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This video presents a battle model of what modern historians believe to be realistic ancient warfare. With our limited sources and material, it has always been hard to visualize the combat experience and decipher what it meant to do battle, and how they played out to one's favor. Supporting this model will be countless sources from Polybius, Livy and Caesar, to modern combat of boxers and riot police. We believe the few descriptions and evidence we have is enough to visualize a general guideline for understanding ancient battles, especially Roman infantry bottles!


Primary Sources
-Polyb. 15. 12-13.
-Polyb. 11. 20-22.
-Caes. BCiv. 3. 91-92.
-Caes. BGall. 1. 25.
-Plut. Ant. 39. 4.
-Sall. Cat. 60.1.
-Tac. Ann. 14. 35.

Secondary Sources
-Armstrong, J. & Fronda, M. P. Romans at War: Soldiers, Citizens, and Society in the Roman Republic. Routledge: London and New York. 2020.
-Cowan, R. “The Clashing of Weapons and Silent Advances in Roman Battles” in Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, Bd. 56, 1, 2007, 114-117.
-Chrissanthos, S. G. “Freedom of Speech and the Roman Republican Army” in Sluiter, I. & Rosen, R. M. Free Speech in Classical Antiquity, Brill: Leiden & Boston. 2004, 341-368.
-Daly, G. Cannae: The Experience of Battle in the Second Punic War: Routledge: London & New York. 2002.
-Koon, S. Infantry Combat in Livy’s Battle Narratives.BAR International Series 2071, BAR:Oxford, 2010.
-Lendon, J. E. Soldiers & Ghosts: A History of Battle in Classical Antiquity. Yale University Press: New Haven. 2005.
-Melchior, A. “Caesar in Vietnam: Did Roman Soldiers Suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder?” in Greece & Rome, V. 58. 2, October 2011, 209 - 223.
-Sabin, P. “Battle” in Sabin, P; Van Wees, H; Whitby, M: The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Warfare Volume 1, Greece, The Hellenistic World and the Rise of Rome, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2008. 399-433.
-Sabin, P. “The Mechanics of Battle in the Second Punic War”, in Cornell, T; Rankov, B; Sabin, P. (eds.) The Second Punic War: A Reappraisal, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, Sup. 67, 60-79.
-Sabin, P. “The Roman Face of Battle” in The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 90, 2000, 1-17.
-Campillo-Rubio, X; Valdés Matías, P; Ble, E. “Centurions in the Roman Legion: Computer Simulation and Complex Systems” in Journal of Interdisciplinary History, V. 46, 2, 2015, 245-266.
-Zhmodikov, A. “Roman Republican Heavy Infantrymen in Battle (IV-II Centuries B.C.)” in Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, Bd. 49, 1, 2000, 67-78.

Line Spacing (0:00)
The Moral Tension Zone (2:01)
Depth of Ranks (3:40)
Unit Spacing (5:11)
Key officers (7:40)
Replacing Units (9:46)
Variations in the model (10:34)
Pursuing the Routed Enemy (11:17)