Roman Drill.

[Anonymous]

I was wondering if there are any sources for Roman Drill movements? by that I mean the actual way a unit could be brought to attention,turned, formed file from column etc. This was a vital life or death operation in action so I assume that they had it down to a fine art , as my old Drill Instructor from depot would say "In a SMART,SOLDIERLIKE and UNIFORM manner" If there are no surviving sources..How do the reenactment groups cope with this?<br>
Mark. <p></p><i></i>

[richsc]

Most of us use 6th century AD drill from the Strategikon of Maurice, which is the earlierst knows. You can see it at Matt's site:<br>
<br>
www.larp.com/legioxx/drill.html<br>
<br>
We've been kicking the idea of adding more commands, and cleaning the 6th century latin up to 1st century, but it's slow. I did buy von Steuben's drill manual for the US Continental Army, which might be similar in moving masses of troops around, but that's highly speculative.<br>
<br>
pub45.ezboard.com/fromana...D=14.topic<br>
<br>
<p>Richard Campbell, Legio XX.
http://www.geocities.com/richsc53/studies/ </p><i></i>

[Guest]

Salve,<br>
<br>
Reenactment groups tend to use a mixture of Latin translations of the transliterated Latin and/or Greek commands preserved in the various surviving tactical handbooks, mainly dealing with Hellenistic era phalanges and Byzantine drill. For a list of publications on the subject, see this earlier thread, and Latin translations of modern army commands. An important difference between the Latin commands of most reenactment groups and the manuals is that they use left and right where the Greek speaks of the shield - or spear side.<br>
<br>
Regards,<br>
<br>
Sander van Dorst <p></p><i></i>

[Muzzaguchi]

Hi,<br>
<br>
Sorry not to have gotten back to you Sander on this pet subject of both ours but I have been busy singing opera (Alas I am no re-enactor but opera singing Ancient Historians are an even rarer breed let me tell you! (two that I know of)) I will now get on with the far more interesting subject of Graeco-Roman Military handbooks!<br>
Anyway, I will contact you when I have formulated some (referenced) stuff and then we can hit RAT with unrefutable gems of Graeco-Roman military theory.<br>
<br>
Cheers<br>
<br>
Muzzaguchi <p></p><i></i>