Hello,
I'm a middle school Latin teacher, and my head of school wants me to organize "Roman Soldier" drills with the students. I know my Roman history, but I am NOT a military historian. My reply was that to my knowledge, Roman soldiers marched long distances (post Marius) carrying quite a lot of gear, and were famous for covering incredible amounts of ground, but I was unaware that they did parade ground drills.
Anyone know? Are there any re-enactors in Washington State?
Thanks in advance,
Maripat Webber
(11-30-2016, 05:58 PM)[email protected] Wrote: [ -> ]Hello,
I'm a middle school Latin teacher, and my head of school wants me to organize "Roman Soldier" drills with the students. I know my Roman history, but I am NOT a military historian. My reply was that to my knowledge, Roman soldiers marched long distances (post Marius) carrying quite a lot of gear, and were famous for covering incredible amounts of ground, but I was unaware that they did parade ground drills.
Anyone know? Are there any re-enactors in Washington State?
Thanks in advance,
Maripat Webber
Hello,
I'm not sure they had
parade drills, but they trained to perform complex manoeuvres, both while transferring from one place to another and on the battlefield.
Regarding re-enacting groups in Washington State, the Roman Reenactor Survey gives only a Legio VI Ferrata's 2nd Cohort in Portland and a Legio VIIII Hispania in Victoria, but I'll leave the answer to fellow American reenactors.
Best regards
Gratias tibi ago, Flavie! Flavivs Aetivs
There’s a great manual here;
http://www.romanarmy.net/pdf/Members%20H...Manual.pdf
Parade drill is controversial.
Some groups refuse to do it in the absence of manuals or other evidence, however I find it hard to believe that they could do their complex battlefield manoeuvres without basic and advanced parade groups undo drill and practice.
People walking together for a long period naturally fall into step and rhythm. I very much doubt that the legions wouldn’t have taken advantage of that tendency to help with timing of battlefield manoeuvres. Historically accurate? I can’t prove it. Human nature? That hasn’t changed significantly in 2000 years...