Rome Vs. Mesoamerican Empires
 

In keeping with a thread I found interesting, what if Rome battled the Aztec, Maya or Inca empires; who would win (consider Rome as one side and the Aztecs, Inca and Maya on the other)

Depends where they fight, I'm not much of a history buff, but I'm pretty confident Romans aren't that adept at fighting in jungles.

I agree with the above. If all military forces of both were just plonked into a flat plain, though, then I reckon Rome would win. Technology was what won it for the Spanish, and Rome is the more technological of the two.

But the mesoamericans only lost militarily because of a lack of gunpowder. The Romans didn't have that either and their forces would have been pretty equal with the mesoamericans.

Depends. Do the Romans get their Cavalry? Catapults? Ballistia's?

Knowing Rome they would clear out a section of jungle and make the locals fight in a plain made out of the jungle and let them exhaust themselves on Roman camp defenses, then go offensive and destroy them.

Also I think thsi would be similar to the Romans versus Gaul and Celts. The Aztec Jaguar warriors were in peak physical shape and were fierce warriors but I dont think they would be any match for a Roman shield wall of the big square Scutums and Centurions in armor and jabbing at them with a Gladius. Add to that the Aztech attack would be broken up by a wave of Pilums.

The Mesoamericans Empires had their own version of most Roman weapons. They weren't primitive barbarians and were more than a match for Rome. The only way Rome would have an edge is with gunpowder.

It depends on how the war would be fought, clearing European woodlands to fight the gauls was relatively easy, simply burn the trees as far back as they will go and reduce the forest to ash. The rain forest is a very different environment; first of all, it's wet, very, very, very, wet which means you're going to need to go through some serious trouble to start a decent forest fire. Then of course, there are the animals, who romans have never seen, much less dealt with before. One stops to look at a parrot and all of the sudden the entire group would be open to a jaguar attack from that tiny undefended position. Line tactics don't work in a divided landscape with trees, or any terrain with real obstructions to one's view. Cavalry are useless versus a few unleashed big cats like jaguars or leopards, and catapults requires some sort of line of sight to at least get a baring on how far the rock is meant to go, where it is meant to go, and so on, that a forest denies. Ballistas may be the only real advantage for the romans, though they would be 1 shot, or at best, 2 shot weapons as reload time would be next to nothing and you can forget about re-aiming anything bigger than a scorpion ballista.

Cortez used the tribes to fight each other and weaken the whole and then, already bloodied and potentially infected with European diseases which they had no immunities to, he wiped out the remainder. Guns were of little use other than fear with the humidity and common occurrences of wet gunpowder.

Romans were excellent at using tribes against each other or getting them to assimilate, a trait shared mainly by the southern Mesoamerican empires(aka, not the Aztecs). Romans also were good at using the terrain to their advantage, fighting on their own terms, etc. I'd have to go with the Romans, if they couldn't set the forests on fire and were not winning many of the battles, odds are they'd be able to sneak a few guys into the fields to at least raze and salt the earth.

Roman armor was excellent, especially compared to the Mesoamerican's weapon. Obsidian is damn sharp, but no match for a strong metal plate.

Exposed thighs and arms would be key targets as usual, and while you may survive a deeply wounded arm, you won't be able to fight with it, if you survive anyway, a deep enough cut in any limb will open a major artery and then you will bleed to death. Also the mesoamericans were excellent at ambush and guerrilla tactics. The sneaker, was first made from the sap of the rubber tree to create soft shoes that would hide the sound of walking on leaves to allow them to sneak up on their enemies who they then usually suffocated and/or strangled with a tightly woven bag. Obsidian, unlike steel or iron, doesn't dull, it simply gets sharped with each piece that is broken off, the only problem is running out of it, in which case they simply pick up the nearest sharp object and start whacking.

Exposed thighs and arms? The Roman shields were excellent protection, especially in a massive group, as the Romans normally fought. If the Romans got to choose where they fought, then they would win. If they were ambushed in the forest, they'd burn the forest down.