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lionhearted comments on How would you take over Rome? - Less Wrong Discussion

25 Post author: Yvain 14 March 2012 04:24PM

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Comment author: lionhearted 14 March 2012 05:17:11PM 4 points [-]

Arrive somewhere with good horses and poor leadership on the edge of the Roman Empire, implement Mongolian horsemanship/mobility/unit-tactics, most of which should be possible with the current day's technology in a horsemanship culture -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol_military_tactics_and_organization

Consolidate/build up for a couple decades, then lead an invasion against Rome sometime during one of the low points of Tiberius's reign (between AD 14 to and AD 37) -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiberius#As_Emperor

Comment author: James_Miller 14 March 2012 06:05:38PM 8 points [-]

Much of Rome's military strength came from it being much better organized then its neighbors and its army having better discipline and courage than its competitors. Your plan wouldn't counter these key advantages.

Plus, even with superior military tech you almost certainly would not be able to convince even a few barbarians to accept your leadership or probably even advice.

Comment author: gwern 14 March 2012 06:25:41PM 7 points [-]

Arrive somewhere with good horses and poor leadership on the edge of the Roman Empire, implement Mongolian horsemanship/mobility/unit-tactics, most of which should be possible with the current day's technology in a horsemanship culture -

Is that true? Edward Luttwak in his book on Byzantine strategy remarks that the Mongol's reflex bows were very complex to make and hard to master - the Byzantine cataphracts had to constantly train just to keep their horse archery up to snuff.