Is there a army today that the ancient Romans could beat?

Is there a army today that the ancient Romans could beat?

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italy

will if battle is taking place today the Romans could pick up some guns

They could beat the Swiss Guards.

Sub-saharan africa

Argentina

Republic of Congo

Basically any military that doesnt have budget for ammo and tons of spare barrels

My two wickedly funny responses
>none, because ancient Romans are all dead
>AntiFa

Japanese ar, oh wait.

they would just hole up in their walled city and pick them off from further away than they can do jack shit
you do realize they don't just use halberds right?

No

Why do Americans believe dumb shit like this.

Probably something like the army of some tiny shithole. Or Lichtenstein.
Definitely Sealand.

Without updating their doctrine to modern standards, they'd all just get shot to death while charging into doom a la early WWI battles but worse because they don't even have guns and their useless armor is weighing them down. Their only hope would be against spear chuckers who don't even have AK-47's and are there even that many of those any more?

They could conquer africa though. All the romans would have to do is raid some blackmarket gun dump in Uluamabango, NIggeria and and equip their outfit with guns. They wouldn't really know how to best use them but they would figure it out and focus mostly on getting into close combat to fucking REKT

They could probably conquer Papua New Guinea

That would actually be bretty hilarious to watch tbqh

you are really retarded if you aren't trolling m9

This.

Or any other country as disorganized and lacking in firearms.

You do know that the Swiss Guard are armed with MP5s and shit, right?

>romans wouldn't update their military with the changing times even though they were notorious for doing so
Retard alert

salvation army

PNG tribalniggas have steel pipe muskets.

>roman army goes onto the field once in the modern day

Sure, I guess the five people left would update their tactics.

Ireland

I think you're underestimate the tactics and discipline of your average Roman legion. If they were going up against a powerful modern army, sure, but if they were up against a bunch of bumfucks in the middle of Uganda they could wage a serious guerilla war. People seem to be under the impression that the Roman army only ever fought in huge formations and against pathetic foes. For centuries the Roman army ambushed and raided its enemies.

They didn't consider that real warfare, though. Romans jacked off to setpiece battles.

Germany

Does the modern general not do exactly the same thing? Even now military academies are still needlessly obsessed with decisive pitched battles where the enemy is crushed in a single Clausewitzian decisive victory.

Roman authors still talk about minor skirmishes sometimes. There's a section in Ammianus where he discusses a group of Roman soldiers ambushing a group of barbarian tribesmen as they strip off to wash themselves in a stream. There's a lot of incidents in Tacitus' works where individual units fight.

Romans could beat the US army if they caught them off guard. Imagine a band of US Marines, walking down a street in Rome, lead by a Roman guide. The soldiers laugh at how incredible it is that real life Romans, an entire cohort suddenly appeared, marching down the Appian Way like they'd popped out for a stroll, only to return 100 years later.
Their commander turns back to tell his men to shape up, they're on important business, even if it's just ensuring the Romans don't try anything funny. In that brief moment, the guide slips away. The Marines are confused, then they see the Romans pushing conveniently parked Fiats to block their path ahead. That's when the first explosive amphora lands in their midst, blasting shrapnel into exposed skin and setting men on fire. A cry rises up from behind them and Roman legionaries rush into the fray, cutting down Marines with their sharp gladiuses. They try to use their guns, but the Romans close the gap too quickly, their kevlar armor useless against well-placed stabs. Within five minutes the Marines are dead, their commander captured. Trumpets bellow and a Centurion stands atop the barricade "ROME HAS CONQUERED"

One more victory like that...

>LMAO ITUHLEEE WEEK ARMY HAHAHAHAHAHHA

youtube.com/watch?v=chPRYXS0YZI

When was the last time Italy won a battle?

and then a 2000lb MOAB is dropoed from the sky by an F22 and wipes out the entire cohort.

High density HE barrages devistate roman lines as APCs and tank crews gun down the survivors.

US marines and army infantry begin COIN and MOUT operations in Roma, sweeping up any and all resistance.


what a glorious sight

Even if the Romans did get their hands on weapons, they've still got a huge disadvantage compared to your standard AK-toting nig.

Romans would be dropping like flies from African diseases, they wouldn't be able to communicate with any of the locals in order to acquire supplies (ammunition in particular, gasoline if they acquired any vehicles, and if they didn't that's another disadvantage), they'd have no idea how to properly maintain a firearm, they'd have to reinvent the wheel in terms of how to fight using guns when literally all their training is built around disciplined formation fighting, etc. They wouldn't be able to reinforce very easily (part of what the Romans did well was being able to drag out a fight), and they'd need to adapt FAST which they weren't good at doing, it often took them plenty of fuckups before they learned from their mistakes.

Getting dropped into modern Africa basically negates every aspect that made a Roman legion effective to practically nil. All you're doing is fellating "MUH GENIUS ROMANS CAN'T LOSE!" in the face of any sort of rationality. There were fucking contemporaries they struggled with. Hell, the Germans were the sub-saharan Africans of Europe and they fucked up against them.

Iceland

I've seen Sealand with my own eyes, from a few miles away. It really doesn't have much going for it.

I could grab a few guys from my local farmer's market, give them ARs (hell, any semi-auto rifle will do) and then proceed to kick the shit out of a bunch (what I assume to be) early Imperial Romans. Why? Because Joe Schmoe off the street understands the basic concept of modern combat (shoot the other guy, try not to get shot) while the Romans not only lack that understanding, but have antiquated ideas that would hinder them.

Isn't this the premise of a movie coming out? An entire us army fob is somehow transported into ancient Rome, heli assaults on the senate ensue?

Is there a modern army that doesn't use guns?

Italian civil war

Yea but theyre so small the Romans would only need to send in more men until they run out of bullets

Romans didn't invent Pilums or the Gladius. They took them from people's they conquered. The strength of Rome wasn't their God-like scientific mastery over their enemies, it was thei ability to adapt strategies and weaponry to their own, and broker deals where they didn't have to simply kill everyone who resisted them by themselves.
Carthage giving you trouble? Separate into a bunch of small armies to fuck with Hannibal, then send Scipio to Africa to get their tribal allies to help you, (after he's done fucking up their powers in Spain). They had no navy at the start of the first Punic War, they literally just captured a single Carthaginian ship and blatantly copied it a thousand times over. It's not unthinkable that they could overwhelm a Ugandan warehouse full of AK-47's, convince some disgruntled villages/nations to pester them to spread them thin, then capture cities they leave undefended and use them as piggy banks. They'd be delighted to know that the concept of walls and fortifications have been completely abandoned for the last century, so you can take any city you have the manpower for in a matter of days

cool your jets duce

That's not how this shit works. And for all we know, the Swiss Guard could have mortars and LMGs hidden in the Vatican.

>referring to ammunition as "bullets"
I genuinely cringe every time.

Except the average Roman wouldn't know what the basic concept of small arms is, let alone how to use and maintain them.

Don't get me started on the logistics nightmare that would be.

it's only really cringe inducing when people refer to tank or artillery rounds as bullets

>so you can take any city you have the manpower for in a matter of days

Modern urban warfare has shown this to be pretty patently false.

Why would these cities be totally unguarded? Why would the Romans be so mobile as to be able to catch one completely off guard and face no resistance?

>so you can take any city you have the manpower for in a matter of days
That's a cute idea, but no.

It's called GATE and it's an anime.

>dumbass yanke drops a bomb on the capital of italy
>starts ww3

Wouldn't the fucking Romans murdering US Marines be a bigger diplomatic issue?

Not a modern or even quasi-modern one, no.

If they rolled up on some north sentinalese though they'd probably fuck them up.

I didn't know shit about small arms or how to operate them either, until my Dad let me go shooting with him and my brother when I was like 8. Took me all of 5 minutes to learn how it worked. You really think they couldn't figure how to shoot? It's not that difficult, especially something like an AK-47. Do you imagine 5 high-ranking members of a legion that have made careers out of conquest sitting around a handgun for weeks on end trying to figure out how Jamaryius Fuqwaan made a bullet come out of the hole? None of them would think to pull the trigger back?
No, they'd see someone shoot one, kill him, and hold the gun like he was. Guns are ergonomically designed, and you kinda just naturally have your finger on it around the trigger. They'd find out how to shoot, experiment with it, and rather quickly learn how to operate it.
And that's the only advantage a place like Somalia would have. They have no concept of how to carry out warfare, how to organize troops, they don't have disciplined forces. If they did actually manage to organize into armies, the Romans would literally put their mobility and combat engineering to shame.

these

He said army, not country

The Romans would gain entry as they would be mistaken for costumed entertainers. Those niggas are all over Rome.

>the Romans close the gap too quickly
There is no gap to be closed. Assault rifles and carbines are as deadly at 10 ft away as they are at 2. They are not rifles that require a large space to use.

the million mozarts walking around vienna are more obnoxious

You know those centurion tour guides walking around the Colosseum, posing for people who want to photograph them? I've always been suspicious of what they're doing when nobody is watching them...

Plot twist: They're secretly real Romans, gathering in the shadows of plain sight to coordinate their mischief.

No, a single obsolete BTR would curbstomp the best trained legion.

What's a BTR? Fucking acronyms, mans.

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>modern urban warfare has shown this to be pretty patently false
How many times has Germany occupied the majority of Eastern Europe in the last century? Did they not occupy France in a matter of weeks in WW2? Are you and I living in parallel universes where cities haven't been occupied in modern times?
Desert Storm? The 2nd Gulf War? Did America not crush military resistance like you or I would crush a gerbil?
A lot of countries would leave shit undefended if they were being invaded, they've never had to deal with an actual organized military. You tell me, how would Ethiopia besiege Rome? Send the 2 guys in the country without AIDS in with rusted 1911's and hope the Romans all bow at their feet? So many countries today are in shocking poverty and don't really have a military or anyone fighting over them in the first place. Are you seriously suggesting that Ethiopia is currently equipped to deal with one of the largest empires that have ever existed? Because they exist at the same time as firearms?

Thank you.

Why are r*mans so bloodthirsty?

Except you grew up in a post firearm world. Early Imperial Romans lived with a completely different paradigm, so trigger=bullets isn't even a concept.

And furthermore, I'd like to see what Romans would do against a technical. An LMG on the back of a truck would kill the shit out of them. Which really just points out the fact that Romans don't have trucks, or a vague idea of how to operate them.

And the next motherfucker to say AK-47 is officially Satan. Nobody uses them anymore, it's all AK-74s and AKMs.

>implying every army in the world today has them
That machine is literally worth more than the GDP of a lot of countries, and even then you're wrong.

Not him but yes i would suggest that. Weapons technology is ridiculously more advanced than in roman times. I don't think you realize how much more advanced.

I could beat the Roman Empire.

With the power dance and song~

power of*

>That machine is literally worth more than the GDP of a lot of countries

Not really no.

But if you'd prefer how about an old ass sherman M4A3 (105) and tons of HE?

...

Did you actually read the OP? Nobody is saying Rome could conquer Russia. The question is: is there an army Rome could beat.
At its height, Roman military had 380,000 soldiers. There are countries that don't have that many rounds of ammo at their disposal.

I don't think you realize how poor some armies are.

I do i just realize the rustiest AK is just SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better than a shield and gladius its not even a contest. Not to mention the most rudimentary of armored vehicles.

Not. Every. Army. Has. These. Things. This is Rome under Trajan.

I DON'T THINK YOU REALIZE HOW MUCH OF A HUGE FUCKING FORCE MULTIPLIER FIREARMS ARE

ONE GUY WITH AN AK AND 9 MAGAZINES IS EFFECTIVELY WORTH 100 ANCIENT ERA SOLDIERS. I DON'T CARE IF THE BASTARD CAN'T EVEN SHOOT STRAIGHT

FIREARMS ARE FUCKING *RIDICULOUS.*

But you don't need to kill everybody to beat an army. You just need to kill enough to cause the enemy to retreat. And you can bet your ass that Romans would get the hell out of Dodge once enough of their friends get mowed down by the magic death sticks.

That's not even bringing stuff like mortars, RPGs and hand grenades into the mix (all of which are easily within the reach of 3rd world militia), let alone tanks.

This is Gambia.

...

And here's Rome. They don't have enough fuckig people to occupy Rome, even if they kill the entire military without a single fucking casualty

Thats a kids movie

Find me an army that can't scrounge up any fucking firearms or a few trucks. I don't think a state on earth exists that can't, and even if they couldn't they'd have militants in their country who could.

The question was if ther was an army today the ancient romans could beat. Not if there was an army today that could not conquer the whole of the roman empire.

What's your point though? OP asked if there's a modern army Rome could beat, not if 3rd worlders could occupy the Roman Empire.

>comparing Star Wars to IRL
????

The military of Gambia has 100 people, and 1 million USD in military expenditures. Rome has 380,000 soldiers. An AK-47 costs $534, so Gambia has $464,000 left to spend on ammunition and food if their soldiers are all armed with one. So every Gambian soldier needs to kill 380 people with a budget of $464 to go across the 2.5 million sq miles the Roman Empire spans.
Also, each Gambian soldier needs to be able to control 2,500 square miles of territory by himself.

Gambia has 1000, not 100.

can't tell if this is a joke or not.

And honestly I'd still give gambia better odds.

That's assuming Gambia didn't get their weapons from a 1st world benefactor decades ago.

>AK-47
>implying it's not a mix of AKMs and - 74s

In a hypothetical scenario where the ENTIRE ROMAN MILITARY from Britain to Egypt in Trajan's time ALL teleported to Africa and attacked Gambia's army all at once, I think you're right. 1,000 guys against approximately 450,000 isn't going to go well even if the Roman army was composed entirely of naked pygmies.

Now, if the Romans had to gather that army and march it down to Gambia, then we're talking. I bet you most of it would be dead before they got there, the rest would be hungry or exhausted, their empire would be crumbling because they left it entirely undefended, they'd probably be completely overextended in terms of supply, they'd probably be on the verge of mutiny, etc.

>An AK-47 costs $534
In their neck of the woods it would probably be more like $40. Not everywhere is gunbroker.

>he thinks Gambians buy their guns for American prices

To add to these he's not accounting for buying in bulk, which would obviously be cheaper.

Also worth noting from wikipedia:

" It now has several armoured cars (two of which are based at State House) and heavier caliber vehicle-mounted weapons."

Those alone would be a doozie for Romans.

>just now grasping that this is indeed a hypothetical
Yes, that's what the entire thread is about. A hypothetical situation of any army of the modern day vs that of Rome.
>implying the Roman military was incapable of invading faraway lands
>implying the question was "could Rome have fought off all its enemies in addition to a modern army"
>implying Gambia is even the worst example I could've chosen
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Antigua_and_Barbuda_Defence_Force
The army of Antigua and Barbuda Defense Force boasts 170 members, with 75 in reserve. The point being that many sovereign states don't even have an actual military with which to fight or resist foreign powers.

>many sovereign states don't even have an actual military
So they are not part of a discussion concerning modern armies.

>Yes, that's what the entire thread is about. A hypothetical situation of any army of the modern day vs that of Rome.

Don't be fucking obtuse, we all know it's a hypothetical, the rules of the hypothetical says nothing about Romans fucking teleporting down there.

>implying the Roman military was incapable of invading faraway lands

There's "invading faraway lands" and there's "getting 450,000 men from every corner of your empire and marching them across a desert then through tropical rainforest". Attrition was a problem invading fucking Persia.

But yeah if we're going to take "The Roman military at its height teleported into some podunk island state's coast guard" then no shit.

No. They most certainly are. When I said "actual militaries" I meant "militaries that compose any sort of meaningful threat".

95 men with machine guns in well defensed positions could fuck the roman legions up the ass. They would have to human wave the positions which is a tactic the Romans never used historically and would essentially have to improv. All of their iron age tactics would be useless against any sort of modern battalion: do you really think lining up like a tortoise is going to save you from raining hot lead?

It's a pointless question. No army can gain success flung 2000 years into the future.