Roman Phalangites?

[Urselius]

Call it a phalanx, a testudo (like Ammianus or Jordanes) or a bord-weall its all the same formation at heart.

Yes, Maurice is a good source he even gives us the term for a Late Roman phalanx - the 'fulcum.

I'm really desagree with this sentences. Phalanx, testudo are not the same thing and fulcum is not a "late roman phalanx". So, in the famous Strasbourg battle again, all units doesn't fight in locked shield fomation. The mention to a locked shield formation for the late roman is very rare. Yes to Strasbourg battle in some part like to the "caput porci" or angainst a heavy cavalry charge but others?

Late roman Phalanx? Indeed, but as Wheeler, grec mecanical phalanx technics like "othysmos" or "synaspismos" adapted to the roman army but not a literrary phalanx. Formal Technics appliqued at situations but certainly not the conventionnal late roman battle order.

Of course this is just my point of view but to me, the battle situation don't reduce at only one tactical solution.

Ammianus uses the word 'testudo' for two distinctly different situations: a) for the formation of soldiers in an attack on the gateway of a Persian fort, which Julian led personally, and b) for the formation of at least some of the Roman units in open battle at Strasbourg.

You may like to think of 'a)' as being a "classic testudo" and 'b)' as being a shield-wall, and I might say it's a phalanx , but Ammianus did not make that distinction. It is a bit late to ask him to clarify his terminology.

Jordanes describes what Attila said about the Romans just before the Battle of Chalons, “they [the Romans] come together in formation and form a battle line with locked shieldsâ€