Roman engineering at work.

     Hello again everyone! So our beloved friend Augie discussed the events and battles of the Punic wars, this war is important in history because it began the start of the expansion of the Roman empire outside of the Mediterranean. But let's talk about some of the weapons and technology that helped win these magnificent battles.

  The Corvus (as pictured above) was vital for the Romans during the First Punic War, Rome were not as skilled of seafarers as the Carthaginians so they developed the handy Corvus. The Corvus was used as a walkway for Roman soldiers during a naval battle. The roman ship would pull alongside the enemy ship and drop the Corvus, and prongs on the underside would punch through the decks of the opposing ship for a good grip. Then the Romans would run across and engage in hand to hand combat to defeat the enemy. As easy and simple it may sound, the Corvus had some drawbacks. If the seas were rough it would make using the Corvus impractical and could damage the host ship. Also another issue was that the Corvus was bulky and any shipped armed with a Corvus sacrificed maneuverability. Shortly after the First Punic War the Corvus was replaced with newer and better ways of boarding a ship.

     Another fantastic invention which I personally happen to love is the Ballista!

This beauty was an example of early forms of artillery. The Ballista was originally a Greek designed weapon but when Rome absorbed the Greek city states, they in turn learned about torsion mechanics and well, the Ballista was born. The ballista design varied in size and name but the design principle remained the same. designs such as the Scorpio were used as a "sniper weapon" to pick off troops, where as the Ballista was more of a siege weapon. However apparently the Ballista was still used to pick off troops. Making it versatile like a Howitzer would be in the modern world! Well that's all for now and Coming up soon will be an "about me" post from the both of us. -lopes

Alea iacta est

The die is cast. 
264 BC. On the island of Sicily, a local conflict between  Hiero II of Syracuse and the Mamertines of Messina. The Romans send a garrison to defend Menissa. The Carthaginians angrily backed Syracuse. Eventually, the two greater powers turned the minor involvement into full scale war for Sicily. After a thrashing at the Battle of Agrigentum  in 262 BC, the Carthaginians resolved to fight the Romans on the ocean. This strategy worked for them until the Romans added assault bridges or corvus onto their ships, allowing the elite legionnaires to be a viable tactical option. With only two large defeats, that being at the Battle of Lipari, and the Battle of Tunis, the war went swimmingly for the Romans. In 241, the Carthaginians signed a peace treaty that had them surrender Sicily, and pay the Romans a large indemnity. 

Carthage would not submit so easily to the heel of the Legion, however. The Carthaginians spent the interim expanding their empire into the Iberian Peninsula, with Rome's attention focused on the Illyrian Wars.  In 219, Hannibal would begin his march on Italy, by attacking the Hispanic city of Saguntum, a town allied to Rome. After this, Hannibal made his legendary journey over the Alps with 36 War Elephants and his Iberian army. In this conflict however, the Carthaginians held the advantage in battle. Hannibal crushed the Romans on many occasions, the most famous of which possibly being the Battle of Cannae. 

Hannibal crossing the Alps

Cannae is located near the "heel" of the "boot." Hannibal had already made great strides in the previous year, knocking out the legion whenever they fought. The Romans sought to alter this trend. The Senate raised an army of 86,000 men, 80,000 legionnaires, and 6,000 cavalry. At this point, Hannibal had an army of 26,000, with as many cavalry as the Legion. They would clash on August 2nd, 216 BC. Hannibal had 8,000 men guard his camp. That meant that for every Carthaginian solder, there were almost 5 Legionnaires. Hannibal had positioned his army so that their left flank was somewhat protected by a river. Both armies placed their cavalry on their wings, with their infantry in the center. The Roman commander was Terentius Varro, a consul who was not a very imaginative commander. His strategy was simple, and with his strength in numbers, it should have worked. Crush them with a mighty frontal assault, and they will fall, as they did back in the First War. Varro thought his cavalry would be enough to protect his flank, but Hannibal's cavalry outclassed his. Hannibal sent his cavalry out against the Roman left flank, which they swept over, after that, the cavalry went behind the Romans to hit the other cavalry wing as well, and then took position behind the Romans. Varro took little notice this, however, and kept pressing forward. Instead of fighting, the Carthaginians pulled back, creating a bow shape with their lines. This kind of tactical retreat was extremely difficult to pull off, but it worked, as the Romans thought they were winning. Once the word was given, the Carthaginians closed their ranks, and enclosed the Romans. Much the Persians at Salamis, their numbers were their downfall. The Romans were slaughtered as they routed. All told, the Romans lost 60,000 men that day with Carthage only losing 6,000. 2/3rd s of the Romans at the cost of 1/5th of the Carthaginians. 

However, things would not end well for Hannibal and his seemingly invincible army. He lost most of his elephants and his siege engines while crossing the alps, so he could not take any Roman towns. The Romans eventually started to cut his supply lines, and won a major battle at Zama, in Hannibal's home turf. After this, the Carthaginians sued for peace, enacting a 50 year period of peace between the two.   

This was not the end, as Rome would once again attempt to wipe the Carthaginians out. In the 50 years since the second war, the Carthaginians had built their position back up in terms of wealth and military power. The Romans did not enjoy seeing the people they had brought to kneel back in a good way. The Romans, as per the terms of the peace treaty, could profess demands unto the Carthaginians. The Romans made progressively more ridiculous demands, until the Carthaginians refused. These demands included things like, sending 300 children of the nobility as hostages, with the last being to destroy the city and build it further inland. When the Carthaginians refused this demand, the Romans declared war. Their first assault in 149 BC was repelled thanks to the quick action of the Carthaginian military. However, the second assault turned into a 3-year long siege, ending with the city being burned to the ground, and the earth salted. Remaining Carthaginian settlements met the same fate. 

So, over 100 years of war off and on. It ended with a civilization being wiped off the map. I consider these wars to be important. I see these wars as the beginning of Rome leaving the Italian Peninsula. Carthage was a offshoot of the Phoenicians, and one of the great maritime civilizations of the western world. After about 100 years, it's destruction was complete. Around 5 generations got to see their country wiped clean. But, this has happened before, why is now such a big deal? Well, wiping people out was not quid pro quo for the Romans. You'd get taken over, but, you could still have your identity.  The Romans not only burned Carthage, but salted the earth, making it unusable. This also was the beginning of Rome's expansion, what would become the biggest empire for centuries. What do you think about these wars? Let me know in a comment. 

Thanks for reading

-Augie

    

Next up... Carthage!

So, now that we've covered the Greco-Persian wars, we'll be moving on to the next big war, the three Punic Wars. We'll give you a general overview of each war, the new weapons used by both sides, and why this is such an important conflict. Hope you check it out!

Augie

The new guy, and some really cool stuff!

     

Hello everyone! I'm the other bonkers guy that is co hosting this blog! I am super excited to spread my wealth of information on military technology and learn from you guys in the comment section. So, now the fun part. Lets start with the first real warship, the Trireme! by basic definition the Trireme is a galley with three banks of oars used in combat as early as 525 BC and unfortunately these big majestic ships (sarcasm) were phased out with the advent of sailing ships. The Trireme was powered by 3 rows or banks of oars, with 3 or more people to an oar (usually prisoners). These unlucky men had to get the Trireme up to a considerable speed and would ram an enemy ship! Then fighting would occur until the ships separated and if the attacking trireme was lucky enough the enemy ship would take on too much water and sink. Naval warfare continued this way for quite some time until forms of artillery and cannons made ramming impractical. But, let us never forget the first real successful warship.

A Nut like me

So, anyone who had visited my 2 day old blog yesterday, you may notice the contributor list has... doubled! That's right, I found someone as bonkers as me to help write content for this blog. Mr. Lopes will be writing more about equipment and vehicles, rather than the history. But, he has no parameters to follow, so, he may pop a history article or two in there! I hope you're as excited as I am that the JTF now has two writers!

-Augie

Those 300 men...

So, how did it all start? Well, the Persian Empire, being an empire, needed to keep adding territory to itself. The Persian King Cyrus the Great took over the region of Ionia in 547 BC, appointing kings to rule in his steed. Eventually in 499 BC, one of these kings, Aristagoras, wanted to take the island of Naxos, and asked the then king Darius to assist him. This ended up being a wash, and Aristagoras was slated for early retirement. Before this happened, as one last show of defiance, Aristagoras incited all of the Hellenic region of Asia Minor to revolt against Darius. Aristogoras enlisted the help of Athens and Eretia to raze the Persian city of Sardis. Darius would vow revenge on the two Greek city-states for this. 

In 492 BC, the first Persian invasion of Greece occurred, when the Persians swept deep into Macedon, before some mistakes forced an early end to the campaign. The second assault occurred two years later, when another force sailed across the Aegean sea, before being halted at the Battle of Marathon. The Battle of Marathon occurred at the bay of Marathon, on the coast of the island of Attica. The Athenian army managed to hold their lines, preventing the Persians from moving inland for 5 days. The Persians became frustrated at their lack of progress and decided to continue to Athens itself.  But, once the Persian cavalry were loaded, the Athenian hoplites swarmed the Persian lines, causing the outer groups to rout, before hitting the Persian core. The rest of the army wisely fled. All told, the Persians lost around 6,400 men, with the Athenians only losing 192 soldiers. 

The lines of battle, with the Greeks being blue, and the Persians being red.  

The ensuing decade was a period of relative instability fro the Persians, as a revolt in Egypt, and the loss of Darius the first, kept their vengeance at bay. Towards the end of the 480's  King Xerxes I took the throne, and slowly began to mass the armies he would need to crush the Greeks. By April of 480, Xerxes had crossed into Europe, and began a 3 month long march into the heart of Greece.  While this was going on, the collective of the the city-states at war with the Persians met and discussed how to halt the advance. The leaders realized that the Persians would be crossing the pass at Thermopylae, which could be easily defended by the Greeks,with Greeks navies holding the strait, to block off a aquatic escape.  

As predicted, the Persians reached the pass in August of 480 BC. To combat this threat, the Spartans sent their king, Leonidas I with his personal guard of 300 Hippeis. These men, plus the other men the allies sent, was the force that defended the pass. When Xerxes arrived, he had his wait fro 3 days to see if the Greeks would disperse. He soon realized that the Greeks intended to hold the pass, and had to attack the Greco phalanx head on, playing into the hand of the Greeks. The Greeks did not falter for two days, taking attacks from the elite Persian Immortals, and being outnumbered at least 5 to 1. But, unfortunately for the Greeks, they were betrayed by a local, Ephialtes, who told the Persians of a secret mountain trail that would put them behind the Greek lines. Leonidas learned of this, and dismissed all but 2,000 men to hold the rear of the pass. On the final day, the Greeks made one last push to kill as many of them as they could. While this was going on, the Allied fleet sent to protect the flank of the men at the pass had fought for three days as well, until learning of the fate of the Spartans. That evening they retreated to the island of Salamis. 

Now that Thermopylae had fallen, the island of Attica was open for capture by the Persians. The Allies evacuated Athens, taking the population to Salamis. Xerxes ordered the city to be razed.  The Greek fleet waited of the coast of the island, expecting the imminent arrival of the Persians. The Greek commander Themistocles goaded the Persians to battle in the Straits of Salamis. Here, the overwhelming numbers of the Persians hindered them, as their lines couldn't maneuver in the close quarters. The Greeks seized the opportunity and destroyed or captured 200 ships. With Persian naval superiority gone, the refugees were safe. From now on, the Greeks would have more of an advantage, as the bulk of the Persian Army retreated after Salamis.   

 By  478 BC, the Allied Greeks pushed the Persians back from the continent. The Athenians, who had arguably been hit the hardest, sought to keep pushing into Asia Minor, to take back their old colonies. This started to fracture the alliance however, as the Spartans saw this as unnecessary, and eventually they left the Allies. The Athenians did not falter, and kept pushing, with their new alliance being called the Delian League. By 449 BC the Delians had taken all their old territory back ,but after a bold, but unsuccessful assault on Egypt, their army was destroyed. Some historians claim that after this the Greeks just went home, but some say that an actual peace was brokered. Either way, the conflicts between Persia and Greece were over. 

As I said, this isn't just going to be me relating the war to you. Why do I think this was one of the most important conflicts of mankind? I believe this because this was the first real showing that a strong navy is always critical to win any war overseas. You can have the best land army in the world, but if your opponent can knock your navy out, you will lose supply lines, and critical defense for that army. This war was also the test to see if the dominant western civilization at the time would endure. Those questions of what if are intriguing, but hard to extrapolate upon. I believe if Greece fell, then the Roman Republic would have been harassed by the Persians, and possibly wiped out as well. If that happened, then Western civilization as we know it would be a whole lot different.  The defense of Western civilization, and the proof of Navies in warfare. A lot from a bunch of guys in togas huh? What do you guys think? Let me know in a comment. 

Thanks for reading,

Augie 

Enough Salutations, let's get into the nitty gritty!

U.S. Tank column in Vietnam being headed up by a U.S. M48, with an M113 behind that. 

So, now that the introductions are out of the way, let's get to it. you can't talk about the military without going back to some of the most important conflicts known to man. So, what do I consider these to be? Well, to name a few, the Greco-Persian Wars, the Punic Wars, the collective sacks of Rome under the Gauls and others, the Crusades, the American Revolution, the American Civil War, World War One, World War Two, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf Wars, and, finally, the "War on Terror." But, why? Anyone can list of a bunch of names of wars and say they're important. So, over the next few days, I'm going to be making individual posts about each war, with historical accounts, and my take on that war.

Sound Reveille!

So, either by accident or choice, you've stumbled upon my JTF. Well, welcome! You might be asking, this guy seems nice, but what does he think he's doing? I'm glad you asked. I am a bit of nerd for the Military, in all its forms, even though I have a bit more love for Navies. In this blog, I'll be talking to you, dear serviceman/servicewoman about well.. Military stuff! Anything from great battles, to the newest tank that is coming out. Now, I'm a quite well read person on this subject, but, I'm not gonna be perfect. That's where you come in. Instead of picking up your M4, pick up your keyboard, and give me suggestions on what I might have said wrong, or what you think I could be doing better. I'm doing this as a creative outlet for all the knowledge I have, and all the knowledge I have yet to learn, so, I hope you'll find your posting here worthwhile. Again, welcome to Augie's Joint Task Force!