highway snow ploughs in ancient rome?

[ivoignob]

ok, it does not have any negative effects on gameplay but how do they manage to keep all those kilometers of paved roads clean of snow? as far as i know they were at least muddy/snowy in mtw. ever noticed that in the battles? some modern goveneaurs must be green of envy

[The_Emperor]

ok, it does not have any negative effects on gameplay but how do they manage to keep all those kilometers of paved roads clean of snow? as far as i know they were at least muddy/snowy in mtw. ever noticed that in the battles? some modern goveneaurs must be green of envy

Well they did have a lot of slaves back then...

"Move those shovelss you wretched little men!! Move Move!!"

[the_rydster]

They used the local council gritters I think.

[Fridge]

Have you guys never heard of Roman engineering? The hypocaust? Underfloor heating, you morons! Apparently all their football pitches could be used all year round as well. And that's the real reason Romans built their roads straight - the hot air underneath had trouble going round corners.

[Medieval Assassin]

. . .

[the_rydster]

Roman roads were straight because no one had invented steering wheels to go around bends.

[Orvis Tertia]

Actually, it was because the ancient Vespas didn't turn well. Ciao!

[Ziu]

Absolute and utter poppycock. Don't you people realize the world was flat back then!

[Mikeus Caesar]

They were straight because they used them for filming people walking off into the sunset at the end of films.

[Oaty]

They were straight because the Romans were too ....... now as far as the Greeks ..... those were some twisted roads

[TheDuck]

Comon guys! They were straight because chickens in ancient times couldn't figure out how to cross curvy ones! Our chickens are much more advanced now!

[Red Harvest]

Actually, Roman engineering was even more advanced than that. A considerable amount of the aggregate and stones used for paving Roman highways were actually imported from far to the east (modern day Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.) These ores contained considerable quantities of uranium, and as a result the roads stayed several degrees warmer than the ambient temperature when piled to the appropriate depth.

Incidentally, the need for great quantities of this particular ore meant that much of the trade rout was by boat. The consequent association of the delivery of all this rock by cargo boats with rows of oarsmen led to slang reference to the gravel/stone as "oared" which was later corrupted to "ore."

And just in case any of that actually sounds plausible...I am kidding!

[chemchok]

Actually, Roman engineering was even more advanced than that. A considerable amount of the aggregate and stones used for paving Roman highways were actually imported from far to the east (modern day Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.) These ores contained considerable quantities of uranium, and as a result the roads stayed several degrees warmer than the ambient temperature when piled to the appropriate depth.

Of course, this also allowed for easy traveling by night because of the faint glow of the superior Roman road.

[Somebody Else]

And here's me thinking they just ice-skated along in winter...

[Mikeus Caesar]

These ores contained considerable quantities of uranium

So does that mean the reason the roman empire fell was because they were all suffering from radiation sickness and couldn't fight?

[Oaty]

So does that mean the reason the roman empire fell was because they were all suffering from radiation sickness and couldn't fight?

Actually they believed a lot of Romans suffered from lead poisoning. And that's not a joke. They used a lot of leadwork in thier aqueducts. They used so much lead there is an increased amount of lead in the layers of the arctic circle dedicated to the Roman era. And as I said that is all true

[Mikeus Caesar]

Hmm....i'm sure. If they used that much lead, then that raises another question....wouldn't all life on earth end up dying from lead poisoning? Because personally, i would rather die with a nice healthy green glow.

[Simetrical]

They didn't use that much lead! They may have suffered from heavy metal poisoning from their water supplies, and any animals that drank from their water may have as well, but the effects would surely have dropped precipitously as you moved away from Roman settlements. They might be detectable up in the Arctic, but the effects the increased lead levels would cause there would have been quite small, if not negligible.

Anyway, I strongly suspect that no amount of lead would poison all life on Earth. Lead poisoning affects nervous systems, doesn't it? And aren't animals the only ones with nervous systems? So plants and single-celled organisms should come out fine.

-Simetrical

[Oaty]

Well increased amount of lead in the layers of the arctic and not layers of lead, so it's not misinterpreted. Where lead is the most dangerous is when it's being worked on, especally when heating it into a liquid. So the young workers would be the worst effected by it. Obviously it was'nt too harmful but the lead workers probably suffered. Don't know wich organisms are effected by lead but it is the immune system that does not react well with lead. The worst part it is hard to excrete lead once it is in the body. Now there is in antidote for lead that will get it out of your system within days for lead poisoning. I had an instructor for lead safety and he was sterile from lead poisoning.

[KiOwA]

Lead poisoning wasn't the only thing they suffered in those days. If I'm not wrong, Romans also had substantial amounts of dissolved metals in their water, from the piping.

[nokhor]

makes you wonder if we might be currently killing ourselves with technology with bad side effects that we don't know about. say tv radiation causes low sperm count or something like that.

[Mikeus Caesar]

So the romans didn't get defeated, they just all made themselves sterile from drinking bad leady water, and eventually all died out?

[Simetrical]

Um, no. Some speculate that lead poisoning contributed to Rome's downfall. There were certainly other factors involved, doubtless more important ones.

-Simetrical

[master of the puppets]

uh this was about snowplows right? im confused

[Fridge]

I had an instructor for lead safety and he was sterile from lead poisoning.

Way to choose a safety instructor...

[Mikeus Caesar]

uh this was about snowplows right? im confused

Read through the entire topic. You'd be surprised how quickly a conversation can go from a small mistake about the game, to the romans killing themselves through lead poisoning.

[master of the puppets]

well duh i know how it works it was just a sarcastic joke... its true the leasd based water thing though from the highly silty tiber not the pipes

HEY mabey the romans lasted one hundred thousand years longer than we thought and there was uranium rocks which over time tuned into lead (scientific fact; uranium turns into lead thats why it resists radiation so well) leaving only lead traces

[Ellesthyan]

Hehe

But back to the topic (or whatever it was), not only roads but whole settlements and even huge cities seem uneffected by snow. Did they have uranium tiles after all?

[Ziu]

Actually lead is still used in water pipes in some countries and is likely to be found in older building in most industrialized countries.
I know the pipe connecting the mains in the house I'm living in is lead! Luckily we use a filter.

[Tamur]

No, no, no... this is all the wrong way to think of the problem. Snow does not slow an army's travel rate.

The soldiery have to slog through mud and drifts, and the baggage train is especially affected by this, leading to a slowdown of about 20% in movement speed.

However, an army on the march in the ancient world would invariably launch raids on neighbouring villages, forcibly requisitioning their hot chocolate. The added energy from the chocolate's phenylethylamines allowed the army to march about 20% farther each day.

All in all, it's a wash.

BTW, this is a very silly thread.