Complicated-HorseAss t1_iy52fhv wrote on November 28, 2022 at 8:27 PM

Reply to comment by birdsneedkarmatoo in Mothers and wives of conscripts from Russian Far East to be sent to east of Ukraine by HarakenQQ

This is like the ancient days when Gallic and I think Germanic tribes would be bring their entire families to war, the wives would create a wall of carts and scream at their husbands to not retreat and give them emotional support. Against Caesar, it failed miserably, the soldiers tried to run, they were trapped by the carts and slaughtered in front of their families and then the families were enslaved. Moral the story, don't bring your family to a warzone.

SuperSpread t1_iy5nr4p wrote on November 28, 2022 at 10:50 PM

So I know of this and in most cases the entire tribe was migrating. The Romans refused the migration, even lost twice to one tribe before defeating them the third time. Their entire tribe completely abandoned their homeland due to overpopulation and pressure from other tribes. It happened again and again.

Ironically, the tribe just wanted to move into Cisalpine Gaul. They had completely wiped out the Roman army in the north and Rome assumed they were about to be destroyed, but the tribes weren't interested in that.

Hundreds of years later after the fall of the Western Roman empire the pattern resumed, with tribes migrating great distances, reaching as far as North Africa.

wurrukatte t1_iy5wyuw wrote on November 28, 2022 at 11:58 PM

Reminds me of the Cimbri and Teutons, who scared the Romans so bad, they coined the term "Teutonic fury" to describe their fear. They defeated the Romans completely twice (one of the times Rome fucked up an ambush and got themselves slaughtered), and on the third encounter, Rome finally defeated them but the women killed all their children and then themselves.

... So they showed up seemingly out of nowhere, wiped out two Roman armies, then all died or killed themselves, denying the Romans any sort of trophy or compensation for their (very considerable) trouble. And that was just two tribes.

watcher_of_the_desks t1_iy5lbfo wrote on November 28, 2022 at 10:32 PM

Lmao

POGtastic t1_iy6rwpi wrote on November 29, 2022 at 3:59 AM

This was everyone in antiquity, not just the Gauls. There's a ton of archeological evidence from Roman forts and camps of their wives and families following them, along with the fact that the #1 way for a Roman general to say "I'm being a hardass disciplinarian" was to kick as many noncombatants out of the camp as possible.

The "camp follower" was mostly done away with in the ancient before-time of the 1800s, when railroad logistics and better communications allowed the State to centralize their organization to the point where they could finally get rid of all of the women doing laundry / cooking meals / maintaining equipment while doing some hookin' and sutlering on the side.