Roman Army Drill

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Yes, 500 years is a long time, but amazingly, he duplicates commands that we DO have from Julius Caesar's day, which led us to the conclusion that perhaps his other commands were likewise based on previously known command sets.

The British Army commands to form a square were discarded with the change of tactics and therefore battle drills changed too (although the sqaure was used to great effect in the European armies in the Napoleonic era but please don't ask me to cite the VERY last use...my source is 1871) BUT they are still used now for ceremonial parades such as the Trooping of the Colour and Sandhurst Passing Off Parades (albeit two ranks) and at various other passing out/off parades. So that's 140-ish years. And one supposes that the reason they have remained is that they move soldiers from A to B effectively and efficiently and there is no reason to change them.

I am sure the same will apply to the ancient world, whichever formed body of men we are considering. Language and dialects change, but the requirement to form up under command (and under fire/attack) does not change.