05-25-2006, 05:01 PM
Here are quotes from Vegetius and Polybius. I lean towards the emphasis on thrusting, which was the basis for the Armatura
"The ancients (as we find in their writings) trained their recruits in this manner. They made round wickerwork shields, twice as heavy as those of service weight, and gave their recruits wooden staves instead of swords, and these again were of double weight. With these they were made to practise at the stakes both morning and afternoon. The employment of stakes is of the greatest benefit both to soldiers and to gladiators. No man has ever distinguished himself as invincible in armed combat, either in the arena or in the Campus, who has not carefully trained and instructed at the stakes.
"A stake was planted in the ground by each recruit, in such a manner that it projected six feet in height and could not sway. Against this stake the recruit practised with his wickerwork shield and wooden stave, just as if he were fighting a real enemy. Sometimes he aimed as against the head or the face, sometimes he threatened from the flanks, sometimes he endeavoured to strike down the knees and the legs. He gave ground, he attacked, he assaulted, and he assailed the stake with all the skill and energy required in actual fighting, just as if it were a real enemy; and in this exercise care was taken to see that the recruit did not rush forward so rashly to inflict a wound as to lay himself open to a counterstroke from any quarter. Furthermore, they learned to strike, not with the edge, but with the point. For those who strike with the edge have not only been beaten by the Romans quite easily, but they have even been laughed at.
"The recruit should be instructed in that system of arms drill which is called armatura and is carried on by drill-masters. It is still partly kept up. For it is clear that even today those trained in the armatura are superior to the rest in all encounters. From this it should be realized how much better a trained soldier is than an untrained one. Those who have any experience of the armatura at all outstrip the remainder of their comrades in the art of fighting. With our ancestors so strict was the attention paid to training, that weapon training instructors received double rations, and soldiers who failed to reach an adequate standard in those exercises were compelled to receive their rations in barley instead of in wheat. The wheat ration was not restored to them until they had demonstrated by practical tests, in the presence of the praefectus legionis, the tribunes or the senior officers, that they were proficient in every branch of their military studies." -Vegetius
Polybius, 2.33 (battle against Insubrian Gauls)
"Once the Gauls had rendered their swords useless by slashing at the spears, the Romans closed with them and rendered them helpless by denying them the room to slash with their swords; this stroke is unique to the Gauls, and their only one, because their swords have no points. The Romans, on the other hand, did not use slashing moves, but instead used their swords in a straight thrusting motion, using the sharp points which were very effective. Striking one blow after another at the chests and faces of the enemy, the Romans killed most of them."
"However, according to the Roman methods of fighting each man makes his movements individually: not only does he defend his body with his long shield, constantly moving it to meet a threatened blow, but he uses his sword for both cutting and for thrusting. Obviously, these tactics require a more open order and an interval between the men, and in practice each soldier needs to be at least three feet from those in the same rank and from those in front of and behind him if he is to perfom his function efficiently." [Polybius XVIII]
"The ancients (as we find in their writings) trained their recruits in this manner. They made round wickerwork shields, twice as heavy as those of service weight, and gave their recruits wooden staves instead of swords, and these again were of double weight. With these they were made to practise at the stakes both morning and afternoon. The employment of stakes is of the greatest benefit both to soldiers and to gladiators. No man has ever distinguished himself as invincible in armed combat, either in the arena or in the Campus, who has not carefully trained and instructed at the stakes.
"A stake was planted in the ground by each recruit, in such a manner that it projected six feet in height and could not sway. Against this stake the recruit practised with his wickerwork shield and wooden stave, just as if he were fighting a real enemy. Sometimes he aimed as against the head or the face, sometimes he threatened from the flanks, sometimes he endeavoured to strike down the knees and the legs. He gave ground, he attacked, he assaulted, and he assailed the stake with all the skill and energy required in actual fighting, just as if it were a real enemy; and in this exercise care was taken to see that the recruit did not rush forward so rashly to inflict a wound as to lay himself open to a counterstroke from any quarter. Furthermore, they learned to strike, not with the edge, but with the point. For those who strike with the edge have not only been beaten by the Romans quite easily, but they have even been laughed at.
"The recruit should be instructed in that system of arms drill which is called armatura and is carried on by drill-masters. It is still partly kept up. For it is clear that even today those trained in the armatura are superior to the rest in all encounters. From this it should be realized how much better a trained soldier is than an untrained one. Those who have any experience of the armatura at all outstrip the remainder of their comrades in the art of fighting. With our ancestors so strict was the attention paid to training, that weapon training instructors received double rations, and soldiers who failed to reach an adequate standard in those exercises were compelled to receive their rations in barley instead of in wheat. The wheat ration was not restored to them until they had demonstrated by practical tests, in the presence of the praefectus legionis, the tribunes or the senior officers, that they were proficient in every branch of their military studies." -Vegetius
Polybius, 2.33 (battle against Insubrian Gauls)
"Once the Gauls had rendered their swords useless by slashing at the spears, the Romans closed with them and rendered them helpless by denying them the room to slash with their swords; this stroke is unique to the Gauls, and their only one, because their swords have no points. The Romans, on the other hand, did not use slashing moves, but instead used their swords in a straight thrusting motion, using the sharp points which were very effective. Striking one blow after another at the chests and faces of the enemy, the Romans killed most of them."
"However, according to the Roman methods of fighting each man makes his movements individually: not only does he defend his body with his long shield, constantly moving it to meet a threatened blow, but he uses his sword for both cutting and for thrusting. Obviously, these tactics require a more open order and an interval between the men, and in practice each soldier needs to be at least three feet from those in the same rank and from those in front of and behind him if he is to perfom his function efficiently." [Polybius XVIII]
"In war as in loving, you must always keep shoving." George S. Patton, Jr.
