Question about the Roman \'wedge formation\'

[Nathan Ross]

Here is another interesting video which depicts the 'sawtooth' from a BBC documentary.

Same battle, same computer reconstruction! Apparently this documentary just reused footage from the other one.

Apparently I did not make-up the term 'sawtooth' after all

No you didn't, but neither did Tacitus! I'd like to know where the idea comes from, as I still don't think it's a genuine or viable Roman battlefield formation.

Unlike the computer reconstruction, Tacitus clearly says that the 'wedge' was adopted after the British attack had faltered and stalled - and then it was used to charge against the survivors, not to absorb the impact of an initial attack. The same tactic is described by Caesar (Gallic Wars 6.40) again used to 'suddenly break though' the enemy. Perhaps, in fact, it was only adopted to keep formation during a charge or fast advance in fairly open order: each man had only to keep behind and slightly to the right or left of the man ahead, and the formation would hold.

Consider, though, how difficult it would be to assume this supposed 'saw tooth' formation as a static or slow moving battle line. A computer, of course, can make everything regular, but imagine trying to get troops into such a complex order while under attack, with missiles flying... The men on the left of the 'teeth' would be protected by their shields, but the men on the right would be holding their shields inwards and so be exposed - no good! If one 'tooth' extended slightly too far forward it would be isolated and destroyed, and if one of the indented V's fell back too far, or was too weak, it would be broken by force of numbers. The result in either case would be the disintegration of the battle line into a mass of isolated individuals or small groups.

In short, unless somebody comes up with evidence to the contrary I'd be inclined to see this 'sawtooth' formation as something for neat-looking computer reconstructions and computer games only.

- Nathan