Ancient Roman military maneuvers maniples (Manipulum)

[M. Demetrius]

Why not : Ad pilum, clina

Because not everyone carried a pilum, but it is in the larger class of "Pole" (contus translates as pole, as in pole arm). Early sources say, "turn to the spear", Mauritius says "turn to the pole". We chose that because it more closely fits the originals. If you look at the supporting documentation for the drill, you'll find that info included, iirc. Either way, it means "turn to the right" (or *something else* to the right).

As for the other questions, the words chosen were sometimes taken from more than one choice/more that one source, and a decision had to be made. Grammar errors will be corrected. PM me and I'll put you in touch with the guys who made those choices. BTW, we're having web problems right now, but we'll have that problem fixed in a day or two.

One thing we all agreed upon when making the document was that we would use original commands whenever we could find them, even if they were different from the ones we were used to. Believe me, there were arguments upon arguments before the document got to the place where it is now.