Posted on 02/17/2017 10:16:40 AM PST by C19fan
James Erwin was browsing Reddit on his lunch break when a thread piqued his interest. A user called The_Quiet_Earth had posed the question: "Could I destroy the entire Roman Empire during the reign of Augustus if I traveled back in time with a modern U.S. Marine infantry battalion or MEU?"
The question struck a chord with the 37-year-old Erwin, a technical writer from Des Moines, Iowa, who happened to be finishing a book called The Encyclopedia of U.S. Military Actions (Through Facts on File). Erwin tells PM that he wasn't impressed by other users' early attempts to answer this question, and so, posting under the username Prufrock451, he came up with his own response. Erwin wrote a 350-word short story chronicling the fictitious 35th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), which suddenly disappears from modern-day Kabul and reappears on the Tiber River in 23 B.C. Erwin posted the piece, finished his meal, and went back to work.
(Excerpt) Read more at popularmechanics.com ...
With an infinite supply of all the modern weaponry and other necessities (in other words, no supply lines to worry about), Roman Legions couldn’t get within a mile of a modern Army unit, never mind Marine unit. imo
No. They would run rampant for a while. But as supplies, fuel and ammo ran low, they would grind to a stop in a perimeter. The Romans weren’t idiots and would soon learn, understand, and adapt to the new threat.
Are they allowed to have tactical nukes?
for later
There is a series that covers this, but it was the JSDF and a Roman analogue and dragons and magic, but it has a pretty good idea on what would happen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqoHn1v2JXA
about 2:45 is when the carnage really starts....
Romans vs. Modern millitary
In the mid 80’s two guys wrote a book called “Remember the Alamo”.
It involved a wealthy dying oil tycoon who has pretty much perfected time travel. H feels that he, if he can send people back to Alamo to change the outcome of the battle, would be in a position to eventually occupy oil fields that are just south of the current Texas-Mexico border.
The people he sends back are Vietnam vets and mercenaries. he plans on winning the battle with claymore mines and automatic weapons.
All in all, it was a good book with a few twists and turns that keep the reader interested.
1,000 marines with modern weapons? Easily. A roman legion at full strength was about 5,000 men, and even if they combined several legions they could field an army of a few 10,000s at best. It would be a complete turkey shoot. The marines could form alliances to garrison the areas they moved on from.
As for whether a US Marine would be physically tougher than a Roman Legionary, that’s pretty debatable. The men of the Roman Legions were extremely tough, and would have grown up from birth living a much more arduous childhood and life than the average American in the 20th or 21st Century. They were drilled and pushed to absolute limit and discipline was enforced by ways far too harsh to be allowed today. I would probably say, if they fought on equal terms, with swords and shields, the Legionaries would win. JMHO.
If a relatively small amount of nerve agents were included with the Marines... or if a chemist was amongst the Marines, the Roman Empire made many raw materials from various geographies, ready available.
Seems like too many Marines. Maybe a Fire Team.
check out movie - “Final Countdown” - Enterprise goes back to WW2 - entertaining.
Sure they could. Just hook’em up with Spartacus.
Harry Turtledove did a book where South African have a time machine and send AK-47 back to the Confederate forces in the Warring Americans Period.
Logistics are a big factor again - as they are in all conflicts...
>The Aztecs also pissed off all their neighbors, so the Spanish had plenty of friends when they marched against the them...
The Aztecs where also fighting against one of the finest military commanders in history. Cortez was brilliant.
Thanks for the heads up. I have to check that series on YouTube. The Japanese really do those type of stories well.
Everything would depend on efficient utilization of the bluff. That is how Sgt. York achieved his coup against the Germans. The Marines would have to move fast to establish their authority before the Romans regrouped from the shock and awe.After that, everything would depend on the knowledgability of the Marines in metallurgy and chemistry to develop their own logistics.
I have seen that movie a couple of times on TV. The cool thing the movie highlighted all the different types of planes the Navy flew at that time before the F-18 took over all the roles.
Roman legionaries with sub-machineguns is slap-full of win.
What if we could transport Chuck Norris to 1939 Germany?
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