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That seemed to be the story all throughout the Punic wars. No matter what the Romans lost, they always bounced back!
Look at the number of fleets they lost, not so much in military enagagements, but to lose a fleet in a storm is still a loss, and they managed to replace them!  hock: :roll: 8)
Visne partem mei capere? Comminus agamus! * Me semper rogo, Quid faceret Iulius Caesar? * Confidence is a good thing! Overconfidence is too much of a good thing.
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Heh, yeah, I know, and that ability is where my problem really stems from. The sheer volume of casualties boggles the mind, not to mention loss and replacement of equipment. That's not to say it didn't happen, but it always puts me in mind of the hugely inflated figures given for Medieval armies, particulalry Byzantine estimates for crusade expeditions. Demography is a tricky beast.
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Yoshida Kenko (1283-1350), Tsurezure-Gusa (1340)
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Polybius I believe! :wink:
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There is no surviving Pompeian source for the Civil War, much less a "pro-Gallic" source for the Gallic Wars, we have only Caesar figures, and occasionally some figures from other writers, for instance, Caesar says that after defeating the Helvetians he took a census of the survivors, numbering 110.000, however Strabo 4.3.3 says they numbered 8.000.
If we believe the Gauls or other barbarians were capablre of fielding such large armies, then the concept of military revolution in Western Europe in the 16-17 centuries is completely wrong. Military historians of diferent periods sometimes seem to live in different, unrelated, worlds
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Strabo being one of them if I'm not mistaken. :wink:
Not saying I'm not, but I think he had a habit of inventing facts, at least so I believe. Pytheus the Greek seems to have been ridden roughshod by him. Mind you, I have only one account of Pytheus.
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No, He wasn´t, he was writing under Augustus patronage. Anyway he wasn´t contradicting Caesar, he is simply following another source, or maybe he took a look to the tabulae of the census. Anyway if you want to get more credit to Caesar than to him it is up to you, but I think you have to concede there were other sources that don´t agree with Caesar and they were not Pompeians even, so your argumentum ex silentio doesn´t hold.
You can take Pharsalos as an example, Caesar says that Pompey had 110 cohortes and 7.000 cavalry. while Orosius, following Asinius Pollio, a Caesarian officer, 88 cohortes and 1.100 cavalry, unfortunately we don´t have a Pompeian source, or probably we will see Pompeius superiority in numbers all but evaporated. Now, if those contradictions existed on Roman units, imagine what Caesar could tell about Barbarians no one cared to count.
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Haven't read them all, but there is still time!! :lol:
By the way whats you real name, as you don't seem to have put it on your signature?
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"No, He wasn´t, he was writing under Augustus patronage......"
He wasn't what?
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A Pompeian.
My name is Iñaki, it is in my signature.
AKA Inaki
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I don't believe I said he was a Pompeian! :wink: Yet even Augustus made an effort to suppress some of Caesars work! Perhaps too many people could not live comfortably with his success, so needed to discredit him a little to make their own acheivements shine more brightly?
I still rate his victories as top notch. Alesia being one among many.
True, he botched a few things too!  roll:
Visne partem mei capere? Comminus agamus! * Me semper rogo, Quid faceret Iulius Caesar? * Confidence is a good thing! Overconfidence is too much of a good thing.
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Quote:I don't believe I said he was a Pompeian! :wink: Yet even Augustus made an effort to suppress some of Caesars work! Perhaps too many people could not live comfortably with his success, so needed to discredit him a little to make their own acheivements shine more brightly?
I still rate his victories as top notch. Alesia being one among many.
True, he botched a few things too! roll:
I am not aware of any effort on the part of Augustus against his "Divine Father" Caesar. On the contrary Pompeian testimonies against Caesar are the ones lacking. I don´t dispute Caesar great achievements, but he exagerated a great deal about numbers. He is not the only great captain to do so, Frederick the Great for instance did the same in his memoirs in an age in which there were a lot more information available to anyone.
AKA Inaki
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Well, the only documentation was his surpressing some of Caesar's writings after his death, but who know's what else he got up to!
The man was a total manipulator and schemer! :lol:
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Quote:If the Gauls brought their women and other camp followers with them, then perhaps 150,000 warriors and 100,000 others? Think of the numbers the Romans were able to field at Cannae, and that was not too long after the Lake Trasimene disaster.
Here's an image with the numbers that I found somewhere:
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