+- RomanArmyTalk (https://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat)
+-- Forum: Research Arena (https://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat/forumdisplay.php?fid=4)
+--- Forum: Roman Military History & Archaeology (https://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat/forumdisplay.php?fid=8)
+--- Thread: Roman Battle formations (/showthread.php?tid=21791)
Roman Battle formations - melchoriusiii - 11-25-2012
Hey! Here I am again :-)
I have a question about the battle formations of a legion. Before the Marian reforms, it was most likely to deploy a legion in the triplex acies formation with manipels. But with the changes of Marius the manipel wasn't a standard unit anymore, it became the cohort. But was was a standard legion deployment with cohorts? Was this with the quincunx formation, thus a 3 3 4 formation?
And does anyone have a good source of various battle formations with cohorts? I already got this one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mpl-frm-variations.png but those formations are based on manipels and not cohorts...
Thanks again
Roman Battle formations - Macedon - 11-25-2012
This image from wikipedia has very little to do with the Roman system of any era and should only be seen as a very broad generalization of usual tactics that would be achieved in a number of available "microtactical" ways. See for example the Cannae example, where the example is clearly "describing" the Carthaginian array. I would suggest, in order to get an initial insight on how cohorts would have been used in battle, to go through Julius Caesar's works, which contain many relevant valuable accounts.
If it is modern works you prefer, then I suggest you started with Ross Cowan's "Roman Battle Tactics 109 BC - 313 BC", published by Osprey.