Could a Marine platoon defeat a whole Roman Legion?

This video analyzes how would a rifle platoon of modern-day US marines do against a whole Roman legion. What does each side have? What tactical options do both sides have? And how would the geography, morale or logistics influence the outcome?

Images used in the thumbnail:
3 Images of Romans and 1 of Marines, all altered works.

USMC photo by Lance Cpl. Tommy Bellegarde (US DoD, Public domain) 

Some vectors used in video from Freepik

Music by Matija Malatestinic

Subscribe to Binkov's channel for more videos!

Follow Binkov's news on Facebook!

[danelicker]

Considering the Roman legion never saw that kind of warfare before, I would suspect the sound of gunfire and explosions plus seeing their men dropping like flies rapidly and from a far distance without knowing what's killing them, they'd probably retreat. They would think they're fighting gods.

[ihavenomouthandimusttype]

Here’s how I’d get one marine to kill an entire legion.
Step 1. Surrender
Step 2. Be captured and taken to fort.
Step 3. Sneeze.
Step 4. Victoria.

[ethangarofolo]

This may be the case, but one time in Civ III, a single spearman defeated my tank, so, I don’t know.

[Reichswald]

Imagine the soliders dying after killing one of their own ancestors

[JayVincentFitness]

A movie about this would be insanely entertaining. Silly, but entertaining.

[mattis]

The romans would simply hire the marines as mercenaries

[truthpower]

Marines: It's your last chance to walk away.
Romans: Are you kidding? It's five thousand against forty-three.
Marines: It's *three thousand* against forty-three.
Romans: *How* do you figure?
Marines: Well, once we take out the leaders, which is you, we'll have to contend with one or two thousand enthusiastic wingmen. The last two thousand guys, they always run.

[seancurtis]

Being in the Marine Corps myself, I would say when we went on a mission, you grabbed as much ammo as humanly possible and you wouldn’t forget your mortars your machine guns and your squad automatic weapon when I was in, so we had probably annihilated him

[lamhkak]

When you forgot to upgrade the unit after unlocking new technologies

[Ducaso]

The Platoon is doomed when if Rome sends Biggus Dickus to command the legion.

[chrisakins]

Marines would not all just run away. There are tactics for movement that would enable Marines to sustain fire while other Marines are falling back to new positions.

[LukasJampen]

One thing you ignored was the possibilty of snipping the leaders. Roman Legion is nothing without it's officers and all Armies of the time rely heavily on orders from command.

[beanslinger]

The battle of Hoover dam: 2277 colorized

[TheDrunkenPirate]

"Could a USMC Platoon defea.." "Yes."

[aquatic]

The musket itself had changed warfare, easily defeating armies that still had blades as their main weapon. So I highly doubt Romans could have a proper fight against trained marines with automatic rifles, mortars, medical equipment, etc

[SovietHighCommand]

Roman Empire: well atleast we have naval superiority
America: *shows up with 11 nuclear powered aircraft carriers and 400 ships*
Roman Empire: fuck

[kevinthomes]

The best way for the Romans to win. Make a gun free zone sign.

[mynick]

1 smart soldier would win that fight.
Just walk up to them, empty 1 magazine killing about 20 of them and say "I am Mars, you didn't pray to me enough, this is your punishment"

[philythekid]

What about the Romans combat stress? I’m pretty sure they would be almost completely unreliable once they saw their buddies head explode from seemingly nowhere

[reapersdullahan]

You're talking about medieval soldiers against the terrifying crayon eaters? Let's put it this way folks, the Marine corp was investigated for an extensive amount of headshots and being suspected of executing enemies. Turns out that just at 100 to 200 meters Marines were just good at popping heads. Further more, they didn't take into consideration any LMGs that the marines would have taken into the fight. And finally.... you leave marines to do whatever the fuck they need to do to win a fight, they do some grunterific things. Perfect example, the M2 Stinger. You tell Marines something needs to die, it's going to die. Also, the side arm was forgotten in the combat here.