08-22-2018, 08:18 AM
(This post was last modified: 08-22-2018, 08:30 AM by Nathan Ross.)
Request to Admins - could we perhaps split the posts from #1588 onward into a new thread about Roman battlefield formations, or something?
Yes, we don't know how deep the formation was at this particular battle. But I think we can assume it was quite deep - there's the note about frequens ordinibus, and Paulinus was holding a 'narrow' valley, and the formation needed to be deep enough to charge outwards in a cuneus and split a very large horde of advancing enemy warriors. That all suggests at least eight ranks deep, possibly more - this is following Arrian, our only detailed source for earlier imperial deployment ("They should deploy in eight ranks and their deployment should be close ordered").
It could be that Paulinus's men were organised in ranks of 6, as Josephus seems to imply. So they could have been 12 deep, or two lines of 8... as I say, with the evidence we have available here there is no possibility of certainty.
But we do know that he had 8-10K infantry. And unless they're in some sort of phalanx block formation, they would probably take up a width of around 800-1000 metres, I think.
(08-22-2018, 01:43 AM)Steven James Wrote: it’s always centred on formations eight deep.
Yes, we don't know how deep the formation was at this particular battle. But I think we can assume it was quite deep - there's the note about frequens ordinibus, and Paulinus was holding a 'narrow' valley, and the formation needed to be deep enough to charge outwards in a cuneus and split a very large horde of advancing enemy warriors. That all suggests at least eight ranks deep, possibly more - this is following Arrian, our only detailed source for earlier imperial deployment ("They should deploy in eight ranks and their deployment should be close ordered").
It could be that Paulinus's men were organised in ranks of 6, as Josephus seems to imply. So they could have been 12 deep, or two lines of 8... as I say, with the evidence we have available here there is no possibility of certainty.
But we do know that he had 8-10K infantry. And unless they're in some sort of phalanx block formation, they would probably take up a width of around 800-1000 metres, I think.
Nathan Ross
