Slitherine

My favorite naked barbarians...
I was playing a game against this guy and the first time I lost and the second time I won but anyway for the third and last round my leader died early off into the game and my guys quickly routed... and all i had left was 1 unit of Fanatics... but they were upgraded pretty highly.. (7) gave them bonuses to feint swordsman and endurance... and they single handidly won the game for me and got like 168 kills... all my other units combined had like 30 kills... and half of them were alive by the time they were done.

Those fanatic guys must have been well dosed up on magic mushrooms or hemp seed the night before a battle. There is no way I would want to run at a line of heavy infantry armed to the teeth with my gonads swinging in the wind thats just a little bit too vulnerable for me

venividivici wrote:Those fanatic guys must have been well dosed up on magic mushrooms or hemp seed the night before a battle. There is no way I would want to run at a line of heavy infantry armed to the teeth with my gonads swinging in the wind thats just a little bit too vulnerable for me

Ave venividivici,

As you once said to me "I hear you", shudder, pulls knees up to chin, ouch!!!

Vale

M. Spedius Corbulo

My fanatics seem to lose most of the time.

Fanatics are a fine example of testudinal fortitude.

Picture the Roman point of view:

"They're stark naked, and they're charging us??? What do they know that we don't? I'm out'a here, man!"

(inappropriate comment voluntarily removed by Possum)

Haha... we should have caption competition, lol

Centurion to Legionary - "They used to just moon at us, but this is a whole new ball game"

"Waving swords at us is pretty bad, but their daggers are far more threatening"

"Gad its cold out here."

possum wrote:Or, "Well, well, wouldn't the greeks enjoy this?"

I don't understand your comment.

The Greek army encouraged homosexual relations between soldiers.

sacredzero wrote:The Greek army encouraged homosexual relations between soldiers.

Ave sacredzero,

I believe I read somewhere about the "Sacred Band of Thebes" a Greek regiment of matched pairs who, when defeated by perhaps Alexander, were found to have all death wounds on the fronts of their bodies. They fought to the last man rather than be disgraced in the eyes of their lovers. They were lead by a man called Gorgidas.

Vale

M. Spedius Corbulo

sacredzero wrote:The Greek army encouraged homosexual relations between soldiers.

My friend, this is not true and in order to help you, try to think that the relations between soldiers where based on companionship and not on homosexuality as some false-informed historians have stated in the past (due to the lack of good comprehension of the Greek language and incomplete historical research).

The homosexuality in ancient Greece was a very big crime in all cities of Greece.
The punishment of such an act, could reach the death-penalty.

Believe me on this , because I am an expert on ancient Greek history

Btw, Enjoy the very good game and enjoy playing with the fanatics!

cheers,
Pyros

First of all, I doubt it was banned in all cities, especially under pain of death. Second, even if it was, it was definitely not unkown among them. On top of this, they were often known for it by other ancient cultures.

I think homosexuality is the wrong term here as the Greeks were known to be openly bisexual, particularly the Spartans. I believe it is well documented in current academic works although I do not have references to hand that I can quote. Certainly there seemed to be good evidence in the recent programme on the Spartans presented by Bettany Hughes.

My comment was inappropriate.

This isn't a subject we can really discuss.

Apologies.

But about the Sacred Band of Thebes.

Perhaps you're thinking of Plataea?

In the second persian invasion of Greece, after burning Athens, the Persians under Mardonius (or perhaps Mardoniyah), were brought to battle by a combined greek army under the command of the Spartan Pausanias.

The tragedy of this battle is that the Thebans had been trapped into fighting on the persian side, under threat of having their city razed and all the Thebans killed or sold into slavery.

The Theban light cavalry fought brilliantly at Plataea, and inflicted massive damage on the greek army before being finally defeated. And the Theban Sacred Band, which was allegedly composed of 150 pairs of lovers, fought and died to a man.

Perhaps it is not possible for any man of the modern age to truly comprehend the ancients. We live in a very different age, and our view of the world is perhaps too different.

But if you'd like to try, here are a few reccomendations -

The King Must Die and The Bull From The Sea By Mary Renault.

Note- Amazon currently has an offer whereby you can get both of these books for a combined price of $21.60

This is the story of Theseus, and the fall of the Minoan empire. I love the way Mary Renault takes the "supernatural" events of ancient legend, and explains how the actual event may have occurred in a manner completely credible to a modern mind, but which credibly gave rise to the legend.

My favorite example is Jason and the Golden Fleece. No, it didn't come off a golden sheep. It was an ordinary sheepskin which was stretched across the mouth of a river to catch alluvial gold, (i.e. gold eroded by the flow of water, and carried down a river in the form of gold dust), so really it was nothing more than a filter.

The only thing Renault asks the reader to believe is that Theseus had a "gift" which caused him to become very nervous and/or depressed in the hours and minutes before a major earthquake. Frankly, I don't have any trouble believing that at all.

Heh, I'm rambling again...

Soldier of the Mist and Soldier of Arete by Gene Wolfe
Note- These two books are now sold in a combined volume entitled Latro in the Mist.

The opening scenes of this book take place amid the Persian retreat from their defeat at Plataea. The rest of it is all over Greece and Asia Minor.

This is a tough book to read for the first 15 minutes, because of the style in which it's written. After that initial period, though, it's magnificent.

Pausanias is also a character in this book.

Pindaros of Thebes (omfg omfg omfg) appears in this book, and Gene Wolfe (who must have stones the size of Alexander's) actually tries his hand at Pindarian prose, with very damn good results.

I will admit that I actually cried at the end of the second book, not in sorrow, but just in strength of emotion. This book has some serious pathos. This is inspired writing.