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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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During the morning strategy conference Hatty pointed out that cavalry units, in which the Normans but not the Romans, Anglo-Saxons or Danes specialised, might have different considerations. Also, a defence based on force multiplication via closely spaced stongpoints was a Norman innovation.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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The model example of force multiplication always given is Thermopylae, the battle of the 300 spartans.
Coincidentally... The place of death of that model Hero.... Heracles
You turn mortals into heroes by force multiplication.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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My position in general, err, on Generals, Wade or otherwise, is to ascribe a priori rationality....
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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That is quite an interesting question. An eighteenth century general would have got there by a combination of purchase and patronage. His connection with roadbuilding would be fairly distant. In fact so was everybody's, just before the turnpike era. There was no general staff college but on the other hand the eighteenth century is generally considered the moment when the modern i.e. pretty vast army was born, and the logistics that go with it. But it was also before tin cans (Napoleonic). Then again Enlightenment Scotland was the cradle of road builders. [He rants on in this vein for some time.]
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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I get what you are saying but a road built by General Wade looks like a Roman Road. Tell me the difference.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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I can't. I know that Roman roads are reputedly made to a pattern -- various sizes of stone laid over each other in a strict sequence, a standard camber, a consistent width ... er ... milestones. But form follows function so, since this is before tarmacadam and steam engines, there's no obvious reason why they should not be similar enough as to be indistinguishable. Always assuming that Wade did not use Roman roads as his guiding principle anyway. They were, in the seventeen-fifties, still the best around. In itself the best evidence that roads were just not that important to anyone, including the Normans. This is passing strange but presumably true.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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Yep you have got to where I am at. The difference is, I still think Wade and the Romans built straight(er) and I still think it's military.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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I don't dispute they're military. Until our own times it didn't seem to dawn on anyone that roads were a national economic asset rather than a local and necessary nuisance. In fact it still didn't dawn on anyone until the turnpike builders showed that it was. They didn't build to Roman standards because they would regard them as over-engineered for their short-term purpose -- I believe you only got the rights for a set number of years. But certainly now you could tell the difference.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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Chad wrote: | But back to Sri Lanka... That causeway was built (according to Hindu legend) by the god Rama.
I speculated (in another thread) that the Romans, Roma and ancient Egyptians (R_m_t) all had a common origin.
It's obvious now that they were descendents of migrants (environmental refugees?) from the sub-continent... devotees of the God Rama. (Just as Abraham was obviously a devotee/personification of the god Brahma.)
So if the middle-eastern and Mediterranean civilisations had their roots in India, it's not inconceivable that the Phoenicians' / Megalithics' use of causewayed tidal islands had similar roots.
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If our soul is Rama (Rome)
Our ego will be Ravana (Ravenna)
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