Doing a bit of reading in Malory, in response to your complaint about the Roman campaign not stretching out long enough. The problem is, I believe, that you severely misjudged the marching speed of a medieval army.
I'm bearing in mind that your declared intent is to come pretty close to a 1:1 realtime retelling of the Arthurian legend, and therefore dates of events appearing in the strip are pretty close to dates, time of year, etc. in the legend as it unfolds.
Working backwards:
Sept. 24 - Milan pledges fealty to Arthur.
Sept. 17 - Arthur receives the surrender of Florence, Tuscany, after which he marches to and takes Urbino (Turin?), after which he marchee to Milan, arriving on the 24th. Marching distance approx. 350 miles.
Sept. 9 - Arthur arrives at Florence.
Sept. 6 - Surviving Senators sent back to Rome with (in Malory) the bodies of Lucius and the other fallen subject kings of Rome, after which Arthur marches from central France into Lorraine, then northward to Flanders, then south through the Ruhr and up the Rhine, presumably down the Rhone, and thence into Lombardy (northwest Italy), past Genoa and into Tuscany, arriving at an unnamed city (I'm guessing Florence, based on 'King Florence' in Malory) on Sept. 9. At worst that's covering between 800 and 1100 miles in, er, -three days.- Ground forces with modern mechanized transport would have trouble doing that well.
Sept. 4 - Death of Lucius.
Sept. 2 - Beginning of battle with Lucius. Now, -if- we say the battle took place on Sept. 2 and hold to Sept. 24 for the surrender of Milan, and if we omit the time it would have taken to bury dead, beseige Florence and Urbino, and other by-the-wayside events in favor of straight marching, that's 22 marching days to cover a combined distance of between 1200 and 1500 miles- that's between 54 and 68 miles per day.
Highly trained and disciplined cavalry of the 19th Century could make regular marches of up to 40 miles a day- not much more- and doing it day in, day out without rest would wear horses and men out in very short order. Disciplined foot infantry could keep up a regular marching rate of twenty miles per day only on good roads, and after a couple of days straggling would be a very serious problem. Generally undisciplined medieval armies could manage only ten to fifteen miles per day.
Now to work backwards from Malory's numbers, the Senate comes to Arthur in the Vale of Viscount (not in my atlas, so I'll refer to Viturbe, which is just north of Rome) and offers him the Empire, requesting six weeks to summon all the remaining Roman nobles to pay fealty on Christmas. Malory says they came on a Saturday, and presuming Christmas was six weeks to the day that would make the final surrender November 13. From Sept. 2 to Nov. 13 is 72 days- allowing a daily travel rate, adding in the 300 miles from Milan to Rome, of 25 miles per day- really too much for a mixed medieval army, but quite doable if Arthur rides only with mounted knights.
Now, don't ask me how this would be applied to the Briton-Roman war in the space arc. }:-{D
Thanks for the research. I may work it into a strip.
See, my concern is more that there aren't hardly any more plot developments between now and the crowning with which to justify prolonging the storyline much more, even if not prolonging it is unrealistic. Also, according to AKOTAS' grand plan, Arthur's force has to get home after the crowning soon enough for Lancelot to spend enough time at Camelot to realize he's miserable and leave again, to have the adventures in Malory's "Book of Sir Lancelot", before next May. And if you read the text bits on the site you'll know how I feel about historical - or perhaps in this case geographical - accuracy versus the needs of the story.
We'll see. Then we'll know. But thanks for your effort!
That shouldn't be a problem, I think. Allowing a week for the mass packing of the treasure and baggage of his army, Arthur's sea voyage (presuming historical sailing times and fair winds) would land him in Sandwich by early February... and it won't take much of any time -at all- for Lancelot to get depressed.
And I know you're not overly concerned about realism, but consider: according to Mallory, Arthur marched from the battlefield north to the North Sea, then down the old frontier of the Roman Empire (or down the heart of Charlemagne's future empire- take your pick), down into Tuscany, then back NORTH again to Urbino and Milan, then south yet again through Tuscany to Rome. We know of the Tuscany campaign, the ambush at Urbino, the surrender of Milan, and the harrying of northern and central Italy as Arthur tried to bring the Senate to surrender.
Now, unless you're just going to say that Kay kept holding the map upside down, that's a lot of potential plot hooks.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2006-09-28 04:05 am (UTC)I'm bearing in mind that your declared intent is to come pretty close to a 1:1 realtime retelling of the Arthurian legend, and therefore dates of events appearing in the strip are pretty close to dates, time of year, etc. in the legend as it unfolds.
Working backwards:
Sept. 24 - Milan pledges fealty to Arthur.
Sept. 17 - Arthur receives the surrender of Florence, Tuscany, after which he marches to and takes Urbino (Turin?), after which he marchee to Milan, arriving on the 24th. Marching distance approx. 350 miles.
Sept. 9 - Arthur arrives at Florence.
Sept. 6 - Surviving Senators sent back to Rome with (in Malory) the bodies of Lucius and the other fallen subject kings of Rome, after which Arthur marches from central France into Lorraine, then northward to Flanders, then south through the Ruhr and up the Rhine, presumably down the Rhone, and thence into Lombardy (northwest Italy), past Genoa and into Tuscany, arriving at an unnamed city (I'm guessing Florence, based on 'King Florence' in Malory) on Sept. 9. At worst that's covering between 800 and 1100 miles in, er, -three days.- Ground forces with modern mechanized transport would have trouble doing that well.
Sept. 4 - Death of Lucius.
Sept. 2 - Beginning of battle with Lucius. Now, -if- we say the battle took place on Sept. 2 and hold to Sept. 24 for the surrender of Milan, and if we omit the time it would have taken to bury dead, beseige Florence and Urbino, and other by-the-wayside events in favor of straight marching, that's 22 marching days to cover a combined distance of between 1200 and 1500 miles- that's between 54 and 68 miles per day.
Highly trained and disciplined cavalry of the 19th Century could make regular marches of up to 40 miles a day- not much more- and doing it day in, day out without rest would wear horses and men out in very short order. Disciplined foot infantry could keep up a regular marching rate of twenty miles per day only on good roads, and after a couple of days straggling would be a very serious problem. Generally undisciplined medieval armies could manage only ten to fifteen miles per day.
Now to work backwards from Malory's numbers, the Senate comes to Arthur in the Vale of Viscount (not in my atlas, so I'll refer to Viturbe, which is just north of Rome) and offers him the Empire, requesting six weeks to summon all the remaining Roman nobles to pay fealty on Christmas. Malory says they came on a Saturday, and presuming Christmas was six weeks to the day that would make the final surrender November 13. From Sept. 2 to Nov. 13 is 72 days- allowing a daily travel rate, adding in the 300 miles from Milan to Rome, of 25 miles per day- really too much for a mixed medieval army, but quite doable if Arthur rides only with mounted knights.
Now, don't ask me how this would be applied to the Briton-Roman war in the space arc. }:-{D
no subject
Date: 2006-09-28 11:08 am (UTC)Thanks for the research. I may work it into a strip.
See, my concern is more that there aren't hardly any more plot developments between now and the crowning with which to justify prolonging the storyline much more, even if not prolonging it is unrealistic. Also, according to AKOTAS' grand plan, Arthur's force has to get home after the crowning soon enough for Lancelot to spend enough time at Camelot to realize he's miserable and leave again, to have the adventures in Malory's "Book of Sir Lancelot", before next May. And if you read the text bits on the site you'll know how I feel about historical - or perhaps in this case geographical - accuracy versus the needs of the story.
We'll see. Then we'll know. But thanks for your effort!
no subject
Date: 2006-09-28 02:41 pm (UTC)And I know you're not overly concerned about realism, but consider: according to Mallory, Arthur marched from the battlefield north to the North Sea, then down the old frontier of the Roman Empire (or down the heart of Charlemagne's future empire- take your pick), down into Tuscany, then back NORTH again to Urbino and Milan, then south yet again through Tuscany to Rome. We know of the Tuscany campaign, the ambush at Urbino, the surrender of Milan, and the harrying of northern and central Italy as Arthur tried to bring the Senate to surrender.
Now, unless you're just going to say that Kay kept holding the map upside down, that's a lot of potential plot hooks.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-28 09:03 am (UTC)