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History => Ancient and Medieval History => Topic started by: Howard Fielding on December 03, 2020, 04:19:50 PM

Title: Battle of Telamon
Post by: Howard Fielding on December 03, 2020, 04:19:50 PM
Trying to sort out the Wikipedia article...

(Unfortunately I missed my chance to buy the Slingshot issue, which maybe answered my questions...)

According to the article the Celts met the Romans at Clusium (identified as Chiusi). They then withdrew almost 100km north to Faesulae (Fiesole) where they fought a defensive battle. The beaten Romans withdrew to a defensive position of their own.

Then the narrative skips ahead to where the Celts are withdrawing northwards along the coast. The site of Telamon seems to be over 150km south of Faesulae.

So, how far South did the Celts go?

When the Romans withdrew they must have gone all the way back to Clusium and beyond! A ploy while the other army was shipped from Sardinia? Very convenient for the Romans that the Celts chose to use a route along the coast. Any covering army would have had easy access to the sea and then potentially relatively quick contact with their Sardinian legions.

Of course the route was dictated by the terrain. They seem to have advanced down one set of valleys and then crossed west, to use an easy route home.

https://wego.here.com/?map=43.27647,12.20024,9,terrain (https://wego.here.com/?map=43.27647,12.20024,9,terrain)


https://mapper.acme.com/?ll=43.0167,11.95&z=11&t=T&marker0=43.0167,11.95,Clusium (https://mapper.acme.com/?ll=43.0167,11.95&z=11&t=T&marker0=43.0167,11.95,Clusium)


Title: Re: Battle of Telamon
Post by: Erpingham on December 03, 2020, 04:51:32 PM
The extensive battleday discussion is here http://soa.org.uk/sm/index.php?topic=3328.msg40919#msg40919

There is a lot of discussion of routes and geography IIRC plus some refs which you'll need for the wiki article.

BTW, the reason why this is no longer in the Battles daughter board is because there are very specific criteria for the formatting of entries there , which I didn't create but as moderator I have to uphold.  I moved this one quickly to cause minimum mess and save me accidentally deleting something (still apologising for the last time :( ).
Title: Re: Battle of Telamon
Post by: Howard Fielding on December 03, 2020, 06:00:10 PM
I did do a search for Telamon and it pulled up a person of that name. I guess I was only searching within the Battles Board, and not the whole site.
Title: Re: Battle of Telamon
Post by: Howard Fielding on December 03, 2020, 06:01:16 PM
Also found the Karwansay article, which seems much more reasonable than that written on wikipedia.
Title: Re: Battle of Telamon
Post by: Erpingham on December 03, 2020, 06:06:55 PM
Quote from: altfritz on December 03, 2020, 06:00:10 PM
I did do a search for Telamon and it pulled up a person of that name. I guess I was only searching within the Battles Board, and not the whole site.

I made exactly the same mistake when I tried to look it up, even though I know very well to start at the top and have the whole forum list in front of me.  Easy to forget.

The battleday discussion was specifically related to the battleday and Duncan's briefing for it, so isn't in the history category at all.
Title: Re: Battle of Telamon
Post by: Howard Fielding on December 03, 2020, 08:31:09 PM
Yes, and I had read it before, or portions of it, but when I couldn't locate it via my "Search Fumble" I started the new one. The discussion in the thread and the article you linked to clarify things; the wikipedia article is woefully lacking!

Funnily enough, I had figured out (i.e. blundering about) the same probably battle location as in the article, even to the extent of walking the modern highway in Street View, trying to see what the hills were like.

One of those map sites I linked to had the contour lines. The modern road is at approx 15M above sea level - IIRC - and that little hill is about 50M. The hills along the shore are taller than the line of hills opposite. IIRC some of the shoreline hills are around 450M whereas the inland hills are more 150-180M, at least the ones I noted. From Street View I thought the hills moderately steep, but whether they would be "Difficult Terrain" I don't know. Riding up and down them might tire your horses out a bit!