[Multi-AAR] - History of men - EB part

[Fixiwee]

You should definitely mod your DMB to give the Carthies two-handed lance sacred band horsemen. It looks awesome. I can detail this if you're interested...

Well, sounds interessting, but is it realistic?

By the way, what battle formations mod you're using? I liked your Roman deployment.

Well I only use alex.exe, I manually set up my armies in a historical way. Hastati in the front, Triari in the back etc.

[Fixiwee]

In politics, strangely enough, the best way to play your cards is to lay them face upwards on the table.
- H. G. Wells

Scipios Gamble

The Roman Empire, by Wolfgang Schreier, Bonn 2003


Lucius Cornelius Scipio

After the devastating Battle of Mazana the Romans were once more determined to turn the war to their odds in 251 BC. The people of Rome elected Lucius Cornelius Scipio as consul, a man who had had many dealings with Sicily already and therefore knew the land and people. Scipio tried to break the deadlock with a swift and decisive push against Lilibeo like Maximus before him. Hamalcar the Younger faced the consul in the Battle of Lilibeo 251 BC. Scipio was a talented military leader and unlike Maximus 3 years earlier, he used the flexibility of his troops to his advantage. He won a solid victory over Hamalcar without destroying his army though.


Heavy cavalry attacking the Roman line.


Carthage had high quality mercaneries from around the world, but Scipios military competence prevailed in the battle.


Scipio won the battle because he used his cavalry wisely despite the difficult terrain. Here Greek mercenaries get caught in between a Roman maneuver.

But fortune turned against Scipio when he started to lay siege against Lilibeo, in the hot summer days a devastating plague broke out among the Romans, Scipio had to break off the siege and retreat. Nevertheless the victory over Hamalcar added much prestige to the Scipio family.


250 BC - Scipio retreats back to Messana after the plague.


Small skirmish, Roman Hastati facing spanish mercenaries fighting for Carthage.

For the next years the Punic war turned into small battles and skirmishes once again. Scipio remained head of the army in 250 BC as proconsul, when a year later he was elected censor and had to return to Rome for political duties. Hamalcar realised his chance and sent an army under his general Giscon to push for Messana. Giscon was a close friend of Hamalcar and the second in command of the Sicilian troops. When reinforcements under consul Caius Valerius Mas landed to support the troops in Messana, Giscon was outnumbered and decided to retreat to a safer position. The Punic war was still far from being over.


249 BC - Giscon attacking Messana

In 247 BC the Romans had not yet achieved any significant progress in Sicily. Both sides were equally strong and each offensive against the enemy stronghold was blighted by the fortunes of war. It was clear that the Romans had to do something more drastical to break the deadlock. Some Senators, among them was Lucius C. Scipio, spoke out for a landing in Africa.
Africa! Attacking a distant continent was something new to the Romans, who had mostly fought their wars on the Italian peninsula. But the people voted in favour for Scipio, who was elected consul a second time the following year. But to deceive the ambitious plans, Scipio went to Sicily to pretend another major push on Lilibeo. Meanwhile the second consul, Caius Aurius Cotta, a relative unknown plebeian with little military experience was charged with leading the fleet and the troops to Africa in 246 BC. This was quite a gamble, but Cotta was an ambitious man nevertheless, who wanted to live up to his duties.


247 BC - Cotta landing in Africa to the suprise of Carthage.

The fortune now turned in favour to the Romans, the Carthaginians had most of their troops in Sicily, since they feared Scipios attack. So when Cotta landed in Africa very little Carthaginian troops were stationed there. He quickly secured a port to get additional supplies and hasted to attack Carthage. The city was not prepared for a siege, despite its huge walls and enormous size. The council agreed to surrender, despite the fact that they were not beaten on the field. To defend Carthage the council would have had to order the troops in Sicily back, which would have left Sicily open for the taking anyway - plus the attack on the city of Carthage was a symbolic and military humiliation.


Cotta laying siege to Carthage - What a humiliation for the might Carthaginian Empire!

Carthage had to pay a large amount of money and agreed to give Sicily and Corsica to the Romans. Over all the war was won by a tricky yet successful military move. Carthage had to pay large quantities of money, but the military might was far from broken.


Rome dictates a harsh peace

For the Romans a peaceful and prosper time began with new trade routes to Sicily and Corsica. But Carthage was saw this peace as vile and shame – more conflict was bound to happen.

[Jormungand]

Awesome AAR - How are you going to go all the way up to 1500 AD though?

[Roka]

Good to see this is still going

[Fixiwee]

Awesome AAR - How are you going to go all the way up to 1500 AD though?

In my first test run I actually played untill 1500 AD, so it's possible. It just takes a lot of time and patience. :)

[Fixiwee]

Transcript of the college presentation during the lecture „The Roman Republic“ in 2003, University of Minnesota, USA

[Trevor Adams speaking]:
Dear colleges, dear professor, my presentation today is about the Roman peacetime period between 246 BC and 220 BC. In this presentation I will tell you about the events during this particular period and what actually lead to the series of devastating wars in 220 BC. First of all, 246 BC marks the beginning of a peacetime era for Rome. The first Punic war was over; Rome had endured many decades of war and thus tired of fighting. But the victory over the Carthaginians also brought new land, or provinces, which were governed by senators. That meant new taxes and trading posts for the growing “Roman Empire”. This era was also called the small golden age, since there was little foreign threat and Rome became a rich through trade.

But the peacetime period was not uneventful, there were even small wars which make the term “peacetime period” sound rather absurd. But nevertheless the conflicts were quite small compared to the first Punic war.

Well, the Romans made new allies in southern France and Spain. In those areas independent Greek colonies existed that were harassed by Gauls and Celtic tribes. The Romans allied themselves with the two major Greek cities Massalia, modern day Marseille and Empuries or also called Emporion. The deal was that the Romans sent troops for security while the Greek cities had to trade heavily with Rome. De jure those cities remained independent, but in reality the cities slowly became a part of Rome. Oh I forgot to mention, that deal was made around 235 BC. Well anyway…

Another important event happened in 238 BC, when the Carthaginian mercenary general Hipposander revolted in Sardinia, which was nominally under the rule of Carthage. Some Roman traders were killed in that revolt and Rome was quick to dispatch troops to Sardinia and killing Hipposander. Carthage feared another war with Rome and did not demand the control back over Sardinia. But this lead to much mischief with the Carthaginians and more and more people demanded revenge, which would eventually lead to another war with Rome in 220 BC.

In 225 BC the Boii Celts, situated in the Po valley in Italy, attacked the kingdom of Illyria and envoys came to Rome begging for help. The Romans had not much love for those Celts and agreed to snet assistance. The disciplined Roman army had no trouble defeating the small Celtic amry in modern day Slovenia and they placed the king Deutemirus back to power. There was no formal treaty, but the Romans were now “friends” – or amici as the Romans would say – with the Kingdom with Illyria. The link was a moral one, which arose from the “beneficium” of their liberation. They had to show Rome practical gratitude, while Rome was morally engaged to maintain their liberty.

The year 220 BC saw an end to the Roman peacetime period. Reason for this was a treaty made in 222 BC with the kingdom of Macedon. A year later the Epirotes, an old enemy of Rome, started a war with Macedon and the Romans decided to step in and solve the situation. But this, I think, is already the topic of the presentation next week by my college Mary.
My conclusion of this so called peacetime period is that it was a period of increasing wealth and expansion for the Romans. Rome was now a major player in the Mediterranean Sea and solved a few crises with military might. Thank you.

[The Professor speaking]:
Thank you mister Adams. Good presentation with many important details. One major flaw though, you could have used more maps for clarification. I think not everyone in this room knows exactly where the Illyrian kingdom was situated.

[Fixiwee]

Why is this only a small pictureless update? FRAPS did not take pictures during this period so I lost my data and information. Hence I decided to make a small update, since this period was rather uneventfull anyway. The text was written like someone would actually speak it. I hope it's not a pain to read that way. :)

[Mediolanicus]

It reads well!

Actually your AAR formed the inspiration to begin my AAR - although yours has more screens in a normal update....