After rome spent a great deal of time destroying itself through rampant corruption and civil wars, and with the backing of a large part of the Roman army and the population of the Italian peninsula, yes. The goths wouldn't have bothered trying to sack rome at its peak, it would be suicide. Plus the goths lost to belisarius, the Greek mediterannean man with his greek mediterannean troops, quite badly
>were also hired as mercenaries to guard the Byzantine walls though?
Hiring foreigners to guard you was common practice. It may have actually started here. But someone who has less of an idea how everything works, and has stepped into your city and been treated to its amenities after coming from somewhere worse, is more likely to be loyal. Plus germanic culture treated oaths very seriously. The praetorian guard was infamously disloyal because they knew the ins and outs of the system, had exorbitant power, and had personal grievances and disagreements with the emperors of Rome. The varangian guard didn't have any of that, to them, the emperor provided something they never had
Plus, anyways, none of that matters anymore. At all. It hasnt *really* mattered since people started swinging swords instead of bashing each other with rocks (rome had very few issues dealing with people larger and stronger than themselves). Wars are won with guns and movement. If you can march at pace with a ruck on your back for 30 km, coordinate with a unit, and shoot a rifle well enough, you're much more prepped for a SHTF scenario than someone who can bench 3 plates and has a 100 kg grip strength. And I've been on both sides of that too, I used to powerlift and by the time I stopped doing it I had never felt more out of shape in my life from the accumulated mass (no gear either). There's a reason that tier 1-2 operators run and swim for absurd distances while such little attention is given to their strength with the maximum necessary more or less being the ability to drag around a limp body. If we are talking military strength today? Italy would wipe the nordics off the face of the earth if they went to war for whatever reason. Even spain alone could probably take on 2 or 3 Scandinavian countries at the same time and win. Spain plus Italy would be able to wipe about every germanic country (with the exception of Germany, specifically the land army, and the UK if you count it) because they're all militarily irrelevant.
Strength is very important. But too much focus is put into it without being well-rounded. And you will cannibalize your fitness in other ways when you get to the extreme end of strength training. No southern european on earth without a genetic problem would have any issue whatsoever getting to a necessary level of physical strength.
Furthermore, I consider that Israel must be destroyed
After rome spent a great deal of time destroying itself through rampant corruption and civil wars, and with the backing of a large part of the Roman army and the population of the Italian peninsula, yes. The goths wouldn't have bothered trying to sack rome at its peak, it would be suicide. Plus the goths lost to belisarius, the Greek mediterannean man with his greek mediterannean troops, quite badly
>were also hired as mercenaries to guard the Byzantine walls though?
Hiring foreigners to guard you was common practice. It may have actually started here. But someone who has less of an idea how everything works, and has stepped into your city and been treated to its amenities after coming from somewhere worse, is more likely to be loyal. Plus germanic culture treated oaths very seriously. The praetorian guard was infamously disloyal because they knew the ins and outs of the system, had exorbitant power, and had personal grievances and disagreements with the emperors of Rome. The varangian guard didn't have any of that, to them, the emperor provided something they never had
Plus, anyways, none of that matters anymore. At all. It hasnt *really* mattered since people started swinging swords instead of bashing each other with rocks (rome had very few issues dealing with people larger and stronger than themselves). Wars are won with guns and movement. If you can march at pace with a ruck on your back for 30 km, coordinate with a unit, and shoot a rifle well enough, you're much more prepped for a SHTF scenario than someone who can bench 3 plates and has a 100 kg grip strength. And I've been on both sides of that too, I used to powerlift and by the time I stopped doing it I had never felt more out of shape in my life from the accumulated mass (no gear either). There's a reason that tier 1-2 operators run and swim for absurd distances while such little attention is given to their strength with the maximum necessary more or less being the ability to drag around a limp body. If we are talking military strength today? Italy would wipe the nordics off the face of the earth if they went to war for whatever reason. Even spain alone could probably take on 2 or 3 Scandinavian countries at the same time and win. Spain plus Italy would be able to wipe about every germanic country (with the exception of Germany, specifically the land army, and the UK if you count it) because they're all militarily irrelevant.
Strength is very important. But too much focus is put into it without being well-rounded. And you will cannibalize your fitness in other ways when you get to the extreme end of strength training. No southern european on earth without a genetic problem would have any issue whatsoever getting to a necessary level of physical strength.
Furthermore, I consider that Israel must be destroyed