09-19-2019, 02:30 PM
Duncan Ross: “This plain rises gently at one end, sloping away at the other, and includes relatively level terrain roughly five kilometers in width, more than wide enough for the four-kilometer long battle lines shown by Kromayer and Veith reconstruction of the battle ...."
Wow, a four kilometre front for the Roman army. That is quite a large frontage. I wonder if Kromayer and Veith have based that frontage on when the Roman army extended during the battle as narrated by Polybius? In my paper on Pharsalus, I have calculated both Caesar and Pompey’s armies as having a frontage of 4,500 feet, which is 1,500 yards or 260 yards short of an English mile.
Wow, a four kilometre front for the Roman army. That is quite a large frontage. I wonder if Kromayer and Veith have based that frontage on when the Roman army extended during the battle as narrated by Polybius? In my paper on Pharsalus, I have calculated both Caesar and Pompey’s armies as having a frontage of 4,500 feet, which is 1,500 yards or 260 yards short of an English mile.