How did Rome defend its empire? ⚔️ Ancient History DOCUMENTARY
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- čas přidán 28. 04. 2022
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🚩 In this video we analyze the 3 defensive strategies the Roman Empire deployed from c.27BC to 350 AD, as described in Edward Luttwak's book 'The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire'.
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🚩 This video was made in collaboration with Strategy Stuff / @strategystuff Check out their channel and give them the credit that they deserve.
📢 Narrated by David McCallion
🎵 Music:
EpidemicSound
Sources:
Luttwak E., The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire (Johns Hopkins, 1979)
#rome #documentary #historymarche
🚩 Build isometric cities across a vast empire map! Play Romans: Age of Caesar for FREE playromans.com/?
🚩 In this video we analyze the 3 defensive strategies the Roman Empire deployed from c.27BC to 350 AD, as described in Edward Luttwak's book 'The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire'.
🚩 This video was made in collaboration with Strategy Stuff czcams.com/channels/Jn_zQa80o1l8FgAfVofHRQ.html Check out their channel and give them the credit that they deserve.
I love your channel.
I have his book!
Great channel, but that game is total garbage.
The game is a crappy mobile version of Caesar III. Hard pass.
Love this video but i love you 2 punic war when u gonna make another 1 i cannot wait!!! ?
I find it endlessly fascinating how many Roman camps, on several continents, are major metropolitan cities in the modern world.
Actually no they would be considered towns
@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl You consider London & Paris towns?
The Roman legacy is truly remarkable.
@@ajstevens1652 it's breathtaking
Always worth remembering that almost everything in Western society comes from something that the Romans did.
I need this guy to do my eulogy at my funeral. He’d make me sound like I was the second coming of Caesar
Don't you mean the second going of Caesar?
@@cp0151 et tu brute
@@cp0151 Et tu,Brutus?😏
"Strategy divorced from political realities are ineffective at best and disingenuous at worst", what a brilliant, simple, and strong statement. Relevant to date.
I was hoping that Strategy Stuff would also cover Luttwak's book on the Byzantine Empire, but at least his work is now reaching a wider audience.
I watched Strategy Stuffs video of the same topic a few days ago. Did this channel uses the same writer?
Yep we work together with Strategy Stuff on remaking old and making new videos, such as Heraclius. We completed one more new topic, but that one will be included in the Hannibal series - no spoilers :) - and we have 3 more videos coming within the next month. Definitely check out Strategy Stuff videos, they're awesome.
Luttwak's work is awfully out of date and not generally accepted by most. The Roman army was not defensive in nature, it was the means by which the emperor held onto power. The later Romans spent more time fighting Romans than defending against outsiders, or even trying to conquer foreigners.
The barbarian incursions were simply a symptom of Rome's downfall, not it's cause. Rome inflicted too many wounds upon itself. Too many instances of Romans killing Romans, and many other strategic blunders. Adrianople was avoidable with a little diplomacy but Roman hubris created a terminal cancer.
Correct. Up until about the middle Republic for example, despite being smaller with less population was much more durable and wouldve shrugged off losses like Teuteborg forest and Adrianople like nothing. It was largely due to the civic minded and patriotic population whos citizens generally placed the good of the state above their selfish ambitions. They viewed service to Rome as a ptivilege rather than a burden. The decadent empire, switching to professional soldiers, was much more fragile and unstable. The people make up a nation, and clearly the Romans of the imperial period especially as it went on clearly was not made of the same stuff as their ancestors.
The plague....it's hard to maintain an empire when so many people die that you can't fill the army ranks and there are fewer and fewer tax payers
Barbarians also didn't try to be seen as conquerors but as feudal "protectors" of the roman population like a racketeering scheme.
Yep, thanks for that first sentence. Too many people believe that typically addressed "cause", rather symptom as you said it, nowadays. There various factors as know that were long term or had just appeared, and unfortunately, this culminated in the Western Roman Empire collapsing gradually, while the Eastern Roman Empire, though not perfect, certainly adapted to the current conditions it faced. Very interesting stuff.
Yeah, the Adrianople Disaster was avoidable but Roman Arrogance is the Radiation that cause a simple wound into a terrible skin cancer.
Your Rome content is fascinating and so clearly presented. Making me want to return to covering Rome!
@Selukia that Stilicho video was outstanding, rewatched multiple times!
Hey HD, love your channel and would be pretty sweet if you did return to a little bit of Roman content.
I think you should do more videos on the strategy/policy of various empires (e.g. Hapsburg, Ottoman, Vasas), just like this one on Rome, just to show viewers what goes into the making of this strategy making (e.g. military logistics, fortification etc) and why (e.g. acquiring defensible borders, securing trade routes) and whether fundamentally those empires were successful in their aims or not (e.g. what they wrack with the classic problem blighting most empires of 'strategic overreach').
I would love a full-length investigation of the House of Habsburg!
One of the best videos I've seen on the Roman frontier system
Also, it needs to be said, a civil war breaking out with almost every emperors death didn’t help either.
Back at it again?
Civil war keeps the army strong.
This video may be my favourite of all in the channel, for now.
Learned so much I never really considered before. Great work.
Make sure to check out Strategy Stuff's channel as well then. He did the original research for this video. czcams.com/channels/Jn_zQa80o1l8FgAfVofHRQ.html
Rome's weakness in defence was that the ruler could not trust commander's not the be ambitious and usurp power.
Armies were long standing professional forces not easily disbanded or raised as in earlier times. Augustus disbanded half the Legions at the end of the civil war sent the rest under his political clients to far flung corners of the Empire and kept a bodyguard of Pretorians and later an Auxillia of Germanics. This was the first weakness. Prior to the Tuetenburg forest disaster Rome was expanding and focused on growth not maintenence. The lowering of military numbers was to lower the power of commanders, but this lowers the ability to expand in a theater of war. Ultimately every Emperor regardles of unit composition followed the same plan. Keep a big enough force at home. Try to install your clients to command the far flung forces and dont let them get enough power, influence or ambition to march home. The less forces the commander has the weaker the boarder is.
Only recently discovered strategy stuffs amazing videos and was sad to see he hadn’t uploaded in so long but I’m glad that these recent videos have shown he’s still helping provide us with great content!
Yep we work together with Strategy Stuff on remaking old and making new videos, such as Heraclius. We completed one more new topic, but that one will be included in the Hannibal series - no spoilers :) - and we have 3 more videos coming within the next month. Definitely check out Strategy Stuff videos, they're awesome.
For a history student like me this channel is so educating well done 👍
Fantastic video keep it up your doing amazing job..
Burgundy and the burgundians would be a interesting video. They always seem to curve out that one section of France for their own. No matter the Era.
One of my favorite creators. Every new video, I'm there.
Great way to start my Friday. Thank you!
The problem was, Rome expanded, but kept expanding into borders. They were ALWAYS surrounded.
Good point. They were cursed geographically.
always surrounded while the population which supported the Roman culture remained largely the same as before the expansion so every new conquest is more land and population to rule with the same amount of people supporting your state you started with.
But they had no choice. Giving up territories would mean, lowering the pool of manpower and tax payers, reducing the amount of soldiers.
At least with their expansions they tried keeping the momentum on their side and it actually worked quite well before the Sassanids in the east got on steroids and demanded so many legions, that they had to thin out the western borders.
When they changed the army structure from the classic Legions to the Comitatenses and weak Limitanei border patrols (basically halfing the amount of actual professional and well equipped soldiers), their fate was doomed because this system was already the symptom of a declining power structure.
The thing is: Immigration, i mean actual legal immigration, could have saved the Roman Empire during the time of the Legions. More tax payers, more soldeirs.
When the barbarians threatened the borders, the Romans should have tried to bribe them with their high living standards, but Roman pride and later, christian supremacy prevented this. Any Emperor who would have tried this, would end up with a knife in his back the next day. Its no secret that romans were extremely xenophobic towards "barbarians", this is also why in the conquered lands of the "barbaric" Gaul, Hispania, Britain, Germania, and Illyria huge revolts happened to due very harsh treatment.
Thats why, imho, the extreme Xenophobia is one of the major causes for Romes downfall.
Rome simply did not have enough manpower to field, supply and pay a large enough army to defend its Empire.
Augustus warned against over-expansion
It's crazy how this was only a summery of one cause to rome's downfall. One of the most interesting parts of history simply for it's complexity.
It covers such a huge time period so it's always going to be fairly complex. And given the source material is often thousands of years old it can be hard to draw accurate comparisons with our thinking to their thinking of certain issues. It's interesting all the same.
@@Madhattersinjeans yeah, for sure. A good proof of this complexity is that political forces from all over the political spectrum have for centuries claimed that just their enemies were the cause of it's downfall. Everything has some validity to it, but none is conclusive.
fantastic as always, me thinks even you are improving !
Superb stuff historymarche
Thanks HistoryMarche!
Great job, thanks for the video
Great video! Thanks :)
This was pretty well made!
There is a video already describing this (although at a less quality) that I watched yesterday. What a Coincidence.
And also mentions Luttwak
Amazing video. Love it
Not a coincidence. This video is a collaboration with the channel that made the original video.
@@monadsingleton9324 wow amazing
Excellent analysis!
The quality of this narrator cannot be overstated, I simply love him!
excellent video as ever effort and explanation very enjoyable
Great Video and cool Idea, please do more of this idea
Really enjoyed this video, very well done
Thank you very much!
Wonderful video
EXCELLENT WORK GUYS.
Why is your music always so epic 👏
Amazing video!
That was fantastic. Thank you
Nicely informative video
The quality of ur video is superb.
Thanks a lot 😊
Another great video! thanks HM
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great video, as usual.
Glad you enjoyed it Thanks a bunch for stopping by the channel.
Awesome job !! Always looking forward to seeing your videos. Keep it up. Please try to do a video about the battle of “KIRINA” detailed sources exist about it and it’s outcome gave birth to the MALI EMPIRE.
Second time through watching this. Great content.
There have been only 2 cases in which Rome faced a serious threat of getting destroyed, first in the 3rd century BC against Hannibal, then in the 5th century AD against Attila's Huns... quite impressive for the longest lived empire in history
Ottoman erasure
Read up man.
Dont forget the crisis of the third century, or heraklions restoration of the eastern provinces.
Or the komnenei restoration
I mean its more than just Huns and Atilla. Rome so much more than just those two
Roma victrix
What about the Cimbri, Teutones and Rashidun?
Ottomans were no threat to the Roman empire, Manzikert took place in the 11th century... More than 500 years after the west fell
@@lucretialiciniagaiaerikaju3204 None of them posed a threat to completely destroy the empire, Rashiduns conquered some crucial lands but thats it
Love your videos
Great video. And I have to say I'm not usually one for ads, but those old Impressions games were amazing back in the day, I actually still load them up from time to time. They're on steam if anyone wants a trip down memory lane.
Couldn't agree more! I was mid-way through primary school when Caesar 1 came out. Man that was a ton of fun! That and Championship Manager 93/94
as always, great video, more lore and roleplay for my total war 2 great campaign games :D
Wow i've recently found strategy stuff and went through their peloponnesian war vids and now a collab? as i was about to watch their video on this topic as well? What a coincidence :-D
Yep we work together with Strategy Stuff on remaking old and making new videos, such as Heraclius. We completed one more new topic, but that one will be included in the Hannibal series - no spoilers :) - and we have 3 more videos coming within the next month. Definitely check out Strategy Stuff videos, they're awesome.
Hail Ceasar! I just subscribed. These videos bring a “Pax Romana” to my very soul.
Welcome to the channel.
I like that yall are remaking strategy stuff's stuff (no pun intended) butvwith greater production values XD. Smart!
Amazing 👏 video educational masterpiece
What's difficulty for me is that Hadrian's wall had about 10 legions gardening it.
Belisarius 🤤
Well there's your problem, they were supposed to guard it, not garden it!
@@resileaf9501 "Varus, give me back my gardeners!" - Augustus
It was such a valiant attempt at an impossible task that it has been preserved by historians for millennia.
This felt like a nice summary. Now if only we'd get one about the eastern romans, since its a land out of time and place in medieval europe. Though i guess something similar aboutthe Sassanians would also be welcomed and stil, extremelly interesting
I agree
@@matandaniel1 agreed
I don't really care about the Eastern Romans any more than I would care about a future "America" where English wasn't the majority language. It's why I think the nuclear waste problem is simple, just carve some English letters and once no descendants can read it, they can dig it up for all I care.
@@alex_zetsu a bit weird to start discussing nuclear waste in a thread or comment on a video about ancient powers. Dont also really understand the american primary language referrence, but i understand a disinterest about the byzantines. Considering they are Romans. Its not like there's any lack of historical discussions, context or books for that matter about the roman empire. It's flooded western history to an oversatturaded level similar to that of ww2
@@larikauranen2159 Ok basically I'm disinterested in Byzantium. It's fine for people to be interested. I'm just giving my thoughts just like
מתן דניאל did, only mine aren't the same as his.
Obrigado pelo video
Awesome!!!!
honestly i believe the reason for the empire's fall comes down to the lack of legions. they had 30 legions for the longest period of time they suplimented them with other forces but realisticallyy they should have hired another 5 legions and used them for the sole job of expanding the territory to borders more favourable for the empire
for example the rhine border should have been abandoned and expanded straight to the oder river which ou then could use the tatra mountains alng with some well placed forts to act as choke points and prevent armies there which would only leave the danube too those same mountains as flat land whcih could be fortified its self to help defend the south as for the east there isn't really much that can be done for defence aside from adding some more fortification's as for africa it is pretty much the same problem
"Just conquer land bro lol". You do realise they literally couldn't make the territory into a profitable one, right? If the roman empire had less internal issues and held strong until the introduction of the more advanced plowing tools and what not, then sure they might have seen it as actually valuable to expand further. But conquering further into Europe would have taken tens of decades if not CENTURIES, you might not realise this but it took Rome over 30 years to conquer western England and another 20 years to conquer northern England before closing it off with a wall, now imagine conquering the rest of Europe, which is filled with rivers, vast forests, mountains, no cities or infrastructure such as roads at all, etc etc.
One of the reasons Rome managed to expand so much and actually hold on-to it all so effectively was because they conquered developed cities because that way they already had established local centres of administration in those regions. But in England and Europe their campaigns grinded to a halt because it was just tribes and a vast area of nothing. This is also why many roman legion built camps became small cities, they needed some sort of local centre of administration in order to project their power and influence.
It’s easy to say in hindsight. However, I think the Empire could have even added 10 legions and it’s demise would have been no different. Perhaps delayed. Further expansion really was not realistically feasible or even desireable. Between internal instability, rebellions and usurpations, devastating plagues, changing climate conditions driving entire peoples into conflict, incompetent Emperors and developing and more centralized adversaries I think the fall was a foregone conclusion. Could it have been delayed, yes. But perhaps also hastened had things turned out different. Hard to say. If for example during the reign of Marcus Aurelius the Antonine plague had not broken out, he might have faster and more decisively finished the Marcomannic wars. Similarly, during the Justinian restoration during the 550’s the Plague of Justinian absolutely derailed and devastated his ambitions. Another thing is good Emperors meeting their end too soon. If emperor Aurelian had lived longer and had the chance to solidify his influence things might have been different. Compared to an absolutely incompetent man child Emperor like Honorius. Sorry to ramble, I’m just trying to illustrate, lack of
“True Roman Legions” was really only a very small part of the downfall of Rome. I would even say near the bottom of the list in terms of problems
Rome faced problems by expanding too quickly and managed this huge expansion incorrectly. The annexation of Carthage, Gaul, and tons of the east so quickly caused many social issues and problems for the future.
@@wytsevenema2418 The Empire couldn't trust a huge army as the priority was the ruling imperial families survival and not the state.
Its not a matter of territory, its a matter of manpower. Rome simply needed more people. Maybe if they weren't so xenophobic, many Barbarians who fielded armies to plunder rome, could have been invited as legitimate immigrants, getting a higher lifestyle while at the same time, bolstering the Roman economy and manpower.
Great, still waiting for the next Hannibal video though 😔.
Watching this rn
Thanks Historymarche 😍😍
But we are waiting for battle of Uhud !!
excellent!
Ilove your videos
North africa was the most cozy part of the empire no threats plenty of food and great climate
Nice video, at 933 the video displays red warning lights on the map, however a more historical "alarm" would be more appropriate in the future, such as a ringing bell.
Good point
The only thing I love this channel is good presentation and understand English
Most informative historical video ...thanks ( history Marchi ) channel...history are repeating itself about all empires & imperialism colonial authoritative ( creation phases, uprisings phases, stationary phase, declined phases & gradually collapse)..
Great video😎👍🏼 ... However I thought you were gonna make a hannibal video... I thought you were gonna make a video on April for hanniball.. however April is about to end...
I'm European and sometimes i just wish the Roman Empire never disolved . Today we could have a unified Europe instead of this mess with small countries fighting each other for dominance even to this day.
The empire was mostly harmful to the economies and people that lived under it. The empire was populated by millions of slaves/serfs who lived short, miserable lives. Wars for the imperial throne took the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and devasted miles of countryside.
Smaller states better serve the needs of their people, and allow for complaints to be heard. You wouldn't want to live under Rome my man.
Then there would be no western civilization. Rome had to fall, as painful as it is to admit.
Can you make a vid about the simmilarities and also differences between Roman and Chinese diffences ?
China had a similar strategy as Rome, conquer the hinterlands to defend the heartland.
Its just China could more easily field an army larger than anything Rome could have raised and had better geography.
Basically similar powers, both were blessed with great geography, both had between 50 and 80 million inhabitants, and China could raise more numerous armies while Rome had somewhat smaller (still massive though) but exceedingly better trained and nurtured armies. What prevented Rome from fielding armies as big as Chinese was that the Romans were too weak on slavery for too long.
Next you should do on Byzantine defence system
videos about zheng he🙏🙏🙏
A video on Vercingetorix vs Caesar? 😇
Simple. Those who know, all it takes is 1 unit of Comitatensis Spears 1 unit of Legio, 1 Sagitarii and 1 cavalry unit.
Maybe they should’ve formalised a succession system in the first place…
But succession crisis is the most exciting time of the year!
They tried that a few times, but it didn't work out very well.
@@resileaf9501 remember Titus, Caligula and Nero?
wasn’t there a pattern of the Emperors by blood being horrendous and the Emperors by adoption being the most successful?
Or keep having Five-Good-Emperor eras
Wish I could go back in time too see them on the march
Allot Thanks( HistoryMarche ) Channel....For Sharing this informative Video about Rome Empire defense Systems form its Ultra powerful to intermediate Power to Decline Power which ended in separated to TWO empires ....Really its a great chosen in this occasion when Ukraine war are drawing Human Spirits ...In 1990 USSR Empire its Problem was internal Economic collapsing ..But USSR leaders were imposed by External competitive Force (NATO-USA leading ) to left its Border Territories for Russian Hidden enemies including US Conspiracies Nast ( Ukraine) against Russia . In opposite side Northern industrial Unions of USA were Created Sever American Civil wars against Separatist Southern Agricultural Unions & they were not did same Mistakes of USSR empire
Thank you for listening to your subscribers
6:55
I'll be glad to help you with refrences about sassanian millitary , arms and armors and clothing if you want
After invasion of western empire almost every one of invaders accepted Roman laws, bureaucracy and titles, very few of them (like Franks in the north) kept their old tribal systems, laws and titles (senechal, mareshal and such). What really brought western Roman empire down is depopulation and disappearance of cities (civitas, cite) which in turn killed economy (removing golden coins and replacing them with silver, even copper ones) and trade.
Very true. Economic decline preceded military disasters.
For a second it sounded like literal Romans were sponsoring the video.
Can you do one on Byzantium?
00:40 "American strategist Edward Luttwack" That guy is a nasty piece of work.
Is there a particular reason for that assumption?
@@Raphley No assumption required, he was a neocon imperialist who advocated invading and overthrowing Arab and African nations in order to steal their resources. Extensively theorised on how to prevent sovereign, post colonial nations from using their resources to help their own people, rather than feeding the US war machine
@@Raphley He was nonetheless well educated and a good scholar. His work on the grand strategy of the Romans isn't widely accepted nowadays, but was a provocative and useful study that raised alot of important questions
@@boozecruiser ah. I see. Wasn’t aware of either thing given that I never heard of the guy so yeah
Hey guys! For someone who is familiar with Roman history but not grand strategy/strategic thinking such as the concepts described in this video, could you recommend some channels/book/resources to get up to speed?
Kings and Generals.
To be fair to the very Late Roman Army (even the Western Army) even in it's last years under a good commander their armies still pulled off amazing victories and beat most of their enemies in battle. I think the Late Empire for what it was facing and had to work with did quite well. The Eastern Empire even had a time of resurgence and even took back North Africa, Italy for a time.
Instant classic
Long I've wondered if that was his natural voice or if they put it through some sort of filter or something. Can confirm they are altering his voice somehow, probably just speeding it up slightly (guesswork). Just sounds more and more robotic the longer I listen to it.
The Empire fell by it's own weight.
Plz waiting for Hannibal
Music?
What is that cheap and more effective security strategy the enemies of rome used?
The Roman’s were in a league of there own.
I like diocletian's strategy
the biggest weakness of the empire was the fact that the entire east had been left unromanized. The Byzantines were not Romans at heart, its bureaucratic apparatus was entirely Greek. It's no accident that only the Byzantine emperors of Latin origin tried in earnest to do something for the west.
Roman identity was not an ethnicity, it was fluid and flexible for literally it's entire existence. After the old Republican families had mainly died out in the 1st century, Roman identity became a solely legal status, earned through merit. Caracalla made every free man in the empire a Roman citizen, henceforth many nationalities, including Greeks, became proud of their dual identity
@@boozecruiser Many of our sources on Roman history were written in Greek by Greeks and they unmistakenly call Latin the Roman's 'patrios phone' (ancestral tongue) and they distinguish clearly between Romans and other ethnic groups, including Greeks. The same is true for our Latin sources. Justinian and Marcellinus Comes clearly understand and employ the label Roman not just politically but also ethnically.
@@boozecruiser Romans were latins who spoke latin I believe this is how they identified themselves with the culture and writings and history of the latins like cicero, sicipio etc..
The greatest weakness of the Empire was the very thing that created it in the first place. The inability to come up with a cohesive government that prevented regular civil wars with increasing frequency, which allowed external threats to destroy them.
@@Zraknul It's kind of utopian to imagine that civil wars can be avoided in such a large polity. Did China or Persia do better? People will always jockey for power and status and there's no wisdom and no trick to stop that. Besides civil wars keep the army experienced.
Why didn't Rome ever expand down the west coast of Africa? They gobbled up pretty much every other coastal area.
Expanding in to that region had no benefit and they already a handful to do with German tribes and the Parthians.
bloody good m9!
Let's gooo
Seems good 😊 on paper
Bros got that Albion online voice
*What coast knows not our blood?* -Horace
Early expansion was achieved by merciless Roman soldiers. The later German soldiers were not so.
Isn't this just a remaster of the video by Strategy Stuff, with a different voice?