Roman Army Drill

[John Conyard]

Excellent post. What I was hoping for in fact. Rather than a discussion on pronunciation, a consideration of early Imperial drill and its basis. I find military drill a very stimulating topic, not least because we can understand it and reference it against different systems from history. Various systems can be judged by their spacings, facings, wheelings, counter marching and the doubling/halving of files.

Something that often strikes me is that in a well disciplined body of troops, with a well established order of precedence – basically who stands where, files are normally doubled by their half files etc. We see this is Hellenistic armies for example, and the drill societies of the 17th century. But in mass conscript armies and often modern ones, files are double by alternate ranks and this is the system advocated by Maurice. I appreciate he was writing, or been written for, long after the height of the legions development in the 4th century, and perhaps his illiterate Anatolian recruits needed a simpler system. And later drill may have needed to accommodate legionaries who had different functions, perhaps getting armati to the front and scutati to the rear.

As ever I am interested in your ideas..