Trajan conquered Dacia because he needed gold and silver to the fiscal mismanagement under Domitian and Nerva. Dacia conveniently had plenty of both.,
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In short YES. However Britannia and Dacia at least more denuded of their forests so easier to traverse and maintain control. Also 3 eagles lost in Germany, 1 lost in Scotland too much hassle apart from punitive raids UNLESS there is something easily exploitable which is not available in the empire. There's not much on the North German Plain except agricultural land and the empire has plenty of that and it doesn't need clearing.
So we're saying that Germany, east of the Rhine and north of the Danube at least, was much less taxable. What was the difference in material culture between central & north Germany on the one hand and say, Brittania and Dacia on the other.
Yeah, thats not going to work. Rome was still operating under Republican foreign policy at the time. Their flow chart looked something like this:
- Are there any foreigners threatening Rome?
- Attack.
- Insulting Rome?
- Attack.
- Looking at Rome the wrong way?
- Attack.
- Breathing good Roman air?
- Attack.
- Rude enough to win a battle against Rome?
- Attack.
- Are they still there?
- Attack.
- Are they really still there?
- Attack.
- Are there any Romans left alive?
- Attack.
- Seriously? We still haven't won?
- Attack.
"Occupation was horrible. The Romans burst into our...nothing, leaving behind cities, roads, and industries."
The problem with that sort of argument is that it's true right up until the point it isn't. The Germans were not wiped out after Teutoberger Wald and the Persians were not wiped out after Carrhae - the Romans were just people, not the Borg. They had other settings than "assimilate or exterminate" - it's perfectly likely they'd decide to respond to a disaster in Britannia by fortifying some of the harbours on the southern Channel coast and ensuring there was a decent fleet in the Channel. As a defensive goes it'd probably be cheaper and more rational than garrisonning a 400 mile long northward salient anyway.
Sigged.
Perhaps not as great as the average sigged post, but the best I've seen yet...
That line from who shot Liberty Valance "When the legend becomes fact print the legend" definitely applies here! Wonderful book, awful film.Sad to say, modern scholars aren't totally sure that the Ninth was lost in Northern Britannia after all - there's a theory that it was destroyed in the Middle East instead. Which annoys me because I adored The Eagle of the Ninth as a kid. Still do.
"Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant." You don't need to conduct genocide on a scale capable of shocking even Tacitus in order to build a few roads (though the roads do make genocide easier).
That line from who shot Liberty Valance "When the legend becomes fact print the legend" definitely applies here! Wonderful book, awful film.
Paradoxically if the Romans hadn't conquered Britannia perhaps Wales would be bigger. Four more centuries of warring amongst themselves might have made the Britons more resistant to the Saxons et alia!