Infantry Relief System

[Timianus]

Thanks Robert. Those photos are really insightful. It is much easier to understand how troops would be in an impossible position and unable to defend themselves if hemmed in from all sides.

In terms of "seesawing," my mind conjures memories from my youth of going to punk shows and having the mob of tightly packed patrons continually engaged in a "seasaw" pushing war with the security staff protecting the front of the stage. (prob. a bad comparison).

But your photos also raise another question for me. It seems as though the LRA almost reverted back to hoplite tactics. What you depict is a far cry from the ordered 3 feet of fighting space described in the sources for the late republic/high empire period.