um yeah big difference about 1000-1500 men.

a infantry battalion is basically a 1000-1200 men

it consists of 4 companies of men, each company is usually 4 platoons, now that is just combat forces, plus hq staff duty.

platoon=40-50 men on avg then it breaks down into squads lead by nco's.

 

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The vehicles and aircraft would not be of great use compared to personal firearms, anyways.

I'm not sure how many runs you can make but it seems you'd run out of fuel/ammo without making too much of a dent. The path to victory would be with carefully placed rifle rounds.

Maybe save the vehicles for when/if you get the Romans on their heels and bunkered down. Or to cover a retreat or something of course.

 

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Half of the Marines would end up killing each other. Another sizable portion of them would die from stupid crap like disease and poisoning.

The ones that were left would cooperate with whatever powerful locals they could find to support them. It wouldn't be so much of a war as a bunch of little flare ups between groups that whittled their numbers down to such an extent that the only hope of the survivors would be to find local patronage.

The most important skills the survivors would possess wouldn't be military related ones (not directly anyway), it would be math, literacy, and knowledge of sanitation and accounting.

The survivors would be scribes, not warriors.

Best way is to bunker up keep the Romans legion at range and then send in small special op commando teams at night to take out or kidnap the leadership. Rinse repeat and install your self as ruler.

Marines have night vision and silenced guns, plus there will be a handful of force recon/scout snipers in a MEU detachment.

 

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@ Ptilk: which does lend credence to your theory that the techs would be the main push of a surviving force..as your average marine infantry hasn't really had that much technical education that the locals of the time wouldn't also have. Arabic numerals and some of the basic algebra would be a watershed, but for the day to day stuff the math level the locals used was sufficient.

 

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the knowledge of basic tools like the water wheel or wind mill,hot air balloon, even how a steam engine works would jump start human tech.

imagine being able to tell da vinci hey man your on the right track with the flying machines just scale it down and use lighter materials.

 

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If the marines try an all out war and give away their presence early, Rome wins.

If the marines gain support within the Roman army and some rich influential Roman families, and use their superior technology to win battles that gain them further support as well as carrying out assassinations, they could conquer and lead Rome.

All of this really depends on the commander of the marines. It's not an easy thing to do, and it's a game Rome excels at.

 

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seeing how the question is based on time travel, well i would have to say anything would be possible.

 

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The Romans already had water wheels, windmills, hot air toys (not balloons of a size we make due to cloth problems not solved till silk came out of china) and steam engines (again, toys since the material used was bronze) they also had cogs, gears, ratchets, pulleys, lathes, Paper (tho it was ridiculously expensive and not as good as modern stuff by a long shot), glass, extruded wire, extremely low grade steel, percentage banking, and electricity (tho nothing to use it on)

I mean your average Roman wouldn't know all this stuff, but neither does your average American.

 

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I'm still sticking with disease would wipe them out.