The fact that Hannibal was able to destroy multiple armies and Rome still wouldn’t surrender is mind boggling. Poor Hannibal must have been pulling his hair out trying to get them to give up.
It has to be some sort of cultural-level mental disorder. They lost 1/5 of their adult male citizen population to Hannibal. Like, fuck’s sake.
But they HAD to win. Roman pride DEMANDED it. If that meant they had to sell all their jewelry, adopt foreign gods (very powerful!), free slaves to fight as citizen-soldiers, make foreign alliances with Numidian and Spanish tribes, they were willing to do it. Anything to win!
They did! The Sibylline books, a series of cryptic poetic verses, which were consulted only in times of crisis and largely left unread otherwise, supposedly told them to do it. They buried four slaves, two Gauls and two Greeks if memory serves, despite the fact that Roman cultural norms regarded human sacrifice as odious and offensive to the gods. It was an episode that later Roman writers were always deeply uncomfortable with.
Rome is an obsession of mine. I gave up most of my basic life and social skills at character creation for this talent. :p
And I’m still nowhere near real academics. Man, speaking with someone who can outright quote and translate sources from the top of their head? It’s like being a Catholic meeting the Pope.
You are an asset to our community, I’m just a romaboo. Speaking of, have you heard of Francis Ford Coppola latest movie supposedly inspired by Catiline’s conspiracy?
The fact that Hannibal was able to destroy multiple armies and Rome still wouldn’t surrender is mind boggling. Poor Hannibal must have been pulling his hair out trying to get them to give up.
It has to be some sort of cultural-level mental disorder. They lost 1/5 of their adult male citizen population to Hannibal. Like, fuck’s sake.
But they HAD to win. Roman pride DEMANDED it. If that meant they had to sell all their jewelry, adopt foreign gods (very powerful!), free slaves to fight as citizen-soldiers, make foreign alliances with Numidian and Spanish tribes, they were willing to do it. Anything to win!
I think I half remember accounts that the roman resorted to human sacrifice by burying some guys alive to gain the gods favor.
They did! The Sibylline books, a series of cryptic poetic verses, which were consulted only in times of crisis and largely left unread otherwise, supposedly told them to do it. They buried four slaves, two Gauls and two Greeks if memory serves, despite the fact that Roman cultural norms regarded human sacrifice as odious and offensive to the gods. It was an episode that later Roman writers were always deeply uncomfortable with.
Damn dude, dou you remember all this from the top of your head?
Rome is an obsession of mine. I gave up most of my basic life and social skills at character creation for this talent. :p
And I’m still nowhere near real academics. Man, speaking with someone who can outright quote and translate sources from the top of their head? It’s like being a Catholic meeting the Pope.
You are an asset to our community, I’m just a romaboo. Speaking of, have you heard of Francis Ford Coppola latest movie supposedly inspired by Catiline’s conspiracy?
No, this is the first I’m hearing of it!
“Inspired by”.