07-27-2013, 03:49 AM
There is plenty of evidence of Roman formations being pushed backwards. Yet it is odd that aside from the locus classicus of Livy 8.8, which describes a 4th century legion, we almost never see the hastati falling back to be relieved by the principes, and so on. By the 2nd Century, Plautus could say to his audience" sit back and relax, just like the triarii." (agite nunc, subsidite omnes quasi solent triarii) This may mean that the triarii very literally sat down on the battlefield, although it also seems to imply that they were not expected to do much fighting.
At the battle of Zama, where Polybius reports the hastati fought through two lines of Carthaginin infantry, it is notably that Scipio did not relieve them, but kept them in his center and then deployed the other lines as flanking elements, not relief. Polybius does imply that in 222 BC, the consul Flaminius makes a grave mistake: (2.33)
"the Consul Flaminius being thought to have mismanaged the battle by deploying his force at the very edge of the river-bank and thus rendering impossible a tactical movement peculiar to the Romans (τὸ τῆς Ῥωμαϊκῆς μάχης ἴδιον), as he left the maniples no room to fall back gradually." (οὐχ ὑπολειπόμενος τόπον πρὸς τὴν ἐπὶ πόδα ταῖς σπείραις ἀναχώρησιν).
On one hand, Polybius implies that the mistake is based on a general tactical principle (always have a line of retreat. But his statement that it is "particular to the Romans" seems to suggest the sort of line relief described in Livy 8.8. It is also possible that the sort of line relief developed in the 4th century fell out of use by the 3rd, even if it remained in the the sort of military manuals that Polybius (or his source, here likely Fabius Pictor) was consulting.
At the battle of Zama, where Polybius reports the hastati fought through two lines of Carthaginin infantry, it is notably that Scipio did not relieve them, but kept them in his center and then deployed the other lines as flanking elements, not relief. Polybius does imply that in 222 BC, the consul Flaminius makes a grave mistake: (2.33)
"the Consul Flaminius being thought to have mismanaged the battle by deploying his force at the very edge of the river-bank and thus rendering impossible a tactical movement peculiar to the Romans (τὸ τῆς Ῥωμαϊκῆς μάχης ἴδιον), as he left the maniples no room to fall back gradually." (οὐχ ὑπολειπόμενος τόπον πρὸς τὴν ἐπὶ πόδα ταῖς σπείραις ἀναχώρησιν).
On one hand, Polybius implies that the mistake is based on a general tactical principle (always have a line of retreat. But his statement that it is "particular to the Romans" seems to suggest the sort of line relief described in Livy 8.8. It is also possible that the sort of line relief developed in the 4th century fell out of use by the 3rd, even if it remained in the the sort of military manuals that Polybius (or his source, here likely Fabius Pictor) was consulting.
