legion marching formations

[Alexandr K]

Hi,

what I was, somewhat clumsily, referring to, was things like synchronous marching. Of course this may have took place during the battle (although I do not trust Vegetius' words - they may be wishful thinking, not a description of what actually happened), but I know no sources about the way soldiers marched when they were moving to their next camp.

I see now. Then you are right. Indeed we do not have such kind of details.

Agmen quadratum just means "squared up", so it suggests two parallel columns with a space in between.

I agree that it means "squared up", of course, nevertheless I wouldn't say this must suggest two parallel columns with a space in between. Actually the only thing we know about agmen quadratum (apart from the name) is that it is a defensive marching formation used when the enemy is nearly. Writing about defensive marching formations used when the enemy is near, Polybios claims that the Romans used three parallel columns marching side by side. As mentioned above, Caesar used similar formation in similar situations (well he talks about acies triplex). So I think it isn't very far fetched to identify the agmen quadratum with this kind of defensive formation that Polybius writes about (and in fact I do not know about any evidence for two parallel columns, which of course doesn't mean that the Romans didn't use anything similar). I think it's Perez Castro in the article I mentioned above who identified the agmen quadratum with the Polybian description, but it's quite some time since I have read it, so I'm not sure about all the arguments.

Greetings
Alexandr