Hēraklēs
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And now they’ve gone.
But Roma, eternal city, remembers its son. Son of Venus, whose name is associated with Amor.
2070 years later.
Caesar.
Tanto nomini nullum par elogium.

Leo Caesaris@leo_caesaris
The Ides have come. Ave Caesar
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It's amazing that Louis XIV had a bunch of modeling and geospatial nerds beavering away at constructing accurate scale models of every fortress his army might have to take or defend across Europe. They're still around today, mostly in the Musée des Plans-Reliefs in Paris.⬇️
Beyond sheer appreciation of the craftsmanship involved and the fact that 40k night at Versailles was probably amazing, these models served a critical military purpose in an age before flight or even hot-air ballooning, when commanders had to rely on often-sketchy maps and a low view of the battlefield from a nearby hill or church steeple to plan out engagements. This was made worse by the fact that most fortresses of the era were designed to "sink" into the terrain so as to prevent as small of a target as possible for cannon fire - you wouldn't see the ditch and the wall until you were practically falling into it because it was entirely concealed by a protective glacis.
Looking at such a model, a commander could visualize the exact layout of a fortress with respect to the local terrain and key landmarks and thus plan out his entire scheme of saps and parallels (or anticipate the enemy's plan of siege works) ahead of time with minimal need to adjust on the ground and minimal room for nasty surprises by the enemy. This model collection was thus actually a nontrivial force multiplier for the Sun King's war machine.
As can be seen, some of these models were enormous. A French general could gather his whole staff around one to discuss and develop battle plans - and explain it quickly and easily to the King, who was not a professional soldier.




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