Re: My Romance Conlang

On Thu, 19 Jun 2003, Thomas R. Wier wrote:
Actually, there are historical examples of barbarians originally divided
into many small warring clans, who united and conquered large civilized
empires.  Consider the Arabs just after Muhammd, or the Mongols (and
asssorted other nomads) under Genghis Khan, so instance.
 > Quoting Peter
Bleackley <Peter.Bleackley@...>: >
> > Staving Nikhil:
> > >Hi,
> > >
> > >I am making a new Romance conlang, with a pretty tough, inflected grammar.
> > >Any suggestions for it.
> > >
> >
> > I'd like to see what would have happened if Arminius (the German leader who
> > slaughtered Varus' three lost legions in the Teutoburger Wald) had pressed
> > home his advantage and conquered Rome.
>
> I find it unlikely that he would have gotten that far.
> His advantage lay in the particular tactical layout of
> the German environs, to which the Romans were not accustomed.
> He would additionally almost certainly never been able to
> organize a large army for action *outside* Germania because
> Germania was divided into tens if not hundreds of
> tribelets, each of which was narrowly concerned about its
> territory alone.
>
> ==========================================================================
> Thomas Wier            "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
> Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
> University of Chicago   half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
> 1010 E. 59th Street     Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
> Chicago, IL 60637
>

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