Fun With Friends?
J. M. Pescado:
Quote from: breyerii on 2005 August 14, 23:43:22
Well, you know, Romans were better on land battles. They resorted to naval warfare only because the Carthaginians were such a thorn in their side.
Notice that they invented the rostrum to be more "on their own ground" even at sea.
The Rostrum is a Roman forum for giving speeches. You were perhaps referring to the corvus, an early Roman device used to facilitate ramming and boarding. The device was ultimately abandoned as the Romans gained more naval warfare experience because it destabilized the ship and thus made it prone to sinking in storms.
ZephyrZodiac:
Not wanting to sound as though I'm overly patriotic, (I'm part Irish and part Scots, so don't have a big axe to grind for the English) but I would have said the British Empire at its peak was greater in many ways than the Roman one, and unlike the Roman Empire, which disintegrated into chaos, the British Empire grew into something far better - the British Commonwealth. And despite the War of Independence, the US never broke its ties with Great Britain, which must say something for the strength of the relationship!
J. M. Pescado:
Quote from: ZephyrZodiac on 2005 August 15, 10:54:48
Not wanting to sound as though I'm overly patriotic, (I'm part Irish and part Scots, so don't have a big axe to grind for the English) but I would have said the British Empire at its peak was greater in many ways than the Roman one, and unlike the Roman Empire, which disintegrated into chaos, the British Empire grew into something far better - the British Commonwealth. And despite the War of Independence, the US never broke its ties with Great Britain, which must say something for the strength of the relationship!
I think it has more to do with the fact that we speak the same language, sorta.
ZephyrZodiac:
Maybe you're right, but they could have hated each other in English forever instead....
J. M. Pescado:
Quote from: ZephyrZodiac on 2005 August 15, 11:08:23
Maybe you're right, but they could have hated each other in English forever instead....
Yes, but that's hard to do. Sharing a common language tends to complicate matters. It's sort of like how even though we owe more to the French, and we've actually fought two wars with the British, we still get along better with the Brits than the French (who annoy us!). I tell you, it's entirely the language thing. That is first and foremost what hogties us together. When you combine it with the American tendency not to know any other languages, they're the only people we can actually talk to.
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