Assignment 4- Sam Ederington

When I was young, I frequently questioned my teachers, especially on history. Of course, I was never brave enough to ask my teachers my question, but would rather do independent research on my own, to confirm my suspicions. I believed that Alexander the Great was not a particularly amazing military commander, and found out that his phalanx style army was originally designed by his father, who also was the one to conquer all of Greece in the first place.

I similarly wondered about the success of ancient Rome, however, even though I didn't vilify its great generals such as Julius Caesar and Scipio Africanus, I still decided to study why they were successful. Again, I found that earlier methodologies had been created, which they simply used and refined upon. For example, the armies of ancient Rome built great roads behind them on their conquests, and the basis for a legion had been created under the Marian reforms, just 7 years before Caesar's birth. It also taught me the military unit the century only had eighty soldiers in it. While knowledge like this isn't particularly helpful, it did get me into doing research about random topics that interest me.


198 words