100 Things + Thing 001

[queerlyobscure]

Comments

[lady_bracknell]

This approach would have saved a lot of bother in Avatar.

[queerlyobscure]

Indeed. I think 'when in doubt, build a wall' is probably a pretty good life-rule, especially when you're invading.

[roh_wyn]

It does beg the question whether it might have been easier to invade Scotland and kill off the blue people (something Rome was very good at usually) than expend limited resources on a bleedin' wall in a part of the empire so remote most Romans couldn't find it on a map. :)

[queerlyobscure]

You know what would have been even easier still? Paying them. It's not as if the Scots weren't prone to doing mercenary work.

Hadrian's wall is such a strange thing. It's a wall in the middle of a field, on the other side of which is practically uninhabitable (for a Mediterranean constitution, anyway) territory full of people who just don't want to be invaded, which is easily solved by not invading completely useless-to-you territory.

But I'm guessing there was a Carthage-related lesson at play here. Which is to say, Rome had learned what it was like to have their arses handed to them and figured that walls were a better option.

[roh_wyn]

You know what would have been even easier still? Paying them. It's not as if the Scots weren't prone to doing mercenary work.

Yeah, but mercenaries are notoriously unreliable, and killing them is a single-time thing, but with paying them, you have to have a whole regimented system in place. ;)

(I'm only kidding, of course. Walls are a time-honored way of keeping out undesirables. Just ask China, lol).

[mistyzeo]

If we just put the wall here, and don't make eye contact, maybe this'll work.

[queerlyobscure]

Obviously if you just wall the scary barbarian people out it will be fine. That plan worked so well in China, too!

[apple_pathways]

Hadrian's wall is just one of those things, innit? Makes me just wonder, "Oh God, why did they bother?!"

/deep thoughts about history

[queerlyobscure]

I am personally fond of the image of some poor Legate standing there, staring up at a horde of naked blue people and going 'fuck this, I'm building a wall. We'll name it after the Emperor and everything will be fine.'

[ctquill]

When you put it that way, it makes perfect sense. :)

[queerlyobscure]

That is naturally my aim in life :D