Origins of the \'Hollywood\' Roman salute?

[Carlton Bach]

Hi Uwe,

Sounds like a good theory except that this image is from Trajan's column :?

I find it hard to believe that it carried on 200 years after Marius' reforms

The concept of 'maniple' remained in place in the imperial army AFAIK, just not as a tactical unit. Two centuries make a maniple, three maniples per cohort, and the continuing use of the centurions' titles (princeps, hastatus and pilus resp. prior and posterior) also hails back to the manipular formation. Not to mention the use of the word 'commanipularis' for 'commilito' - though it is not certain whether this is just a synonym or really refers to soldiers from the same maniple or century.