The horse left the review without its rider. Roman censors, Aulus Gellius says, used to remove a knight’s horse when the man had become too fat and corpulent. Their immediate reasoning was practical: someone so heavy was no longer considered fit for the duties expected of a mounted equestrian. Yet the physical decision opened a … Read more
The caves had no gate, no street and no wall that a Roman assault could conveniently break. The Characitani lived inside hollows cut into a high cliff beyond the river Tagonius. Whenever war threatened, Plutarch says, they carried their plunder into those chambers and waited where force could not reach them. Sertorius arrived after withdrawing … Read more
King Antiochus had assembled his answer to Rome on an open plain. Troops manoeuvred in gold and silver ornaments. Scythed chariots stood among them. Elephants carried towers, while cavalry horses flashed with brilliant bridles, saddle-cloths, neck-chains and other trappings. The king showed the spectacle to Hannibal and asked for a comparison. Could all this be … Read more
A Roman recruit walked onto the drill ground carrying equipment deliberately worse than the weapons he hoped to use. His round shield was woven from wicker and built to twice the weight of a service shield. In his other hand sat a wooden club, also twice the weight of the sword it represented. In front … Read more
Uxellodunum still had grain. Its hill was steep enough to frustrate a direct assault, and a river curved around almost the whole base. Yet Caesar did not begin by trying to climb the walls. He looked for the routes by which water climbed toward them. The river itself could not be turned aside. It pressed … Read more
Five short darts travelled on the protected side of a soldier’s shield. They were weighted with lead, close enough to the hand to be drawn and thrown, yet carried inside the object that had to remain ready for defense. Vegetius calls them plumbatae or martiobarbuli. His description is compact, but its tactical consequence is large. … Read more
Two men stood in the dangerous interval between acceptance and assignment. They had subscribed to Rome’s military oath, yet no legionary company had received them. Then someone discovered that both were enslaved. Sempronius Caelianus, whom Pliny the Younger calls an excellent young officer, sent the pair to the governor. Pliny did not announce a penalty. … Read more
The soldiers outside Alesia planted lilies in eight rows. They were not flowers. Each lilium was a narrow pit three feet deep, tapering toward the bottom around a sharpened stake hardened by fire. Only a short point projected above the ground. Brush hid the opening. Caesar gives the pastoral name without softening the construction. The … Read more
Masclus needed an answer before tomorrow. Should his men return with the standard all together, or should alternating groups make the movement? The surviving line may point toward a crossroads or a shrine there, but the editors keep that destination uncertain. The choice itself is unmistakable: one body or divided details. After the greeting and … Read more
The loaf crossed the ditch instead of reaching a hungry soldier’s mouth. Near Dyrrhachium, Caesar’s men had mixed a local root called chara with milk and shaped the result into something resembling bread. When Pompeian troops mocked their hunger, the legionaries threw the rough loaves toward the opposing works. The gesture carried two messages at … Read more
