Battle Index

[M. Porcius Cato]

After catching some errors in the Roman Battle Index (e.g., the battle of the "Claudine Forks"), I started to do a revised index for the republican era, with more information (e.g., references to sources). What's the key information you'd like to see? I was thinking: Year of Battle, War/Name of Battle, Place of Battle, Combatants (Winning Commander/Tribe, Losing Commander/Tribe), Sources.

[G-Manicus]

MPC:

 

[pie in the sky mode]Don't know if it's feasible, but I'm always interested to know the size of the opposing forces as well as casualty statistics. Perhaps a "comments" field where any historical footnotes could be included? [/pie in the sky mode]

 

G

 

("Pie in the sky mode" ... not to be confused with "Pie ala mode")

[Gaius Paulinus Maximus]

Great idea MPC.

 

Maybe where possible you could include a description of the battlefield, i.e. open plain, desert, shrub land, mountainous etc. I know it's probably a bit much but if we had this sort of info then it would certainly help to visualise the battle a bit more.

[Primus Pilus]

Great idea MPC.

 

Maybe where possible you could include a description of the battlefield, i.e. open plain, desert, shrub land, mountainous etc. I know it's probably a bit much but if we had this sort of info then it would certainly help to visualise the battle a bit more.

 

I think the most effective way to do this is to simply make new pages for each battle. I'd like the "list" to simply list the date and the battles. When someone clicks the link, it could be a page with a short description and/or the details such as who, what & where.

[G-Manicus]

I think the most effective way to do this is to simply make new pages for each battle. I'd like the "list" to simply list the date and the battles. When someone clicks the link, it could be a page with a short description and/or the details such as who, what & where.

Ooooo .... that would be very, very cool.

[M. Porcius Cato]

Great idea MPC.

 

Maybe where possible you could include a description of the battlefield, i.e. open plain, desert, shrub land, mountainous etc. I know it's probably a bit much but if we had this sort of info then it would certainly help to visualise the battle a bit more.

 

I think the most effective way to do this is to simply make new pages for each battle. I'd like the "list" to simply list the date and the battles. When someone clicks the link, it could be a page with a short description and/or the details such as who, what & where.

 

That's possible.

[Primus Pilus]

Great idea MPC.

 

Maybe where possible you could include a description of the battlefield, i.e. open plain, desert, shrub land, mountainous etc. I know it's probably a bit much but if we had this sort of info then it would certainly help to visualise the battle a bit more.

 

I think the most effective way to do this is to simply make new pages for each battle. I'd like the "list" to simply list the date and the battles. When someone clicks the link, it could be a page with a short description and/or the details such as who, what & where.

 

That's possible.

 

Have you started anything, MPC. I'd be glad to work on an overhaul, I just don't want either of us to waste effort working on the same thing. Perhaps a split is in order?

[M. Porcius Cato]

Have you started anything, MPC. I'd be glad to work on an overhaul, I just don't want either of us to waste effort working on the same thing. Perhaps a split is in order?

 

Sounds good. I wasn't looking forward to the battles during the principate anyway--I get vertigo when the numbers start going the wrong way (44 should come AFTER 70!). Haven't started anything serious yet, but I thought I'd plunge into the early republic and sort out the battles of the Samnite War.

[ASCLEPIADES]

What's the key information you'd like to see? ..., Sources.

The emphasis is mine.

[Primus Pilus]

What's the key information you'd like to see? ..., Sources.

The emphasis is mine.

 

Definitely, I was thinking in a similar fashion to the law index.

[M. Porcius Cato]

What's the key information you'd like to see? ..., Sources.

The emphasis is mine.

Definitely, I was thinking in a similar fashion to the law index.

 

Absolutely--sources are the most important part of this exercise. I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't find ourselves excising some of the battles on the list due to lack of source material.

[M. Porcius Cato]

I think the most effective way to do this is to simply make new pages for each battle. I'd like the "list" to simply list the date and the battles. When someone clicks the link, it could be a page with a short description and/or the details such as who, what & where.

 

If each page gets its own battle, will there need to be separate pages for the battles of each century? Seem like all the battle pages could be linked to the Battle Index page, which features a table where the columns correspond to centuries and the rows correspond to chronologically-organized battles. That might be too ambitious though.

[Bryaxis Hecatee]

Not especially too ambitious in fact. It is even rather easy to do technically, especially if the way to introduce a battle is a file entry through a specific interface : the battle index would simply become a php page where the various battles self organize on the basis of the dates encoded. If need be I'm available for this technical part. Another advantage of this solution would be that such a solutions allows a fully searchable table in which someone might look for all entries by date, location name ( in ancient greek, ancient latine, french, english, other modern language or whatever we want ), leaders, sources, ... One might even imagine a interactive map for it would not be very hard technically and would please many users I think.