Armies of The Ancient World

[mmadsen]

I love the gladiator helmets!

SHARK, you write a wonderful piece on ancient armies, and I find myself compelled to respond to this one little aside. I love gladiator helmets too! They're just...awesome. You can see why gladiators got all the women.

 

[SHARK]

Greetings!

Mmadsen! Oh, man, you should see some of the stuff I've read about Roman history concerning *that*!--It certainly isn't found in the standard school textbook, but it is recorded reliably in scholarly works none the less.

There were graffitti scribbled on city walls by women proclaiming their undying love and passion for this gladiator or that gladiator. Wealthy aristocratic Roman women would pay large sums of money to have a top-performing champion visit her for amorous laissons, and the women would also lavish fine gifts of gold, weapons, slave-girls, and so on, to their champion lover. Meanwhile, in the arena itself, I've read where various women in the stadium seating would cry out in exctasy and the crowds would often break out into episodes of public sexual engagements in response to the frenzy of the gladiators in the arena! Of course, the Coliseum and other provincial arena's were also the location of multitudes of enthusiastic prostitutes that would throng the hallways and various arena levels, offering themselves to the screaming, exultant crowds throughout the festivities, and especially at the intermission.

Of course, in Roman society, there were also frequent scandals about such and such's daughter having orgies with a group of Gladiators, or the wife of Senator so and so has been having a long-term affair with the Gladiator Serevus, or what have you. If you can possibly imagine it, there were Roman women who probably did it. Gladiators were in quite the role of rock-stars, or wildly popular celebrities. They had cult-like groups of fans, with many women followers, that would follow them around whenever they were permitted out of the compound area, or when they were in transit to another city for a different event. Sometimes, the various Lanista's would permit a short guarded excursion into the city for trusted gladiators, which not only rewarded them for victory in the arena, but the Lanista would also gain handsome profits, and the girls would get to have a fun orgy with their champion, which would in turn spread the champion's popularity, which would in turn lead to more people attending the Games, which meant more profit as well. So, it seemed to work out for everyone concerned!

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

 

[mmadsen]

Oh, man, you should see some of the stuff I've read about Roman history concerning *that*!--It certainly isn't found in the standard school textbook, but it is recorded reliably in scholarly works none the less.

I almost made a comment about gladiator sweat being sold as a tonic. Wild. And, of course, in D&D it could really work. Also, I may have to fit "adventurers as rock stars" into a campaign at some point.

 

[SHARK]

Greetings!

I was thinking about various armies of the ancient world. The Ch'in Empire of China had huge armies, and they were heavily armoured, and there were regular regiments of archers, horse archers, lancers, and also sophisticated siege corps that marched with the armies on campaign. It is amazing that the Ch'in armies had sophisticated netwroks of spies, as well as a beurocracy, with regular mail, pay, and so on. The Ch'in fielded armies of hundreds of thousands of troops, too. There is even record that the Chinese sent an expedition of 200,000 troops marching West, towards the Middle East, and the borders of the Roman Empire. The Chinese didn't specifically know where the Roman Empire was located, but it would have been interesting if the Ch'in army had encountered the Legions of Rome along the frontier of Capadocia, or the Black Sea, or along the frontier of Judea.

I had a wild thought,--what if the Romans had been able to conquer Persia, and continue marching to the East, into India, and China beyond that? Just some facinating thoughts.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

 

[mmadsen]

Relaxing on the couch with a cold Root Beer, I began watching the History Channel. On this evening was a program about "The Real Sparticus." They talked about gladiators, and gladiator life, as they developed the story on Sparticus.

I caught the tail end of this the other night. In reading books and watching documentaries about the real Spartacus, I'm surprised by some of the great material that didn't make it into the famous Spartacus movie.

From Warfare in the Classical World:

Now 3,000 troops from Rome, under a praetor, were sent against the insurgents. Spartacus and his followers were temporarily besieged on a precipitate summit, but they twisted the branches of wild vines to make ladders and escaped down a sheer rock face.

An army of gladiators twisting vines to escape down a cliff. Wow.

One anecdote that did make it into the History Channel documentary (but not the movie):

Crassus...apparently punished the cohort chiefly responsible for the rout by decimation, a traditional Roman military punishment: selected by lot, one man out of every ten was beaten to death.

One in ten. Beaten to death. Methodically.

 

[mmadsen]

What a cool campaign that would be, politics and power based on Wars of Assasins....The ruling elite would be the children of high-level characters, most probably high-level characters themselves. They would employ other high-level characters to divine information, fight off threats, make daring, split-second teleport raids, and train the next generation of warriors.

Starting characters could be trained under the supervision of these high-level characters, sent on dangerous, subtle missions which have long-reaching consequences. They could become embroiled in webs of trechery and deciet, not knowing who to trust or who to believe. As they rise in level, the PCs become power brokers of thier own.

Imagine a truly adversarial campaign where the DM is primarily a referee, and each PC rules a kingdom and plots the assassination of his rivals (the other PCs). PCs are so much more ruthless than any DM.

 

[hong]

Re: Re: Armies of The Ancient World

I love gladiator helmets too! They're just...awesome.

Indeed they are, IWYKIM ATIYD.

You can see why gladiators got all the women.

Mmm, I can see it now, gladiators diligently polishing their helmets in order to get all the women.


Hong "I have a new favourite phrase of the week" Ooi

 

[mmadsen]

I'd like to see an analysis of the various troop types of the period.

Corinth, do you mean you'd like a book comparing various Roman soldiers (velites, hastati, principes, triarius), Carthiginian soldiers (Numidian light cavalry, Spanish cavalry, etc.), etc.? If so, you'll enjoy Warfare in the Classical World. It's beautifully illustrated. (It's also one of the books mentioned in History (and Background) for D&D .)

 

[Corinth]

Corinth, do you mean you'd like a book comparing various Roman soldiers (velites, hastati, principes, triarius), Carthiginian soldiers (Numidian light cavalry, Spanish cavalry, etc.), etc.? If so, you'll enjoy Warfare in the Classical World. It's beautifully illustrated. (It's also one of the books mentioned in History (and Background) for D&D .)

That's a good start. Are there similiar books that compare troops in other eras?

 

[Reprisal]

Imagine a truly adversarial campaign where the DM is primarily a referee, and each PC rules a kingdom and plots the assassination of his rivals (the other PCs). PCs are so much more ruthless than any DM.

That's what I'm trying to do right now on my boards... it's harder than I thought it would be, but I do have the basic system up now. My friends seem to like it. I have added a lot of Non-Player-Civilizations though, so there's some work for me there... It would be cool to play a game where you're just the Referee though, hehe. If you wanna check it out, the link should be through my profile.