Re: Need Advice : How to use Legionary Cohorts Properly " TESTUDO "
interesting stuff I found out about the testudo in history -
The Roman Testudo, which means (literally Tortoise) is one of the best known tactics used by the Roman army during warfare.
The Testudo was usually used to approach fortifications, and was first mentioned by Polybius, writing in the second century BCE.
Basically it involved a number of men in a carefully planned formation, each with their long rectangular shields overlapping to form a continuous roof above their heads and all other shields facing forward, and on the right and left side so as to protect the whole from darts and missiles etc.
The number of men that make up one of these TESTUDO varied, but it required considerable training and rehearsal to perfect.
The shields fitted so closely together as to present one unbroken surface without any interstices between them, and were also so firm that men could walk upon them, and even horses and chariots be driven over them (Dion Cass. xlix.30) .
Once a TESTUDO (TESTUDINEM FACERE) was formed only the heaviest missiles were capable of penetrating a well-formed Testudo (Tortoise).
It was all but invulnerable to small dart, (arrows) and missiles, though Josephus tells of how the defenders of Jotapata broke one by pouring boiling fat onto it and that the Parthians defenders of a city toppled a heavy catapult over the wall to crush the roof shielding the legionaries beneath.
Sometimes the shields were inclined in such a way as to make the Testudo slope. The soldiers in the first line stood upright, those in the second stooped a little, and each line successively was a little lower than the proceeding down to the last, where the soldiers rested on one knee.
Such a disposition of the shields was called Fastigiata Testudo, on account of their sloping like the roof of a building.
The advantages of this plan were obvious: the stones and missiles thrown upon the shields rolled off them like water from a roof; besides which, other legionaries frequently advanced upon them to attack the enemy upon the walls using the Testudo as ramp to gain access to the walls.
The Romans were accustomed to form this kind of Testudo, as an exercise, in the games of the Circus (Liv. xliv.9; Polyb. xxviii.12).
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Originally Posted by Marquis of Roland
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