Tristan Hughes

So what does Livy say now as we kind of go into that, if we imagine these armies up against each other?

It's a wagon or something.

They try some wagons.

I think you're right with the cavalry as well.

You know, that is the real kind of, you know, a part of the shock, you know, one of the big impact things of Alexander the Great's army.

I completely take your point about the infantry.

What I would say in return to that is with Pydna and Cynoscephalae, you know, the phalangites that they're facing are not the phalangites of Alexander the Great.

In the fact that I think it depends on which phalangites the Romans would have been facing.

Because within Alexander the Great's army, in this hypothetical scenario, there would have been certain troops, like the so-called the famous Silver Shields, that had fought in all of these different areas.

All of these different terrain types were probably also at times, depending on the situation, they could fight with a shorter spear and shield, not always the long pike and shield.

And they kind of adapt to the situation there through the, I don't want to say it's the jungle, but you know, the difficult terrain of the Indus River Valley and over there as well.

And even earlier in Alexander the Great's reign in Thrace, they fight in difficult terrain and they beat the Thracians on a couple of occasions there.

So, I will also say, just with the experience of the silver shields and some of the phalangites, that I don't think it's straight.

It would always be the case that the Romans, with their system, would always have the upper hand, even in more difficult terrain.

I would agree with other stuff, but I just want to put that small retort in there.

Yes.

But Pyrrhus is an interesting example, isn't it?

Because you see Roman progress so clearly there.

Battle of Heraclea at the start is, I think, pretty clear.

It is a clear victory for Pyrrhus.