Romans - I just can’t get away from them... Actually, I don’t want to get away from them - as Adrian Goldsworthy said “You can never have enough Romans.”
I am waiting to be allowed to show you the forthcoming Warlord Games dromedarii. I’ve painted half a dozen, and very nice they are too. Of course, they were only used in the Eastern provinces, so I have had to give them ‘desertified’ bases. And this means that sometime, I shall have to paint up some other troops, also with desertified bases, and then source some suitable enemies - Parthians, revolting Jews, or something.
Speaking of Dr. Goldsworthy, he sent me a draft of his next article for Slingshot, which gave me an idea. Arrian, in his “Ektaxis kata Alanoon” (Expedition, War or Array against the Alans), as well as giving a description of the marching order of his army, also gives a (very rare) glimpse of a Roman army’s battle array, in which he says:
“They should deploy in eight ranks and their deployment should be close ordered. And the front four ranks of the formation must be of spearmen, whose spear-points end in thin iron shanks (i.e. pila). And the foremost of them should hold them at the ready, in order that when the enemies near them, they can thrust the iron points of the spears at the breast of the horses in particular (not the only time pila were used as thrusting spears). Those standing in the second, third and fourth ranks of the formation must hold their spears ready for thrusting if possible, wounding the horses and killing the horsemen and put the rider out of action with the spear stuck in their heavy body armour and the iron point bent because of the softness. The following ranks should be of the javelineers (lonchophoroi in Greek, lanciarii in Latin). The ninth rank behind them should be the foot archers, those of the Numidians, Cyrenaicans, Bosporans and Ityraeans.”
The combination of pila (heavy throwing spears, in WAB terms) and lanceae (throwing spears) used in combination by units of legionaries is not unique to Arrian. It is attested by Polyaenus for the army of Caesar, in Tacitus for a battle between legio III gallica and Sarmatians in AD 69, by Josephus in his description of the Roman army in Judea and by Lucianus for the army of Cappadocia some years after the governorship of Arrian. It seems that this use of two weapons may have been one of the standard ways of deploying. I suspect that the reason for the rear ranks using the lancea instead of the pilum is one of distance - if each of the first four ranks take up the full 6’ they were supposed to, then the fifth rank has to throw their spears 30’ just to clear the legionaries in from of them, whilst the 8th rank must throw them 48’ - or 16 yards. This is a fair distance for a heavy throwing spear like the pilum, and it would be a pity to spear one’s own troops (in the back). The lighter lancea presumably had a longer range, and so could more readily be used to engage the enemy cavalry well before they came into contact with the front rank.
So, I decided to make some myself, using some spare plastic legionaries and some of the wire spears Warlord sell. I shortened the spears to about 30mm. I cut the pila (and in some cases gladii) from the hands, trimming them down carefully, then drilled through the resulting fists with a small drill held in a pin-vice. I then assembled the figures, and finished off by super-gluing the spears in place. Painting was by my usual ‘basecoat and Quick Shade’ method, with (of course) Little Big Men Studios shield transfers to finish off.
In use, which won’t be all the time by any means, they will simply be substituted for the rear rank in my usual legionary cohorts.
Stop Press!
Wednesday, 22 July 2009
