Tell me something, if the Romans had all of that, BUT LOST ever single battle they fought in would they still be great?

The only reason they're great is because they WON. To all the spoils go the victor.

Tell me something, if the Romans had all of that, BUT LOST ever single battle they fought in would they still be great?

Of course not! If that had been the case, then the Roman Republic would never have gotten very far and the Empire would not have existed - what a strange question.

Its not a strange question; it just has an obviously blatant answer. The whole point of this thread is about what made the romans great is it not? Yes, well then i just answered your question (and my own as well).

OK, sorry. I tend to be a bit slow when I'm not feeling very rested and the training this past weekend (it was our IDT) was a bit tiring.

Apology accepted. To any obcessive complusive, perfectionist insomiacs, I know this is hard for u, but GET SOME SLEEP.

Back on topic. i donno, the romans were great for alot of reasons.

man I'm a history major, and I just took a whole class on the rise of the western civilization, from the greeks to the romans and on, and honestly, I don't think we ever discussed WHY the Romans were so good...

You know, it might be worth the time to ask your professor/instructor/teacher why that is

I more rested now thank you - can you tell?

This requires a very long answer, to make a long answer shotish, it was discipline and technology, at the beginning of the Roman Empire they had the most advanced weapons in the world, by the end the rest of the world had caught up. Their troops were very well disciplined too, and they were very heavily armed, but that was used against them by the Visigoths, they encircled the Romans and pushed their flanks together, the Romans hod no room to manuever, no room to fight, they were trying to kill the enemy but they were so close they couldn't even take a full swing or they would have caught their own troops with the tips of their sword.

I think discipline was the deciding factor, they were very well disciplined and that was something few other nations in the world had at the time, maybe the Persains and later the Huns followed by the Visigoths. I foget the name of this thing, but I think it was Cassius who after losing a series of crushing defeats to Spartacus had one in 10 men beat to death by his fellow soldiers, they now knew what would happen if they fled from battle. See, discipline.

The term i think you are looking for is decimate. 1 in 10: one tenth gets the ax, the other 9/10 get the idea...

Great training and discipline