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Rome, Sweet Rome: Could a Single Marine Unit Destroy the Roman Empire?


UstadKhanAli

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I heard about this a ways back on Reddit. Unfortunately, the movie appears to be languishing. For some reason, I'm really fascinated by this, and would love to read a novel or watch a good movie adaptation of this. Anyway, I figured some of you might also find this fascinating, so here it is.

 

Rome, Sweet Rome: Could a Single Marine Unit Destroy the Roman Empire?

 

"It was a hypothetical question that became a long online discussion and now a movie in development: Could a small group of heavily armed modern-day Marines take down the Roman Empire at its height? We talked about the debate with James Erwin, the man who scored a movie writing contract based on his online response, and ran the ideas by Roman history expert Adrian Goldsworthy."

http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a7341/rome-sweet-rome-could-a-single-marine-unit-destroy-the-roman-empire/

 

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What a crazy question - but it does sound like something fun to argue about over some beers.

 

Best case for the Marines seems to me that they would win a quick war, but wouldn't be able to occupy and take over in any political sense. So it would be like what the dog says who finally catches the car - "now what do I do with it?" Then the Romans regroup and round up all the out-of-gas-and-food Marines into the Colosseum for a grand bit of entertainment.

 

nat whilk ii

 

 

 

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Right. The Marines would do quite well at first, but given that they cannot replenish ammo, supplies, or fuel, it would eventually not end well for them. The Roman Army was a very well-disciplined army. But the link I sent said that the Marines might be able to last long enough to destabilize the Roman Empire, an interesting thought.

 

And all this is just for fun. And that's how it began on Reddit: fun. And someone thought, "What would happen?" And began describing it day by day.

 

I believe this is the link to the Dady 1, Day 2, etc. posts on Reddit if you are interested:

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/k067x/could_i_destroy_the_entire_roman_empire_during/c2giwm4

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I read the story and thought it was a fum exercise. It's sorta been done before, insofar as movies. Some Kirk Douglas vehicle where a modern carrier travels through a warp and ends up in the Pacific right before December 7, 1941. But the writing here was really good. Thanks for the link!

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the article in popular mechanics doesn't take into account what the powerful psychological effect of the Marines would be.

 

Just as a small number of ISIS soldiers demoralized and overwhelmed the much larger Iraqi Army this past year, the Marines would even more dramatically demoralize and devastate the Roman Army.

 

Imagine being a Roman soldier, you've never even heard an explosion before, and all of a sudden lightening and thunder is shooting out of what looks like alien beings to them, "invisible" bullets piercing through Roman body armor.

 

The Marines would appear to be using magic, and would probably be feared as though they were angry, omnipotent gods. :idk:

 

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I thought of that too, Goober(s). The author is making the assumption that the Roman Army, being a super well-disciplined Army, would not be demoralized and overwhelmed. I'm not a Roman history buff, so it's hard for me to say for sure, but I would think that these weapons would seem like they were Gods, and they might not want to do battle with Gods. But I dunno.

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I thought of that too' date=' Goober(s). The author is making the assumption that the Roman Army, being a super well-disciplined Army, would not be demoralized and overwhelmed. I'm not a Roman history buff, so it's hard for me to say for sure, but I would think that these weapons would seem like they were Gods, and they might not want to do battle with Gods. But I dunno.[/quote']

 

 

First time they kill a Marine, eyebrows would go up. My guess is that the Romans would just be incapable of really processing what they're seeing - so they'd just do what they do. If they all die, well, they all die. Reporting back to Rome would be a dicey proposition, too. Always the old adage that the first casualty in war is the truth, etc.

 

I think the Romans would just keep sending men and then credit themselves with a glorious victory that was really due to the Marines being in short supply.

 

UNLESS!!! The Marines say, "hey, this is stupid. Yeah we can kill off anyone for about 3-4 days and then we're done! We need to go guerilla NOW. Hide all the heavy stuff, save the gas and lets think about this...maybe we can get the locals on our side by wowing them with our magic...and they can provide food and scouts at the very least. Then we'll provoke a single battle using locals for troops plus one of our guys with a machine gun. Should take about 15 minutes. The locals will be up for more fun once they see that!"

 

nat whilk ii

 

 

 

 

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I would think that it would be fairly easy to go guerilla. The Marines are quite good at that, while the Romans didn't practice that sort of warfare, to the best of my knowledge (someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe they primarily fought in formation, and with clothing that wasn't exactly camouflage!).

 

Regardless, the weaponry would have the Romans gobsmacked, and it would be a matter of their leadership, training and discipline kicking in, and what sort of strategy they might employ.

 

You could make several movies about this scenario, each with a different outcome!!

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What about the morale of the marines? Wouldn't they worry that American democracy might not form the same way—or at all—without the role the Romans played in democracy's early development, or in the early development of England? Would England have eventually colonized America without Rome's early influence? The marines could be undermining their own culture.

 

 

 

Best,

 

 

 

Geoff

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What about the morale of the marines? Wouldn't they worry that American democracy might not form the same way—or at all—without the role the Romans played in democracy's early development, or in the early development of England? Would England have eventually colonized America without Rome's early influence? The marines could be undermining their own culture.

 

Best,

 

Geoff

 

No, no, no - you just don't understand time travel. The marines have to go battle the Romans, it's already in our past, see? It's just a feedback loop - once you go back, you change the past which changes the future and from there you're stuck with this new past and future as if it was always that same past and future. In fact, just drop the "as if" since the scenario before the loop has to be considered as having never happened - that "old past and future" are not real - thinking about them becomes just a theoretical what-if game which we all know is a totally stupid waste of timesmiley-happy

 

nat whilk ii

 

 

 

 

 

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Time travel backwards is implausible if not impossible...Fun to think about. If the Marines landing in 1st century Rome would stop the spread of the Empire and it's systems...The Marines would simply disappear. And there would be a story about the Green Clad Men with the magical weapons...That Roman engineers would figure out in a decade or less...The Huns and Mongols would be screwed..And Rome would truly rule most of the world..maybe to this day.

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See all the fun this scenario can create? Would the Marines engaging the Romans in warfare change the turn of events? Or no, as nat says? Would their be hand-wringing over the chaos this would create by the Marines? Maybe they wouldn't be concerned about just American democracy, but the progression of the whole world.

 

I love time travel stuff.

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