07-24-2006, 12:38 AM
Interesting topic...
In a one -on- one fight I would give the advantage to the samurai.
However, in a massed battle the Roman legion would, I believe, prevail in most encounters.
Side Note:
The word samurai does not mean "warrior" or knight, though that is how it is commonly used.
The Japanese have another word for warrior: bushi.
From which we get bushido - The Way Of The Warrior (Do meaning way or path).
The literal translation of the word samurai is "One who serves." This is key to understanding them. They lived to serve and when they no longer had a master or lord to serve they ceased to be samurai.
By the time of the Tokugawa shogunate (after 1600) few samurai were engaged in military activities. In fact most were caught up in the vast bureaucracy need to run the country. Peace was very hard on the samurai who found themselves increasingly eclipsed by the economic power of the chonin, the merchant class, who the samurai considered well beneath them in social standing.
This is why samurai like Miyamoto Musashi or the 47 Ronin standout as examples of those who posses the true spirit of bushido.
But I digress...
:wink:
Narukami
In a one -on- one fight I would give the advantage to the samurai.
However, in a massed battle the Roman legion would, I believe, prevail in most encounters.
Side Note:
The word samurai does not mean "warrior" or knight, though that is how it is commonly used.
The Japanese have another word for warrior: bushi.
From which we get bushido - The Way Of The Warrior (Do meaning way or path).
The literal translation of the word samurai is "One who serves." This is key to understanding them. They lived to serve and when they no longer had a master or lord to serve they ceased to be samurai.
By the time of the Tokugawa shogunate (after 1600) few samurai were engaged in military activities. In fact most were caught up in the vast bureaucracy need to run the country. Peace was very hard on the samurai who found themselves increasingly eclipsed by the economic power of the chonin, the merchant class, who the samurai considered well beneath them in social standing.
This is why samurai like Miyamoto Musashi or the 47 Ronin standout as examples of those who posses the true spirit of bushido.
But I digress...
:wink:
Narukami
David Reinke
Burbank CA
Burbank CA
