How can we improve RAT in 2012

[Flavivs Aetivs]

This is a chicken-and-egg situation. There is no 'Byzantine' section because there are few posters but are there few posters because there is no 'Byzantine' section? The present 'Greek' section says that it is for discussion of Greek and Hellenistic armies and their contemporary enemies, which is not exactly welcoming to the Byzantinists.

I don't think so. As the Byzantine arms & armour even has a 'sticky', it's always on top. I feel it has more to do with a lower number of interested people, or perhaps a general feeling that the whole forum (not only the Greek section) is too early?

In a sense, I am acting as Devil's Advocate but, if I were a Byzantinist and I saw a section headed 'Greek Military History and Archaeology' which described itself as 'Discussion related to Greek and Hellenistic armies and their contemporary enemies', I would probably think that it was not for me and look no further, so I would never know about the sticky. In fact, I will go further. My interest is mainly in the Roman army, so I have little occasion to look in the Greek section. The first time that I did, it came as a surprise to find that the Byzantine period was also covered there.

And Byzantine is more Roman thwan Greek int he end when you think about it. Thay had all sorts of stuff the Greeks didn't and the ROmans did, and they still called themselves Byzantines. The term Byzantine wasn't even coined until the 17th or 18th Century.