Early Republic Consular Army deployment...

[Mark Hygate]

Feel free to rip this apart.

Not a chance - comfy armchair-mode engaged...

Mark Hygate wrote:

Each man is shown representing a close order of 1 pace per man (2.5 Roman feet)

Per your illustration, for your final disposition of the fighting array you have the entirety of the Roman army on line, with no gaps, in close fighting array of 2.5 Roman feet per man (the exact width of the scutum I might add).

What would happen when the orders were given to open ranks to the six feet of space a soldier needed to fight effectively with sword and shield, per Polybius? Would the entire army just open up further to the left and right? Which maniple was the pivot point for the rest to move from? Would the new array be twice or more the width?

I've been particularly studying Book 6 for the thesis, but have read 1-5 - can you point me at the passage, please?

But yes - whilst the Greek spacing is all in cubits - in thinking about deployment and the Polybian camp as part of the thesis study, let alone thinking of days of drill and time spent teaching same, let alone the width of the shield, it became pretty obvious that the Romans used paces (either 2.5ft as ours are, or the (double) pace of 5ft the Romans used). The entire Polybian camp can definitely be done with a little practice with the groma, some spears and soldiers marching about, just as suggested.

The open-order therefore is, as I think Franciso alluded to in the previous thread, only a front-to-back opening, rather than side to side - you simply wouldn't, under general circumstances, extend to the right by opening gaps that can be exploited. However, at the century-level version of the quincunx, that's exactly what you would do in opening the ranks front-to-back. That not only gives room to throw pila, but allows every second man (in an effectively similar manner to what the rear-centuries do in the maniple equivalent) to step back and to the right to allow the Velites to move through.

Here's a hypothesis I've came up with not long ago. Maybe the Prior (front/advancing/leading) centurion/century was called so because during the march, he/they got to be in the lead, while the Posterior (rear/trailing) centurion/century had to march behind? The less senior men eat the dirt of the more senior. For those that have ever marched in large groups, marching in the rear of any formation kind of...well, sucks.

Been there, done that - but don't 'quite' agree. Whilst I do think (and even show in that diagram) that the 'posterior' centuries would always follow normally; I am fairly comfortable that this 'rear' position was used as shown on the battlefield as an integral part of Roman tactical manoevre.

My Take on Roman Battle:
With a depth of 4-6 men (per the width of Roman roads and the internal "streets" inside the Roman camps) , it'd be easy to simply form the maniples in close order in front of their tents (slightly more than width of shield), right face the maniples and march them out the camp and into battle lines, leaving the gaps between maniples that Livy et al mention.

Well, now you've got me to take a small section of my Polybian Camp graphic that actually showed that, for I effectively constructed it at the same scale! [See attached] - which purports to illustrate why the area assigned to a 'maniple' was 100ft on the road side and the spacing assumed seems correct.

Shown is a 50ft-wide portion of the via Principalis heading towards the Porta Decumana and the 'enemy'. There is space (at the one-pace close spacing) to fit not only a full maniple (120 Hastati/Principes + 40 Velites) 4-deep on parade either side of the road exactly along the side of their area, but also therefore to fit a turmae 5-wide or a maniple in standard 10-wide column for deployment (not standard marching) or combat.

I think they'd actually wheel on to the road centre to then march themselves....

In addition, whilst my original picture shows gaps between the maniples for clarity - I do believe the shield-to-shield would extend all along the line - otherwise it shows points of potential weakness.

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The rest - not unreasonable - we could tweak here and there I'm sure.