Things you learned from playing vanilla RTW

[General Appo]

Let´s just say that were I to ask anyone in my class who Hannibal was they´d think I was talking about the cannibal. One or two might after a while realise that there is someone else known as Hannibal, but it´s doubtful.

I´d say Julius Ceasar is the only Roman who´s name most would recognise, unless they´ve just watched Gladiator, in which case they might recognise at most 2 or 3 more names.
The Seleukids, Parthians, Ptolemy´s, Carthaginians... all totally unheard of. Alexander the Great is only known as "that gay guy who conquered a lot of shit", and knowledge about ancient Gaul, Germania or Britain is completely unexistant.
Well, some might recognise that Asterix and Obelix were Gauls and lived in France, but that´s about it.

[gamegeek2]

Yeah, ur right. I found this game because I was interested in military history, found a peer, and showed me the Total War series. I got rome, thought it was awesome, and then thought, "y'know, those lances are too short," etc. When I saw a YouTube video made with EB, I went around for an hour trying to find the mod, and found it. And I'm glad as hell that I did.

[Mithridates VI Eupator]

Let´s just say that were I to ask anyone in my class who Hannibal was they´d think I was talking about the cannibal. One or two might after a while realise that there is someone else known as Hannibal, but it´s doubtful.

I´d say Julius Ceasar is the only Roman who´s name most would recognise, unless they´ve just watched Gladiator, in which case they might recognise at most 2 or 3 more names.
The Seleukids, Parthians, Ptolemy´s, Carthaginians... all totally unheard of. Alexander the Great is only known as "that gay guy who conquered a lot of shit", and knowledge about ancient Gaul, Germania or Britain is completely unexistant.
Well, some might recognise that Asterix and Obelix were Gauls and lived in France, but that´s about it.

Thats just so on the spot!!!

Sometimes, you marvel at the historical ignorance of some people...

Having been passionately facinated by ancient history for more than a decade, I always assumed that people knew, at least to some extent, who Hannibal or Attila was. So when in High School, upon discussing ancient Rome, I made a reference to the former's crossing of the alps, people basicly asked in which of the movies that was...

Or when, upon discussing the death of king Charles XII, (Swedish king, killed at Halden, Norway, in 1718, alledgedly shot with a uniform's button by a friendly soldier), someone asked why they didn't use a DNA-swab to expose the murderer...

Really, I think its sad that some people so completely lack knowledge of large parts of the history of the world, as this, in many ways, still influence the world today.

[Zradha Pahlavan]

I learned that parthians loved the color purple.
And that when a group of horsemen charged a group of spearmen, many spearmen go flying across the battlefield.
I also learned that flaming missiles launched from primitive catapults could make walls explode.

History is amazing, isn't it?

I'll willing to bet you guys money that you can't find a person [who isn't on this forum and who isn't a historian or archaeologist] who knows who Ashurbanipal was.

[Mithridates VI Eupator]

Assurbanipal: Neo-Assyrian king, ca. 668-626 b.C.
He finished the conquest of Egypt, and reinforced the empire's eastern borders, conquering the Elamites in 639, marking Assyrias greatest extent.
During his reign, culture flourished in Assyria, one example of which is that he had many Babylonian inscriptions copied, and brought to Nineveh, where they were made into the city's library. The capital also housed Assurbanipal's palace. Militarily, however, the empire was in decline, primarily due to increased pressure from the emerging Median empire. Egypt was also lost, and rebellions flared up, due to Assurbanipal's opressive ruling-style. After his death in 626 b.C, the empire rapidly declined, and was conquered in 612 b.C, and Nineveh sacked, by an alliance of Nabopolassar of Babylonia and Kyaxares(sp?) of Media.

But then again, I'm a forum user...

[Tellos Athenaios]

I'll willing to bet you guys money that you can't find a person [who isn't on this forum and who isn't a historian or archaeologist] who knows who Ashurbanipal was.

Yes. He's that other guy from AoE.

[Hax]

Ashurbanipal is in the Axis of Evil?!

/me puts on his Bush-accent

Ladies and gentlemen, we need to invade Assyria.

[Onehandstan]

I learnt that two thousand years ago all the people in France were unites, had moustaches, only wore stripy pyjama bottoms and spoke english with a british accent.

[General Appo]

Ashurbanipal is in the Axis of Evil?!

/me puts on his Bush-accent

Ladies and gentlemen, we need to invade Assyria.

You mean Mexico! Ashurbanipal sounds kinda Mexican, right? *Dick nods and grins in evil fashion from a dark corner*

[theoldbelgian]

i am new here on the forum and english is not my first language so please forgive me
well here is what i learned from playing RTW
-once the mighty seqoia growed in the forests of germany
-we belgians were once britisch ,tally ho lad
-archers in the carthaginean army were solely trained to sit on the back of elephants
-i learned that you can rout any gaul by charging it in the front with equites
-that epeiros was a piece of cake to take by the start of the game this also goes up for those guys in segesta
-that sparta conquered all of greece before the romans started messing with them
-that scythians werent nomads at all, they lived in setlements wich could have walls
-i learned that the world was a whole lot bigger then
-i learned that the seleucids where a bunch of copycats without any originality

[Zeibek]

Having been passionately facinated by ancient history for more than a decade, I always assumed that people knew, at least to some extent, who Hannibal or Attila was. So when in High School, upon discussing ancient Rome, I made a reference to the former's crossing of the alps, people basicly asked in which of the movies that was...

I'm in High School and we just finished our first history course (out of two, the other one focusing solely on Finnish history), which astoundingly dealt with everything from the rise of civilization to the beginning of the 18th century. Anyway, most people did know that Hannibal was a military leader who crossed the Alps in order to invade Italy, but when we got to the part that he was Punic everyone besides me asked in unison what on earth that meant. It's sort of disappointing, since I'm completeing the IB diplomma program in one of the most demanding schools in the country and even here people have only a rudimentary grasp of history. I know that the IB is natural sciences oriented but still, one would assume that Carthage is something everybody has heard of.