12-31-2014, 11:15 AM
I would disagree here. If I remember correctly, I am out of town at the moment writing on my smartphone, Arrian is specifically talking about the one-cubit synaspismos when he is giving the example of the testudo. The Techne Taktike of Arrian is not a literary text like Alexandrou Anabasis. It is a manual that gives very useful information on Roman tactics as well as more ancient Greek ones. Flavius Arrianus was not a man unschooled in Roman military practices, so if he specifically states this fact about the Roman testudo of his time, we cannot easily dismiss it as information. And of course, the synaspismos density is not some Greek tactic in itself. It is only a technical term to describe a certain density of troops as employed by any army.
