The Roman tactics were unbelievable. I’ve been reading books from history profs in the UK (apparently That’s a big deal there) writing historical fiction where they take a set of known events and insert a fictional character. The Training of a legionary soldier makes boot camp look like a picnic. According to the historians, it was freakin brutal. The front line worked on a drill system where they would bash with the shield and thrust with the gladius for a few minutes then the centurion would blow a whistle and they’d all bash real hard with the shield and step back and the second line would step up in their place. They would continue to rotate the troops like that keeping fresh guys on the front line.
Then there was the speed of their maneuvers. Using flags and whistles, they could rapidly redeploy their formations to address changes on the battle field. Here’s a video of the Korean riot police using some of their tactics. Watch that and then imagine 40,000 or more guys synchronized like that but actually trying to kill their enemy with thrown volleys of pila and darts before closing in with the shields and gladius.
