyway.<br>
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But the real topic should be this: What would have happened if Alexander, on the march to the Hellespont, came across a misaligned road sign and turning left instead of right, collided not with Darius, but with republican Rome?<br>
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So, in "real time" circa 330 B.C., who would have won then? <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p200.ezboard.com/bromanarmytalk.showUserPublicProfile?gid=horselips>horselips</A> at: 11/23/04 7:10 am<br></i>
"But the real topic should be this: What would have happened if Alexander, on the march to the Hellespont, came across a misaligned road sign and turning left instead of right, collided not with Darius, but with republican Rome? So, in "real time" circa 330 B.C., who would have won then?"<br>
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The Macedonian-Roman alliance would have creamed the Samnites, thus saving the Greek cities of the South and avenging the Caudine Forks. <p></p><i></i>
Mad Max, you sound a lot like I do, on other forums.<br>
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Make an opening remark, highly controversial, and then proceed to demolish any counter-arguments. This is called trolling, and I can recognize it at a pilum's throwing range.<br>
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To attempt to denigrate Alexander, yet elevate Caesar, using the exact same "bringing civilisation to savages" argument is an odd strategem.<br>
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The Gauls were no way less cultured than the Persians, taking several criteria into account. Also the fact that Alexander founded cities, and married Persian princesses, shows he was planning to stay. The Successor states lasted almost as long as the Roman Empire. <p></p><i></i>
Caesar probably. The ability of his legions to throw volleys of javelins in rapid succession could break even the formations of Alexander the Great. With their formation shattered, the Macedonians would be rendered completely helpless, and would quickly be obliterated.<br>
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On the other hand, if the Macedonian formation holds strong, the enormous <em>sarissas</em>(spears) of Alexander's men would annihilate Caesar's men. But it is very unlikely that such a tight formation would hold together during the Roman volleys.<br>
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Overall, I say Caesar has a 70% chance of winning.Long live Caesar! <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p200.ezboard.com/bromanarmytalk.showUserPublicProfile?gid=praetorianguardsman@romanarmytalk>praetorianguardsman</A> at: 1/15/05 8:58 pm<br></i>
[url=http://www.livius.org/aj-al/alexander/alexander_t65.html" target="top]this is an interesting read..[/url] <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p200.ezboard.com/bromanarmytalk.showUserPublicProfile?gid=mich0>mich0</A> <IMG HEIGHT=10 WIDTH=10 SRC="http://www.lazioultras.it/immagini/lazio-ovalebis.gif" BORDER=0> at: 1/17/05 11:19 am<br></i>
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