View Full Version : Exact expansion of the Roman Empire
Does anyone know of a site or whatever that can show the expansion of the roman empire from its earliest days to its downfall?
Ive heard that they conquered sicily and then illyria, Im not sure on those, but after that I cant get the facts straight.
Kralizec
05-09-2006, 21:30
http://www.roman-empire.net/maps/map-empire.html
Sadly, the pics don't seem to be working at this point so until then it's useless :embarassed:
http://www.friesian.com/romania.htm
Scroll down through the various genealogies and such to the 116 AD map, which is the period of greatest extent, during the reign of Trajan.
Go to the frisian link and click the animated history of the empire.
http://www.friesian.com/images/maps/rome-big.gif
Never mind it let me post it. :idea2:
Alexanderofmacedon
05-10-2006, 00:33
Lars: I love that map. It's excellent.
I have a couple books that show in excellent detail maps of the empire.
Roman Warfare
by: Adrian Goldsworthy
wow great visual aids
So they took sicily, a bit of Illyria... then just went psycho in iberia? For what reason? All the gold out there or was there some kind of vendetta against those barbarians?
They conquered Carthaginian Iberia in the second Punic war that's what happened.
Avicenna
05-10-2006, 11:15
The first punic war was driving Carthage out of Sicily, and then in the second war, they sent in Scipio (I think) to Iberia, to capture the Barcid holdings there. Then, they captured Carthage once and for all in the third war. Illyria was quite early as well, and Gallic Italy.
interesting
then on to Greece for the heck of it?
Lord Winter
05-11-2006, 02:18
interesting
then on to Greece for the heck of it?
I belive they attacked because macedon supported carthrage.
really?
man I love this stuff
and what about the conflicts with the seleucids and excursions into egypt
keep it coming guys I appreciate it
Avicenna
05-11-2006, 08:17
Greece was easy since they're split up into warring states, so just wait it out and then enter with the Legions.
ShadesPanther
05-11-2006, 19:45
They Captured Illyra because of the major Pirate problem Rome suffered just after the 2nd Punic war (Although I'm nearly sure it was before it) and the Macedon invaded the area and were eventually beaten and became a province around the same time as the rest of Greece.
The Seleucids (Or what was left of them) were allied to Macedonia and so they were defeated and were absorbed not long after. The Ptolemies were allied with Rome for a long time and I think the King gave the land to the Romans or something like that but they were pretty independant until Caesar's time
Glad to see those alliances paid off for them
thanks everyone
QwertyMIDX
05-12-2006, 09:54
The Seleukids were still very powerful when the Romans conquered Macedon. It was because Antiochus (III) the Great invaded Greece that the Romans invaded Asia Minor and dismantled much of the Seleukid Empire.
Avicenna
05-12-2006, 16:07
The Egyptian lands were due to the marriage of Marcus Antonius to Cleopatra, and their subsequent deaths allowed Augustus/Octavian to claim Egypt as Roman territory, gaining a new colony Aegyptus.
The Seleucids invaded Greece huh... the fools
Why didnt the Romans take over more of the land surrounding the sea above turkey? (sorry for the vague description)
And how did the seleucids lose so much power at the start of their wars with Rome?
ShadesPanther
05-12-2006, 23:52
Well you see Rome were not destined to be the world superpower by any means. At this point they were a major power yes, but the Seleucids thought that they could be beat. They defeated Carthage and Macedon (Although they had absolutely huge manpower problems)which were considered major powers as well. But they oretty much paled in comparison to the Richness of Ptolemic Egypt or the Size of the Seleucid Empire.
Even around the time of Marius and Sulla, Mithridates the King of Pontus conquered Asia Minor and launched a major expedition to Greece. Although it could be said his eventual defeat was helped by his anger alienating his close allies.
Conqueror
05-13-2006, 11:36
Why didnt the Romans take over more of the land surrounding the sea above turkey? (sorry for the vague description)
Do you mean around the Black Sea? They had trouble enough with defeating the Dacians and pushing their borders forth in the Balkans area. To the north of the Black Sea was the steppes where nomads like the Scythians and Sarmatians were. The Romans didn't really have the means to conquer such areas, nor was there much motivation for them to do so. They wanted to have easily defendable borders (along the river Danube that is), not steppeland where the mobile nomads could attack and raid them easily.
good point, I can see how natural barriers are preferred to the steppes.
This is great stuff, Im currently waiting for EB to patch over to 1.5 then Im going to play as rome and expand just as they did.
Hope the AI can keep up.
Azi Tohak
05-19-2006, 18:14
http://www.friesian.com/romania.htm
Scroll down through the various genealogies and such to the 116 AD map, which is the period of greatest extent, during the reign of Trajan.
WOW! What a link! Thanks.
Azi
Avicenna
05-19-2006, 20:55
There are also the smaller problems. The Scythians were a scary bunch. Herodotus, whose work would be read by Romans, described their poison effects quite vividly. Not only this, but their arrows had snake patterns on, to resemble the snakes that they got the venom from. The Scythian arrows were also barbed, making them hard to pull out. All this would be quite daunting, and most Romans wouldn't want to face such fearsome foes. They were deadly accurate, had powerful composite bows and were incredibly mobile on horseback. The area wasn't particularly rich, and they Scythians should have been quite well known to have actually beaten Alexander's army.
All this would be quite daunting, and most Romans wouldn't want to face such fearsome foes. They were deadly accurate, had powerful composite bows and were incredibly mobile on horseback. The area wasn't particularly rich, and they Scythians should have been quite well known to have actually beaten Alexander's army.
True, but Alexander personally made them pay for that. He is actually one of the few commanders in history that has beaten the steppe nomads at their own game. Anyway, by the time the Romans came into close contact with the steppe nomands, the Scythians had already been supplanted by the Sarmatians. The Romans had to fight off Sarmatian incursions for several centuries, despite a major victory in the second century AD. However, I don't think this lack of success was due to fear more than due to an incompatible way of warfare.
However, I agree that the Romans probably could not have expanded into the steppe, due to the nature of their military and the size of the area. Not to mention that the area is almost worthless to anyone who is not a steppe nomad.
howd alexander make them pay?
ShadesPanther
05-21-2006, 19:18
I think he tricked them with an ambush. He had them attack his isolated men then he trapped them with his cavalry.
I think he tricked them with an ambush. He had them attack his isolated men then he trapped them with his cavalry.
It was something like that. I used to have a pretty good picture of how the battle went but I cannot find the site.
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