10-06-2015, 06:30 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-26-2015, 11:22 AM by Nathan Ross.)
There's a fashion in cinema at the moment for every portrayal of ancient or medieval battles to feature men running wildly towards the enemy and then leaping into the air - often in slow motion. I'm sure you know the sort of thing I mean.
I'd assumed this was just the usual Hollywood nonsense. But then I read this passage from Vegetius (epitoma rei militaris II.23, on armatura drill):
"Let [soldiers] grow used to executing jumps and blows at the same time, rushing at the shield with a leap and crouching down again, now eagerly darting forward with a bound, now giving ground, jumping back."
Milner's 1993 translation has this footnote to the passage, quoting Servius's commentary on the Aeneid (11.284):
"For those who have written on the art of war say that it is the best type of combat when the soldier steps on the boss of his adversary and raises himself on the enemy shield and from this position wounds the opponent's back"
Earlier (I.11), Vegetius writes that Roman soldiers in training "backed off, came on, sprang, and aimed at the post with every method of attack and art of combat..."
Has anyone ever experimented with these gymnastic-sounding styles of fighting? These quotes do suggest that (late?) Roman combat was rather more agile and free-flowing than it's often presented. Unless all this leaping and springing about was only intended as exercise on the training field; or the whole thing is just the fantasy of an armchair tactician...
I'd assumed this was just the usual Hollywood nonsense. But then I read this passage from Vegetius (epitoma rei militaris II.23, on armatura drill):
"Let [soldiers] grow used to executing jumps and blows at the same time, rushing at the shield with a leap and crouching down again, now eagerly darting forward with a bound, now giving ground, jumping back."
Milner's 1993 translation has this footnote to the passage, quoting Servius's commentary on the Aeneid (11.284):
"For those who have written on the art of war say that it is the best type of combat when the soldier steps on the boss of his adversary and raises himself on the enemy shield and from this position wounds the opponent's back"
Earlier (I.11), Vegetius writes that Roman soldiers in training "backed off, came on, sprang, and aimed at the post with every method of attack and art of combat..."
Has anyone ever experimented with these gymnastic-sounding styles of fighting? These quotes do suggest that (late?) Roman combat was rather more agile and free-flowing than it's often presented. Unless all this leaping and springing about was only intended as exercise on the training field; or the whole thing is just the fantasy of an armchair tactician...
Nathan Ross
