Quote Originally Posted by stratigos vasilios View Post
True. Hmmm I remember reading somewhere that the Chinese had either bought or captured Roman soldiers from the East and commented on the 'fish-scale' formation they used, ie the testudo.
IIRC that was the theory that Roman POWs taken by the Sassanids may eventually have ended up fighting for them in Central Asia, where the Chinese then took note of the unusual tactics employed.
Though I can't really see how one makes "fish-scales" out of the testudo - if anything it mostly resembles nothing so much as what the Romans named it after...

Also, Archippos ? For one thing see the dates. For another, yeah well; there's only so many shapes you execute a decent double-edged cut-and-thrust sword in you know.