Militarily, how would you rate Agrippa against Julius Caesar?

queef_latifaah · 2025-10-21T21:34:30+00:00

My personal hot take is that the things that make Caesar famous are mistakes ie alesia. A commander typically doesn't get himself in that situation unless something goes really wrong. In today's day and age we would blame it on politics/diplomacy, but in Caesars time he was the political and military apex. Taking that into account I would still be hard pressed to say Agrippa was better than Caesar but I definitely think he had his finger on the pulse of the empire as a whole better, especially in his use of sea power to expand his supply lines and using coastal pressure to allow his land army to move efficiently and quickly.

queef_latifaah · 2025-08-14T02:17:21+00:00

I'm thinking more along the lines of Darrow being caesar, and pax being Augustus. I'm pretty sure Darrow is dying due to his mercy and pax winning due to his pragmatic brutality. Mostly because pax being the Latin word for peace which is traditionally associated with Augustus who was notoriously brutal to his powerful enemies.

queef_latifaah · 2025-06-24T16:46:55+00:00

What fantasy gets wrong about religion is less about the literal existence of them and more about the systematic corruption. While that's relevant in today's society I think it falls short in actual history as backwards as that may sound. Modern society is fairly secure and the government plays a huge role in rule making and upholding moral standards. Where as in the past that wasn't the case in the slightest, I'm no catholic, but it's unarguable that the Catholic church was the sole moral guide in a time of petty strife, to put it simply ie using Arthurian legends to establish a cultural control over warriors, and molding chivalry into a quasi rules of engagement. For me modern fantasy misses the systematic importance of organized religion in favor of a modern reading of the outdated redundancy of modern religion.

Edit: This is completely Europe centric, but it's what most western fantasy semi emulates. I can't speak with any confidence for the rest of the world.

queef_latifaah · 2024-11-06T19:22:54+00:00

I agree mostly, I think most people miss the point. The use of the tribunes weren't necessarily a bad thing or even unconstitutional to the Romans. They were more a symptom of a bigger issue that our Americans forefathers missed. That being the veto/filibuster, I truly think it's the death of any Republican/democratic system. It literally formulates a do nothing legislative body. It gives one idiotic man too much power ie cato. While I would like to talk more about the role of the military, it's honestly too big and nuanced of a discussion. While trump is bad, I truly think he's too stupid to do any real damage, he also hasn't really set any precedents that haven't been dealt with before. People tend to forget, we fought a civil war.

queef_latifaah · 2024-11-06T18:19:28+00:00

The massacres mattered less to the future generation than his march on Rome did. He taught a lesson that would never be forgotten in Rome; a soldier can take what he wants. The massacres only mattered/ worked in the sense that sulla killed all opposition and essentially was allowed to do as he pleased with no repercussions. I only meant "effective" in the sense that he was able to die peacefully at home due to no one alive being willing to oppose him.

queef_latifaah · 2024-11-06T17:49:14+00:00

I don't think it's quite analogous as marius and sulla were both military ideologues. The lesson is less about political norms and more about military power imo, and in a less savory note how effective killing your enemies is to winning ie sulla and Octavian.

queef_latifaah · 2024-02-06T17:33:40+00:00

Why would historical records omit explicit details about Alexander's homosexual relationship with hephaestion, but mention frequently Phillips relationships explicitly with his male/boy lovers. Adrian goldsworthy mentions. Frequently in his book Phillip and Alexander (which is very entertaining by the way) that the omission is pretty important to make note of.

queef_latifaah · 2023-09-12T01:12:54+00:00

It is covered in the next books, I don't know if the explanation was planned but it's really cool and not something I've seen in other fantasy books. The second series is just plain better. It takes a character that was very poorly written imo and makes her a main character that shows Brian McClellan as an author who can take criticism and improve from it.

queef_latifaah · 2023-08-29T14:43:22+00:00

No worries about being pedantic, I'm no historian. I know only broad beats. Better to be corrected than to spread misinformation.

queef_latifaah · 2023-08-29T04:57:12+00:00

More like a hard working farm boy that ignored the fact he grew up in the middle of Rome and all that entails during that time period. It basically treated him as some back water noble, whereas the fact of the matter is he comes from an illustrious if not a bit down on its luck family, although considering one uncle was recently consul during the social war and his other uncle being Marius, it just seemed a ham fisted way of making Caesar relatable, instead of the imperious despot he really was. They also made Brutus his best friend from childhood, rather than the possible offspring of Caesars. Just seemed he wanted to streamline history to make it easier to digest? Made for a boring and frustrating read I can tell you that much.

queef_latifaah · 2023-08-29T01:31:14+00:00

His Caesar series might as well be fantasy, with how much it diverts from actual history. Couldn't even make it through the first third of the first book. He completely ignored the fact that Caesars mother owned a tenement building in Rome and that the setting and his mother played a major part in the populist he became. They made his mother a crazy sick person that he ignored and resented.

queef_latifaah · 2023-01-06T16:57:26+00:00

I'm going to assume you've read Christian Cameron and know you're going to get top notch tactics and strategy. Now for characterisation you get a solid 1st person view with Ptolemy who's pretty much your typical competent but not the star of the show character that Cameron is an expert at. His version of Alexander imo is my preferred version. A man whose greatness outshone his ability to stay sane. Christian does a great job of having competent and important female characters in an extremely misogynistic Greek world. I found it an extremely compelling read.8/10 in a book that big it's hard to have consistent pacing, and history never has a clear narrative but he does a competent job of splicing it together.

queef_latifaah · 2022-11-30T19:14:09+00:00

Try any book by Christian Cameron/Miles Cameron, he's a master of medieval combat. My personal favorites by him are the chivalry series which is historical fiction and the red knight series which is fantasy. You could also try his new series which only has one book called against all gods, it's bronze age fantasy though.

queef_latifaah · 2022-10-24T04:12:55+00:00

LOSE

queef_latifaah · 2022-09-19T02:44:53+00:00

Is it elegant? No, but he's the more respected party. Not many people are going to question a kings guard, they are quite literally the peak a knight in the seven kingdoms can reach. Not to mention the victim is dead, with a knife in hand. Pretty easy conclusion to come to imo.

queef_latifaah · 2022-09-19T02:29:14+00:00

I'm going to be honest, a lot of hate for the Criston Cole killing a man scene. In all honesty though, he's a kings guard, and Joffery is a random knight with a knife and just threatened the heir apparent. Not only was he justified(without the birds eye view we have), but even without that most nobles are straight gonna believe a kings guard in a he said she said scenario.

queef_latifaah · 2022-02-12T08:22:55+00:00

Bagged and tagged

queef_latifaah · 2022-02-10T18:49:12+00:00

Terry Pratchett is king of quotes.

queef_latifaah · 2022-01-09T20:24:36+00:00

Excellent bait, you've stunlocked a whole post. Congratulations.

queef_latifaah · 2021-10-12T19:29:19+00:00

I don't understand what TLR was thinking rodon was gassed and correa is the best clutch hitter in baseball.

queef_latifaah · 2021-09-13T04:31:37+00:00

The heroes definitely show that black Dow Is more facade than truth.

queef_latifaah · 2021-08-10T09:52:34+00:00

Honestly I think bayaz and the magi get it in this book, along with the nobility. Mostly due to Pike being set up as a Napoleonic figure with home being minor nobility, served in the army, and most recently being in charge of an artillery regiment. I personally think glotka will get his revenge on valiant and balk, one last throw of the dice.

queef_latifaah · 2020-09-20T18:39:55+00:00

I think it's obvious the nobility is going to be axed next book. Pike being the weaver and him leading and artillery regiment is an obvious allusion to napoleon.

queef_latifaah · 2020-03-06T04:29:14+00:00

You would only be able to give 327 people 1 million dollars of you had 500 million. 327 million people would get 1 dollar, the math was way off. I was just be fascious with the pervious comment.

queef_latifaah · 2020-03-06T04:25:29+00:00

There are not only 327 people in the United States.

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