07-05-2013, 09:54 PM
While I certainly don’t have the background knowledge of Roman tactics that most of those posting here do (most of what I know about the Roman Army comes from this site!), Public Order/Crowd Management/Riot Control* is what I have been doing and teaching for over twenty years so hopefully my perspective on some of the issues being discussed here will help.
We do try and keep tactics and formations as simple as possible, because the ‘pretty’ stuff that people sometimes do in demonstrations like the first Korean video often do not work in contact with a real crowd. We don’t use a drill to relieve people in the front rank as we tend to do it as complete units but I am very confident that a drill like the one in the Rome video could work as long as it was done when the enemy were back slightly from the line and not actively engaged. We can put a unit from a formation where they are standing shield to shield to one where the front rank are about six feet apart in less than three seconds. A change of the second rank to the first rank could be achieved at least as quickly and certainly quicker than the enemy could react effectively to it.
Changing as individuals to replace casualties does happen and doesn’t cause any major problems but allowing people to decide to change over as an individual because they were tired would be very open to abuse, or allegations of abuse, and would certainly cause bad feeling. Someone else making the decision, such as the Centurion if changing on a complete century basis or the commander of that file if changing over file by file, is much less likely to cause ill feeling or allegations of cowardice.
I have always been interested in the concept of the Centurion being in the centre of the front rank or on the front right of the century. Although I know there are definitely other examples of this from other places and periods it is not an effective place to command from.
The first issue is that when someone in front of you is trying to kill or seriously injure you, dealing with that commands your full attention. I can think of numerous incidents where people in the front of a baseline that is engaged with a crowd have been completely unaware of things occurring just a few feet from them further down the line. If the Centurion is fighting in the front rank he will have no idea of what is happening anywhere in the rest of his unit except maybe to the men either side of him. People three or four files down could be running away and he would be completely unaware.
The second issue is that voice commands are very difficult in the loud environment of people screaming, things hitting shields, things hitting your helmet etc. From the front rank any command the Centurion gives will be shouted directly towards the enemy and away from his own men. I know from experience that it is hard enough to get messages to the front rank when you are standing shouting directly behind them and we normally need team commanders (who are also behind their team) to repeat them.
So I would agree with Mark’s earlier statement that the Centurion could lead from the front rank but he cannot command from there which means he either commands from the rear of the century until a personal example is needed or possibly that the century was a ‘fire and forget’ weapon which once launched into combat just fought until either the enemy broke or they broke with no changes in tactics, formation or anything else.
Apologies for the very lengthy first post but this a really interesting thread with a lot of interesting ideas, one of many on this site.
Adam
*Other terms are available.
We do try and keep tactics and formations as simple as possible, because the ‘pretty’ stuff that people sometimes do in demonstrations like the first Korean video often do not work in contact with a real crowd. We don’t use a drill to relieve people in the front rank as we tend to do it as complete units but I am very confident that a drill like the one in the Rome video could work as long as it was done when the enemy were back slightly from the line and not actively engaged. We can put a unit from a formation where they are standing shield to shield to one where the front rank are about six feet apart in less than three seconds. A change of the second rank to the first rank could be achieved at least as quickly and certainly quicker than the enemy could react effectively to it.
Changing as individuals to replace casualties does happen and doesn’t cause any major problems but allowing people to decide to change over as an individual because they were tired would be very open to abuse, or allegations of abuse, and would certainly cause bad feeling. Someone else making the decision, such as the Centurion if changing on a complete century basis or the commander of that file if changing over file by file, is much less likely to cause ill feeling or allegations of cowardice.
I have always been interested in the concept of the Centurion being in the centre of the front rank or on the front right of the century. Although I know there are definitely other examples of this from other places and periods it is not an effective place to command from.
The first issue is that when someone in front of you is trying to kill or seriously injure you, dealing with that commands your full attention. I can think of numerous incidents where people in the front of a baseline that is engaged with a crowd have been completely unaware of things occurring just a few feet from them further down the line. If the Centurion is fighting in the front rank he will have no idea of what is happening anywhere in the rest of his unit except maybe to the men either side of him. People three or four files down could be running away and he would be completely unaware.
The second issue is that voice commands are very difficult in the loud environment of people screaming, things hitting shields, things hitting your helmet etc. From the front rank any command the Centurion gives will be shouted directly towards the enemy and away from his own men. I know from experience that it is hard enough to get messages to the front rank when you are standing shouting directly behind them and we normally need team commanders (who are also behind their team) to repeat them.
So I would agree with Mark’s earlier statement that the Centurion could lead from the front rank but he cannot command from there which means he either commands from the rear of the century until a personal example is needed or possibly that the century was a ‘fire and forget’ weapon which once launched into combat just fought until either the enemy broke or they broke with no changes in tactics, formation or anything else.
Apologies for the very lengthy first post but this a really interesting thread with a lot of interesting ideas, one of many on this site.
Adam
*Other terms are available.
Adam
No man resisted or offered to stand up in his defence, save one only, a centurion, Sempronius Densus, the single man among so many thousands that the sun beheld that day act worthily of the Roman empire.
No man resisted or offered to stand up in his defence, save one only, a centurion, Sempronius Densus, the single man among so many thousands that the sun beheld that day act worthily of the Roman empire.
