Salah

Okay, let's say some crazy mad scientist type-guy invents a time machine and starts playing with history. As a result, a hapless cohort of 480 Roman legionaries stationed in Second Century AD Syria find themselves stranded in southern Mexico in the 15th Century.

The legionary cohort ends up encountering a large warband of 5000 Mexican warriors. Despite their common reverence for the eagle, the respective parties end up getting off on the wrong foot, and a battle ensues...

Most of the Romans are wearing chainmail or lorica segmentata armor, as well as helmets. They carry the rectangular scutum, and each is armed with two pila, a gladius, and a pugio. It's possible that some of their number are specialist skirmishers armed with extra javelins and cotton padded armor. They are disciplined, professional soldiers led by experienced military men, and prepared to fight to the death for one another, but they are also badly outnumbered, and lost and scared in a strange land, trekking across an unfamiliar terrain.

The Aztecs are wearing nothing but padded shirts and loincloths, and have smaller, round shields. The veterans in their number are wearing quetzal feathers and garish uniforms that will undoubtedly frighten the already unnerved and superstitious legionaries. Their weapons are the atl-atl dart-thrower, and the vicious maquahuitl club-sword that can crush armor and rip limbs off of bodies. A couple hundred of them may be auxiliaries from subject peoples that will use bows as primary weapons and clubs or obsidian daggers as sidearms. The Aztecs are at home in this terrain, are famously brave and savage, and fight to appease their gods with the sacrifice of these pale-faced foreigners. They are not nearly as well disciplined as the Romans, however, and their individualistic fighting style means they are not as supportive of one another. Their weapons and fighting styles are slower and not as sophisticated, and they too may be slightly frightened by this strange new enemy.

So...do the Mexicans bring home a new batch of offerings for their hungry gods? Or does Rome win her first province in the Western Hemisphere?

tjadams

Firstly, I wouldn't call the Aztecs Mexicans, but, I see your point.
Seeing how the Aztecs, Myans etc. did combat with the Spanish conquistadors, who were armed a bit better (cross bows and guns) than the natives, and the natives did fairly well. I would give the slight edge to the Aztec one-on-one, since the Romans wouldn't have the advantage Cortes had with his native allies. Without them, Cortes would not have won.

okamido

Roma Invicta

Himanil

Considering the even worse odds Rome faced at the Battle of Walting Street against an enemy far better than the Aztecs whose use of effective armour I do very much doubt, it'd be a slaughter even worse than that of Cortes. (As Cortes would've found out if he went toe to toe with the Romans)

Salah

I called them Mexicans because they knew their Empire as the Mexica Triple Alliance.

Apparently 'Aztec' was a word other tribes used for them, and the Conquistadores picked it up, perhaps from the Texcalans.

tjadams

Interesting to know. I had only heard of the Aztec Triple Alliance.
-Thanks.

Sargon of Akkad

As outlandish as the Romans would find the Aztecs, the Aztecs would undoubtedly find the Romans equally so, as until this point, they'd never seen metal-clad men. These shiny, disciplined warriors would probably carve through the first few ranks of the Aztecs before they decided guerrilla warfare was a better way of fighting them, IMO.

Himanil

Guerrila warfare for defeating those un-organized bunch of armourless 'warriors' just begging to be slaughtered. I really don't think so, they'd slaughter 'em all head on, no sweat.

Sargon of Akkad

Sorry, I meant that to mean that the Aztecs would decide to not to fight them in a set-piece battle, not the Romans. I can see how I worded it incorrectly.

sylla1

Just for the record; you must be kidding.

The match is almost as unbalanced as the actual Spanish conquest was.

In fact, by the last days of the siege of Tenochtitlan the army of Cortes ran out of powder; their blades (and of course their thousands of native allies) were enough for successfully concluding the siege.

Now, for your match, the answer is obvious; absolute massacre of the Aztec side.