Ancient Roman military maneuvers maniples (Manipulum)

[Velite]

Last weekend, three groups of Italian Roman re-enactment (Ars Dimicandi - Legio I Italica - Colonia Iulia Fanestris) have played together maneuvers "ad manipulum", extracted from the book "De Rebus Militum" (authors Dario Battaglia and Luca Ventura - Ars Dimicandi) to be published in 2011.

The number: 68 milites + 3 tribunes + 2 centurions (prior and posterior) + 1 optio and 2 vexillifer
Two half centuries of 8 men on the front for 4 rows deep.

The maneuvers performed are:
- Intra-maniple openings
- Closing maniple
- Half front (
- Enlargement front
- Conversion with militum gradu
- Post-signa exchange ante-signa (receding), to form a new front

In this first trial orders were given verbally (no sound)
In this experiment, made only of movements, the arms did not influence.
The three groups are mixed together.

Here the video:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Tvllias#p/a/u/0/zeVH881lY28

Please excuse me for my bad English :wink:

[MARCvSVIBIvSMAvRINvS]

Nice video !!

also liked the Ars Dimicandi Gladiatorial videos !!

Great work !!

M.VIB.M.

[Cacaius]

Salve

Would You be so kind to give us latin commands for what you are doing there ?
I cant hear everything properly.

Thanks in advance

Cacaivs Rebivs Asellio
LEG XXI RAPAX

[Velite]

Thanks to the many sources on the subject we know only the name of the maneuvers,designed by verbs or adjectives that are mentioned in Latin or greek.
The "Manipulus can "contrahere", "laxare", may be at "closed intervals (pyknos)" or open. However, there are not specific about the terminology of command, or the precise dynamics of the signa, or the sound of horns.

So we developed a first set of "conventional" commands related to these maneuvers:
"manipulus contrahete!"
"manipulos laxate!"
"Subsidia (or postsigna) procedite!"
"Antesigna recedite !"
Etcetera.

Being a still experimental stage, we prefer not to create a definitive terminology, which, incidentally, remains secondary to the primary goal: the maneuvers in themselves.

Valete

[jkaler48]

There is also a well documented Century Level drill manual available. Ludus Militis TACTICA http://www.ludusmilitis.org/articles/LM ... y_2010.pdf It is copyrighted so no commercial use without permission.

A Dutch and soon a German Translation can be had by contacting me.

[Velite]

Thank you very much...I don't know this document.

Valete

[Cacaius]

jkaler48 Thanks.

Great job ! Great document !

However many things are so different then I use in my group.
I am not very sure if staying so close to words used in Strategikon is what would be most probable for 1st c AD .

In example .. this word 'contus'. I understand that you have found some sources ... but I think we can find 10 times more sources that word 'pilum' was more common in use. Why not : Ad pilum, clina ?

There are more things I am not sure... Hmm I need more time to study this document, and its sources.

But I like it.

By the way. Why do you use word 'DEPONETE' ? ... its 3rd declination ... it should be rather 'DEPONITE'.

Velite
Its the same with 'CONTRAHETE' .. it should be .. 'CONTRAHITE'
Exactly like You use properly the word .. 'PERGITE' ... from singular 'PERGE'

On the other way .. why not use words from Vegetius (Liber I , XXVI) ?

Nihil magis prodesse constat in pugna, quam ut adsiduo exercitio milites in acie dispositos ordines seruent necubi contra quam expedit aut conglobant agmen aut laxent.

conglobate - crowd/press/mass together
laxate - expand, open up, extend

[jkaler48]

No one is required use the drill exactly as written!
It may change a bit in later editions as more sources are discovered or more precise Latin is considered.
An advanced drill manual is planned to cover more maneuvers like the wedge formation.
A draft of the wedge formation is available on the LM website and in a post here on RAT.

[M. Demetrius]

Why not : Ad pilum, clina

Because not everyone carried a pilum, but it is in the larger class of "Pole" (contus translates as pole, as in pole arm). Early sources say, "turn to the spear", Mauritius says "turn to the pole". We chose that because it more closely fits the originals. If you look at the supporting documentation for the drill, you'll find that info included, iirc. Either way, it means "turn to the right" (or *something else* to the right).

As for the other questions, the words chosen were sometimes taken from more than one choice/more that one source, and a decision had to be made. Grammar errors will be corrected. PM me and I'll put you in touch with the guys who made those choices. BTW, we're having web problems right now, but we'll have that problem fixed in a day or two.

One thing we all agreed upon when making the document was that we would use original commands whenever we could find them, even if they were different from the ones we were used to. Believe me, there were arguments upon arguments before the document got to the place where it is now.

[jkaler48]

Auxillia armed with Hasta and Javelin AND Light armed Cohorts of Legionaries would be given a command to turn towards a weapon side they were not armed with Ad pilum, clina.
It is very likely that Pila armed troops constituted a minority of Roman troops which would have a generic weapon term make better sense.

[Robert Vermaat]

By the way. Why do you use word 'DEPONETE' ? ... its 3rd declination ... it should be rather 'DEPONITE'.

I would suggest that we need not look for any correct grammar here. At the risk of using modernisms, I'd say that an order given needs to be short, sharp and easily understandable. Modern army commands (at least in Dutch and English) are also not by definition grammatically correct. The soldier knows what to do, which is all that matters.
Also, commands can be quite archaic in language. For instance, the Dutch command 'geef acht!' means 'attention', but the words used went out of use about 150 years ago.

Therefore, when looking at the Ludus set of commands (great research chaps, btw), I would hesitate to use both 'clina' and 'clinate'.

Also, the Ludus Militis seems to favour the use of 'contum' and 'scutum' over the use of 'dextra' and 'sinistra', which are also used in the same source (Maurikios) for a change of direction (in the commands depone ad dextra / depone ad sinistra). Not meaning to criticise, why was this choice made? In my own opinion (which is just that), if you have both words use, why not choose the more simple one?

[M. Demetrius]

As I said before, Robert, we had to choose in several instances from lists of varying content, and sometimes the choices were arbitrary, sometimes we took into consideration that "more people use this than that", sometimes, we went with the one that had more references. It was no easy task, since no one has unearthed the wax tablet set that contains the "Basic Legionary Training Commands". The main idea was to find what was said by some source, and agree that we would all use the same ones. Imagine the advantages to everyone knowing the same list of commands, even across wide distances...even oceans.

We had a long battle over whether to use singular or plural imperatives, since both are used by the same military historians, often in the same context. My argument for plurals is that the last syllable (like --te ) can be an "execute the command" command. For example, "Ad scutam Clinaaah-TE" whereupon, all would move together. But since the Ancients didn't always do that, evidently, we didn't either. Our conclusion was that verbal commands could not have been the only way things were communicated to the troops. We're convinced that trumpet and signum were also used, but we were unable to find any descriptions, only vague references.

[Mark Graef]

Velite,

Thank you for posting videos of the recent combined maneuver. The movements were very good and correspond with historical evidence. I look forward to the release of De Rebus Militum next year, and reports on further trials and progress of the drill in use.

The approach being taken is a good one — get the maneuvers and formations to work in actual use first, worry about the exact wording and terminology later.

On the other side of the Atlantic some of us are experimenting with many of the same maneuvers — open and close intervals, doubling of files, countermarches — although only on the level of a half-size single cohortal century in four ranks so far.

[Velite]

Ave Mark,

Thanks for your comment. I'm happy to read in USA some groups experimenting same maneuvres. Very good.
Unity is strength.
The first step is to find a voice command (and for these there are many indications).
Then it will be difficult to understand how it was used Vexillo. That was the key to giving orders to so many men, along with horns and Buccina.

For Vortigen: I agree with you. Orders had to be simple, short and very clear.

[jkaler48]

The signals with the Standard (or Vexillo) should be easily understood and easily remembered. If possible they should in some ways resemble or remind one of the action to be taken.
For example in the command to recall the troops the Standard should be faced to the rear. Look back see the Standard backside: "OH I am going the wrong way!"

I have written some Draft Standard Signals and posted them on LM but the website is down right now. I will retrieve them and post here for you when it comes back up.
As for the music there is a list of calls with references on LM but no actual music has survived so it must all be made up. Rusty has the only written down music for reenactments that I have seen here: http://legvi.tripod.com/id100.html

Here is the audio file of the calls: http://www.legioviferrata.com/sitebuild ... saudio.mp3