01-04-2012, 10:40 AM
What question exactly does the formula 16[sup]2[/sup] - 14[sup]2[/sup] answer? I kind of fail to see any crucial connection of the number 60 with Polybius' description of the Roman camp... As for the cohorts of the Polybian Romans, aren't they normally 160 (dividable by 16 and not by 60) and 100 (not dividable by 60 or 16) man strong, when necessary reinforced to 200 and 110 respectively (both numbers not dividable by either 16 or 60)? And why are the Polybian turmae 32 and not 30 man strong? I would suggest that it was the Greeks who liked to use powers of 2 (at least at an ideal level) and not the Romans. Where in their tactics do they use triangular numbers (apart from wedges and rhombuses obviously and then again not in all forms of arrangement)? And since when is the Polybian camp a square itself divided in four equal squares or the consul quartered in its middle? I admit I have never sat down to draw one myself but the drawings I have seen and the reading I have done do not seem to shape such a pattern...
As for Proclus' comments, of course mathematics are used in tactics as well as in Roman camp building, I guess it is with astronomy/astrology that you want to make a connection?
And one more question, does your theory try to explain or also predict tactical numbers and patterns used by the Romans?
As for Proclus' comments, of course mathematics are used in tactics as well as in Roman camp building, I guess it is with astronomy/astrology that you want to make a connection?
And one more question, does your theory try to explain or also predict tactical numbers and patterns used by the Romans?
