Roman Army Drill

[Robert Vermaat]

Ad gladium, clina: [cleena] To the right (sword side), face!

Why 'ad gladium'? The one source that we have uses the spear (ad conto) so why 'translate' this to 'gladius, instead of 'pilum'?

Langia (ad dex/ad sin/ambas partes): Open ranks (to right/left/both sides).
[..]
Ad dex / sin depone: [day-po-nay] Wheel to the right/left.

Why use dex/sin here, when the source that you use elsewhere uses shield/spear for left/right? The command (which we do not have literally from a text, afaik) would better be ad scuta depone / ad conto depone, or variations upon that, I think.

Ad aciem: [ad ack-ee-em] Form battle-line. This is a rank (or series of ranks) facing the enemy, shield to front, pilum held in a light grip ready to cock and discharge. IT IS NOT A SHIELD WALL. The Romans did not employ shield walls in their standard battle formation, but advanced in an open formation with a gap of one-two feet between shields.

Ah!! hock: I would like to hear your evidence on that last statement; 'the Romans' being an Empire for over a 1000 years, 'never doing this or that' is dangerously close to Hollywood portraying every 'Roman' in segmetata armour.
In my opinion, the Roman army had a lot of formmations in it's inventory, ranging from the manipular to falangial ones, which were used depending on the circumstance. I would never say that 'the Romans' always advanced with a 1-2 ft. gap between the men. This is evidently incorrect, even for the short period when the rectangular shields & segmentata were in use. .

Of course, you can mention this as being the case for your particular show, but as a rule for 'the Roman army' I think it's incorrect.