4- "Cuneus versus Vis viva

First part: " Hastatus Prior

The crimson banner is adorned with a golden crown, with the letters "SPQR" at its center.
Latin for "Senatus PopulusQue Romanus", meaning "The Senate and the Roman People".
This motto was the emblem of the Roman Republic, and would remain the motto of the Empire.

Faustus is in no mood to leave the tent, its canvas stiffened by the icy dawn. The air seeps in slyly.
The skins covering his rough cot allow a few hours' sleep, but no more.
In the early hours of the morning, a light thermal breeze forces his reddened eyes to open.
Slowly, he repeats the ritual gestures of a soldier waking up.

Fifteen years of basic toiletry, but essential to remain a human being.
No messy hair or beard, white fingernails, folded tunic pulled over clean body cloths.
It is accompanied by a band of cloth highlighting the belt ("Cingulla"), to which the scabbard of the sword ("Gladius") is attached.
To distinguish himself from the foot soldiers, like all those of his rank, Faustus covers himself with a colored scarf.
That of the centurions.
Then come the successive layers of military garb.
The "Lorica segmentata", the armor made of metal strips held together by leather straps.
Recognizable by all warriors, friend and foe alike, it was the envied protection of all, the last bastion of a man about to face his destiny.
Some still wear the cuirass worn by soldiers at the end of the Republic, the "lorica hamata", a chain mail made up of 20,000 to 30,000 interlaced iron rings.

He commanded a hundred or so "Hastati" who trained twice a day, whatever the weather. These are the Legion's youngest recruits, athletic and therefore always placed in the front line, fighting with the "Hasta" (spear) in defense and the "gladius" (sword) in melee. Their feathered helmets were paradoxically derived from Celtic models.

In this officer's eyes flashed the faces of men barely out of their teens, enlisted in the legion for reasons he no longer understood.
Whether they're attracted by a paycheck that guarantees a comfortable daily life, provided they live long enough to appreciate it, or intoxicated by adventures in which the heroism of the invincible warrior is glorified, favorite arguments of recruiters who themselves don't believe in it, sometimes left to fend for themselves by poor families whose only wealth is their lives, or some sons in love with a young woman so beautiful that her hand has been given to someone other than him, a "beau parti".

Faustus looks at his legionaries.
How many will still be with him tomorrow?

He hopes for the day when order will come.
When Rome deems that he has now endured enough merciless fighting, enough blows, wounds and psychological traumas that we keep quiet out of pride.
For fear that those he commands with such rigor will discern a doubt in the certainties of the hero of the prestigious IX Legion.
His Hastati all see him as a role model, the father they obey without question, who risks his life with them, if not for them when necessary.
The one they would like to become when, in due course, having climbed the hard way up the command ladder, they too receive this order.

"Legionnaire, Rome grants you the privilege of returning to your own.
You have served with dignity, honor and courage.
You have never failed, never retreated or dishonored your men.
The "Roma Invicta" (Unconquered Rome) grants you land on the outskirts of the imperial residence of Arelate (Arles)".

He awaits this order, this arable land, a farmer's life, an ear of wheat in the corner of his mouth, contemplating his first harvest with a gentle woman he doesn't yet know.
These valleys where we wander with pleasure, bathed in sunshine and garrigues with intoxicating scents.
Where the cicadas reign, singing at the top of their voices of the return of peace.
The end of war, the calm.
A place to rest.

For ever and ever.

You still have to put on your legwarmers to withstand the cold, the "Femoralia" (1) covering the upper leg and the "Tibialia" the lower.
Then the belt ("Cingulum") with pelvic protection ("Baltea") made of metal medallions on leather bands, and the shoulder strap ("Balteus") encircling the torso to support the sword and scabbard together.
And finally, the "Caligae".
These sandals are made of crossed leather straps, sewn together and laced, resting on a thick leather sole, studded on the walking surface.
A condensation of techniques that have evolved over time to guarantee a certain comfort and remarkable resistance for these soldiers, who can walk more than twenty kilometers in a day in one-hour cycles. Fifty minutes of effort and ten minutes of recovery.
A legionnaire's normal pace is five kilometers in fifty minutes.
Performances worthy of trained athletes, united in the esprit de corps embodied by their centurion and his seconds.

All warriors dread them.

In Rome, war was thought of as an exact science, theorized by strategists and implemented by engineers and craftsmen trained in these cutting-edge techniques.
Each legion had its own technical workshop for maintenance, repair and even the casting of new equipment..
They have no weak points.
How can they lose this fight?

The youngest of the Hastati seem worried by the provocative, raucous cries of the Celts on the other side of this long, icy clearing.
Their older comrades pat them on the "Galéa" (helmet), laughing ostentatiously, to reassure them.
"Listen to these barbarians! Another one who got his... stuck in his junk shield!"
Gritty laughter erupts, finesse and good taste are out of the question as the assault prepares.

The men huddle together, talking without any real topic. The moment everyone dreads is approaching.
They detach themselves from this objective, disquieting reality.
The individual is a fragment of a group that, once on the march, represents an insurmountable wall.

Barbarians are driven by an individual ideal.
They must surpass themselves to equal the mythical heroes. A compendium of strength dictated by their gods, exacerbated brutality in the service of a cause that justifies bloodshed.
Each is a hurricane whose only limit is the annihilation of the enemy.
This primal mode of combat constitutes the technique known as "la mêlée", specific to the Celts, howling hordes coming from everywhere and nowhere, impossible to predict, the nightmare of combat theorists where everything is regulated according to quasi-arithmetical percepts.

Roman strategists were well aware of this, and from then on, legionnaires never ceased to organize their ranks in the opposite way to the Neolithic ideal of the warrior fighting for his honor, without anticipating what the brother-in-arms at his side would do.
Their formations are collective, their movements coordinated, so that every enemy will always face a cohort bristling with lethal spikes.
Theoretical strategy and its inseparable corollary, discipline, enabled the legions to annihilate troops sometimes four or five times their superior numbers.

Rome has no need to fear its enemies.
She has no weak points.
"Roma Invicta!

(1) Femoralia (or "Feminalia") are sometimes described as short pants, "Bracae" ("braies") and Tibialia as leggings.

The Continuation is HERE ...

BACK Previous page