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08-18-2003, 06:20 PM

Salve, 
 
The steps mentioned in Vegetius differed in length and are not necessarily cadenced (the text at least does not specify it as such). 
 
Military music is attested in use for signalling, but not for setting any cadence: 
 
Vegetius Epitoma 2.22. 
 
Habet praeterea legio tubicines cornicines bucinatores. Tubicen ad bellum vocat milites et rursum receptui canit. Cornicines quotiens canunt, non milites sed signa ad eorum obtemperant nutum. Ergo quotiens ad aliquod opus exituri sunt soli milites, tubicines canunt, quotiens movenda sunt signa, cornicines canunt; quotiens antem pugnatur, et tubicines et cornicines pariter canunt. Classicum item appellatur quod bucinatores per cornu dicunt. Hoc insigne videtur imperii, quia classicum canitur imperatore praesente vel cum in militem capitaliter animadvertitur, quia hoc ex imperatoris legibus fieri necesse est. Sive ergo ad vigilias vel agrarias faciendas sive ad opus aliquod vel ad decursionem campi exeunt milites, tubicine vocante operantur et rursus tubicine admonente cessant. Cum autem moventur signa aut iam mota figenda sunt, cornicines canunt. Quod ideo in omnibus exercitiis et processionibus custoditur, ut in ipsa pugna facilius obtemperent milites, sive eos pugnare sive stare sive sequi uel redire praeceperint duces; siquidem ratio manifesta sit semper in otio debere fieri quod necessario faciendum videtur in proelio. 
 
'Besides the legion used to have tubicines, cornicines and bucinatores. The tubicen called the soldiers to war and sounded the return. Whenever the cornicinessound, not the soldiers but the standards used to obey their call. Therefore whenever only the soldiers are to go out on some job, the tubicines sound, whenever the standards are to be moved, the cornicines sound; whenever combat takes place, both tubicines and cornicines sound together. What bucinatores signal using the horn is called the classicum. This is regarded as the symbol of command, because the classicum is sounded when the commander-in-chief is present or when the death sentence is inflicted on a soldier, because this is necessarily takes place according to the laws of the commander-in-chief. For this reason when the soldiers are to turn out for pulling guard duty or work in the field or work of some kind or training at the exercise field they are signalled with a blast of a sounding tubicen and stop again when a tubicen signals them to do so. When on the other hand the standards are moved or motions are to be moved, the cornicines sound. This must for this reason be observed in all exercises and parades, in order that the soldiers obey more easily in battles, be it that their commanders order them to fight, to halt, to follow or to retire: for it is plain common sense that what seems necessary to happen in combat must always happen in time of peace.' 
 
The only possible reference to a cadence (short-short-long) is in Ammianus for a battle formation, not a marching order: 
 
Ammianus 24.6.10. 
 
Ergo ubi vicissim contiguae se cernerent partes, cristatis galeis corusci Romani vibrantesque clipeos velut pedis anapaesti praecinentibus modulis lenius procedebant,... 
 
'Therefore, where the nearing sides could both discern each other, the Romans gleaming with their crested helmets and knocking their shields as playing a tune to the anapest foot advanced slowly,...' 
 
Songs from a military context are attested for triumphal processions (Suetonius, [I]Divus Iulius[/i]) and dancing songs (SHA). 
 
...Refert Theoclius, Caesareanorum temporum scriptor, Aurelianum manu sua bello Sarmatico una die quadraginta et octo interfecisse, plurimis autem et diversis diebus ultra nongentos quinquaginta, adeo ut etiam ballistia pueri et saltatiunculas <in> Aurelianum tales {componerent}, quibus diebus festis militariter saltitarent : 
 
Mille mille mille decollavimus. 
Unus homo! mille decollavimus. 
Mille bibat qui mille occidit. 
Tantum vini nemo habet, quantum fudit sanguinis. 
 
VII. Idem apud Mogontiacum tribunus legionis sextae Gallicanae Francos inruentes, cum vagarentur per totam Galliam, sic adflixit, ut trecentos ex his captos septingentis interemptis sub corona vendiderit. Unde iterum de eo facta est cantilena : 
 
Mille Sarmates, mille Francos semel et semel occidimus, mille Persas quaerimus 
 
... 
 
'... Theoclius, the author of the times of the Caesars, relates that Aurelianus has killed forty eight with his own hand in one day during the Sarmatian war, over several different days though over nine hundred and fifty, so that boys composed dancing songs of this kind on Aurelianus, which they sang on military festival days: 
 
Thousand, thousand, thousand have we beheaded 
One man! A thousand have we beheaded 
Let him drink a thousand, who kills a thousand 
No one has that much wine, as he has spilled blood 
 
Likewise as tribune of the sixth Gallican legion he had smashed the invading Franks, when they were wandering about the whole of Gaul (bar one little village, bravely resisting them thanks to a magic potion, one would guess), so that he had offered three hundred prisoners from those while seven hundred had been killed under his crown. Therefore again a dancing song was composed on him: 
 
Thousand Sarmatians, thousand Franks have we killed time and again, we are looking for a thousand Persians 
 
...' 
 
Regards, 
 
Sander van Dorst

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