01-09-2013, 11:41 PM
Quote:Mark Hygate post=327889 Wrote:The Polybian camp does seem to meet nearly all the requirements of the playing card shape and a direct pre-cursor of the later fortresses. ...Polybius' camp is almost square. (His description is problematic.)
Quote:What has puzzled me is how the 'Hyginus' and possibly the Later Byzantine shapes came about, for they make much less sense.Hyginus' camp is the classic tertiata ("in three zones") that gives the so-called playing-card shape, Mark.
Sorry DrC, I wasn't answering to make those points in detail. In both camps descriptions the classic 'playing card' (with two sides 'somewhat' longer than the others depending on requirements) and the 'tertiata' elements are present. And I'm not saying that Polybius' single consular army camp isn't rather close to being a square.
The thing I find odd about the 'Hyginus' and later Byzantine camps (it seems) is not the basic outline shape, but the distribution of the units within - in an apparently ('Hyginus' certainly) tortuous breakdown of lines of tents/camping areas in more than one direction and ridiculous complexity - certainly compared to the lovely simplicity of Polybius'.
However - that's for another day - this thread is actually about cohorts.