Translation of Caesar\'s Commentary(s)

[Bryan]

Nathan,

Thanks for clearing it up. What about the so-called front right positioning of centurions in their ranks. I have read this many times but nobody posts the source for it. Who wrote of it originally?

Bryan

[Nathan Ross]

What about the so-called front right positioning of centurions in their ranks. I have read this many times but nobody posts the source for it.

This factoid does turn up quite often, but I'm not sure that there is a source for it. It might just be a modern inference, based on either reconstructions or the idea that the right of the line is the most prestigious. Could be wrong though...

Gary Breuggeman's old Roman Army website still exists (albeit with annoying pop-ups all over it), and you might be interested in his fairly comprehensive diagramatics of deployment at various levels - go to 'site map' then the section on 'deploying the army: battlefield formations'... He doesn't give references very often (and seems to suggest that there isn't actually a source for the 'right of the line' idea), so the whole thing appears fairly hypothetical, but it's interesting nonetheless:

The Roman Army - Breuggeman

- Nathan