Left Handed Soldiers

[JeffF]

Did the Roman army take advantage of Left-Handed soldiers? It seems to me that these would be particularly useful in a testudo. Is it possible to even hold the shield with the left hand when manning the right hand file of a testudo?

Did the Roman army force left-handed soldiers to fight right handed?

thanks,

Jeff

[M. Demetrius]

This has been previously discussed, and while I don't remember the historical references, it's pretty well established that Roman regulars fought right handed, regardless of the hand they favored.

There is a Bible reference (nothing to do with Romans) of slingers who were left handed, I guess the advantage is that they could stand behind a man with a shield and be relatively protected while still able to deliver stones/glandes downrange.

[Epictetus]

Here's a good thread: Did the Romans fight left-handed?.

I think there are others, but my search skills are somewhat lacking this morning.

[Robert Vermaat]

C'mon guys, this is not the proper spot for this discussion. Moved.

[Marcus Velius Avitus]

What are you talking about!?!? THERE ARE NO LEFT HANDED SOLDIERS IN THE ARMY!:lol:
(A little inside joke for those of us who have served in the US Army)

[Titius_VI_Legion]

I know I have found it interesting to train with the gladius in my right hand, me being a lefty. I’m sure the Romans trained all their men one way lefty or not, but who really knows.

[Quintius Clavus]

We have to remember that left-handedness has not been viewed favorably for much of history. There are still parts of the world where it is bad luck or at least the hand you do NOT use for eating. Less than 100 years ago, here in the US, at least in some areas, parents were still trying to break their children's left-handedness; forcing them to use their right hands. I personally know of people who went through that growing up in the 1920's and 30's.
It was a demonstration of extreme fortitude and "virtus" when Romans of note (Scaevola for one? Don't have my sources handy), in Rome's early history stuck their right hands into fires, thus sacrificing the use of the proper hand for the future.
We don't know all of the things considered when a recruit presented himself for enlistment in the army. Would "handedness" be a considered? Does Vegetius address it at all?

[M. CVRIVS ALEXANDER]

I'd think being left handed is a modern concept, so we should not translate it into the past. Using the right hand would have been normal, and thus everyone would be taught to do that from childhood, including those with the natural preference for the left hand. The latter then would be ambidextrous, which could be used in one to one combat (some gladiators serve an example), perhaps in some loose formation, but not in ranks.

[Sean Manning]

I don't think we can call it a modern concept, because its a biological fact that most humans are better at different tasks with the left or right hand. For example, 5% of Inuit men and 10% of Inuit women in the early 20th century used knives left-handed (Current Anthropology, Vol. 46 No. 1 (2005) ... this study also asked people in several traditional societies whether they were right or left handed and got plausible results). On the other hand, training can overcome this natural tendency, and ancient soldiers who fought in the line probably all trained to use the shield in the left hand because anything else would disrupt the line.

I think there are some references to gladiators who could fight left-handed.

[Dan Howard]

Training can completely overcome this. I am a natural left hander and when I first started martial arts trainig I did everything left handed. The vast majority of my training involved right handed techniques and stances, and today I feel uncomfortable fighting left handed. I still do everything else left handed but when I fight it is exclusively right handed. I'm definitely not ambidextrous. I wish I spent more time training left handed so that I feel ccomfortable fighting either way.

[Forty-One]

... ancient soldiers who fought in the line probably all trained to use the shield in the left hand because anything else would disrupt the line.

Someone asked if Vegetius mentioned anything. He does, but only indirectly.
In De Re Militari Book I he says:

"It must be observed that when the soldiers engage with the javelin, the left foot should be advanced, for, by this attitude the force required to throw it is considerably increased. On the contrary, when they are close enough to use their [i]pila and swords, the right foot should be advanced, so that the body may present less aim to the enemy, and the right arm be nearer and in a more advantageous position for striking."[/i]

Earlier he also mentions that trying to cut at someone dangerously exposes the right side, possibly implying that everyone is expected to wield swords in their right hands.

I think there are some references to gladiators who could fight left-handed.

There are quite a few. An interesting article on left-handed gladiators by Kathleen Coleman is available to download here.

[Sean Manning]

Come to think of it, in the Greek tradition tactical commands use ἐπ' ἀσπίδα or ad scutum "towards shield" for "left" and ἐπὶ δόρυ or ad contum "towards spear" for "right." You see this from the Macedonian Tacticae and the Alexander historians (and possibly as far back as Xenophon?) through Maurice.

I wonder about that Vegetius quote, because art shows that Romans preferred to fight with the shield side forward, and later styles which taught sword and shield usually preferred the same. But it does support that it was normal to hold the shield in the left hand. Cp. Pietro Monte in the 16th century "defensive arms are those which are carried in the left hand for defense."

[Crispvs]

"Less than 100 years ago, here in the US, at least in some areas, parents were still trying to break their children's left-handedness; forcing them to use their right hands. I personally know of people who went through that growing up in the 1920's and 30's."


My mother was born as late as 1939 and vividly (and resentfully) remembered her pencil repeatedly being taken out of her left hand and put into her right hand when she was learning to write (which would have been some time between 1943 and 1945). My father has often put her tendency to muddle up left and right down to this.


"We don't know all of the things considered when a recruit presented himself for enlistment in the army. Would "handedness" be a considered? Does Vegetius address it at all?"


Josephus, in his description of Roman soldiers in the Jewish War, states that they wore "two swords, the one on the left being longer", suggesting the sword on the left and dagger on the right. Whatever the debate about whether these soldiers are being described from in front or behind, it nevertheless implies that all the men in a unit wore their swords on the same side.
As an interesting correlation, during the middle ages, spiral staircases in castles were normally built in a clockwise spiral, supposedly so that defenders coming down the stairs would be able to use their weapons but attackers coming up the stairs would find their right arms blocked by the staircase, suggesting that it was normal during the middle ages to be trained to fight right handed, something born out by the normal stance for jousting in tournaments, with the lance held under the right arm even though it projected on the left.

It is perhaps also worth mentioning that at many times in the past, the left has been considered bad luck, hence our modern usage of the Latin word for 'left' to indicate something bad or foreboding (sinister). I am not sure of the age of this usage, but it certainly must go back to a time when Latin was much more commonly spoken than it is today.

Crispvs

[Eduorius]

I read the other day about famous left-handed people but I have my doubts about the article. Is it true that Alexander, Julius Caesar, and Napoleon were left handed?