Discussing Roman drill commands (NO HOLDS BARRED!!)

[Robert Vermaat]

All of the following contain forms that can be verified in Caesar, Cicero, Livius, Plinius, and others. There is no way to properly respond to your post without using grammar.

That's no problem David, as long as it's only in relation to the commands I agree. It's basically what I want to hear. But, of course, with the proper proof.

Why not "AD OCTO" ? AD = "To, toward" in classical Latin; AB = "by, from, by personal agent." The phrase 'AD OCTO' would not be found in the Latin used by commanders in the 1st century. This phrase would mean something like 'to eight,' but it does not mean "by 8s." It might also be used in the 1st century to mean "around 8" as when someone is counting. E.g., Quinte, quot amores habuisti ? "Quintus, how many loves have you had" Quintus: "Ad octo." = "around eight."

Well, there we have the crux of this discussion.

a) This command is a given. it's proven from a source, so I see no way around it.
You see no use for it for your period, because you claim that it's not proper Latin for the 1st. c

b) Can you show me (and I took good notice of your grammatical arguments) that it was indeed not the military command used in the 1st c.? Because the claim that "The phrase 'AD OCTO' would not be found in the Latin used by commanders in the 1st century" for me needs a bit more to back it up than the knowledge of common in-the-street-Latin of the 1st c. I think you need to show that the military spoke only perfect Latin, to disqualify the 'bad Latin' used in the source that we have.

I've written my arguments against Maurice's Latin being classified as 'Late Latin' or '5th c. Latin' above, and I would like not to go into this too deeply here (but I'll gladly discuss that in a separate thread later).