How did armies get from point a to point b in the ancient world? There weren't any roads. Or maps. Like how did Romans even make it to gual. So yeah there are a bunch of guals somewhere over there keep walking through empty forests you'll find them eventually.
I don't understand. Pic unrelated.
>>897565
They had maps and roads. They walked, rode or sailed.
>>897565
>There weren't any roads. Or maps.
That pic gets me rock hard.
>>897611
Why would there be roads in gual if they were a bunch of barbarians. Furthermore how could they make maps of places they have never been to.
>>897616
Okay fine there are maps and roads in gual lets just say. What about say during Alexander's time. How did he invade Persia or Pakistan. Surely they didn't have roads or an endless supply of maps of fucking Pakistan in the ancient world.
>>897639
It doesn't take much engineering to make a dirt road. You can buy maps from locals, retard.
>>897653
>what are scouts
>>897653
You realize that a road is not entirely necessary to travel to a place, and in the absence of maps or developed infrastructure, you would use the Sun and a local guide to find the shit you wanted to fuck up.
>>897656
>buy maps
Yeah cause random illiterate peasants just have a stack of maps waiting to be sold to invading armies.
>>897565
can you please say gaul this is triggering me so hard.
you pretty much ask the locals.
maps were pretty shit if you look at roman era maps they're often hundreds of kilometers wrong on everything and only marginally useful. may tell you that there is a town alessia somewhere the middle of gaul but not how to find it.
roads existed to the extend that people traveled the same (shortest, safest) paths between nearby cities. paved roads existed after they were built.
>>897565
Swarms of scouts surrounded every army, noting the ease of traveling down different routes and any enemies they encountered.
The Romans had many gallic allies who knew the country they had lived in for generations.
>>897665
Yeah but doesn't it bother you from a strictly practical standpoint. "Yeah let's just keep marching North for weeks on end there are guals this way that we have to kill I swear."
>>897670
>le everyone before 1700 was a retard maymay
>>897687
I think anon was referring more to the "an individual during that time would not have lived or travelled anywhere over 20 miles away except for extreme circumstances".
>>897675
But what would the local even really say? March that way and you'll find them. I think a lot of people in this thread underestimate how hard it is to travel hundreds of miles with only a vague understanding of where you're actually supposed to go. No one seems to have any idea how easy it is to get lost in a forest.
>>897685
That's why I said the Sun AND a guide. You use the sun for direction and the guide provides you specific details of the area. For example Caesar used a number of Gallic guides in his conquest of Gaul to locate major Gallic settlements, and Alexander would pick up Persian guides for similar reasons.
>>897698
Your local villager would likely know the locations of local landmarks and the locations of local major settlements, which if you're conquering barbarian tribes like Caesar is all you need to know, since most tribes only had one or two major settlements, if all else fails you can always just follow a river, as it'd be very unlikely to find a settlement far from fresh water. As for getting lost, that'd be particularly unlikely for the Romans as they built roads as they marched.
>>897659
/thread
>>897653
>Surely they didn't have roads or an endless supply of maps of fucking Pakistan in the ancient world.
Actually, the Persian empire was well known for having an organized system of roads during the Achaemenid dynasty, which was the dynasty Alexander overthrew.
The Middle East already had a few thousand years of civilization under it's belt by that time, it would be surprising if there hadn't been any infrastructure built up.
>>897611
>maps
Yeah uh...
Have you seen the maps?
Romans did not think in cartographic terms. We're not even sure they COULD think in cartogrpahic terms.
Ancient people used itineraries-x is y days march from z, turn north at z and march i days to reach f. f is 300 miles away.
Ask them to place it on a map and you're going to get a very generla locaiton at best, and it will be totally inaccurate.
I've seen byzantine era maps that had Constantinople as center of the world-and that wasn't religious crap, that's just how the maps were being made.
>>897683
>swarms of scouts
Roman scouting was notoriously bad.
In fat, so was pretty much everybodies. You generally didn't know where another army was until you were about to run into it headlong.
Scouts can only ride so far, so fast, and if they're more than-at most- a few days out, they can't get back fats enough to tell you of anything important, and may not even be able to find you.
Worse, the farther out they go, the more they tire their horses, AND the more hours per day they have to forage as their very limited food supply is exhausted.
>>897698
>lost in a forest
>easy
I've BEEN lost in forests. Pick a cardianl direction and move. You'll find your way out easily enough.
If you start out trying to cross it in a specific direction, and you can keep track of the sun, you're fucking fine so long as you stop moving at night.
Hikers get lost because they're wandering around in literal circles from the start.
>>897718
>>897639
They had stone villages in Gaul dumbfucker
BARBARIAN does not mean "D&D image of a Barbarian"
Kill yourself
>>897565
There's always somebody willing to sell out their fellow man, which means not matter where you go, you can always pay one of the locals to guide you from point A to B.
