What Amped Up The Roman Soldiers' Pysche Before A Battle?

[Favonius Cornelius]

What more does a general need to do other than promise a heafty percentage of the spoils? Money almost always works.

[FLavius Valerius Constantinus]

Well, it's generally not well known, but on the sidelines of the battlefield they had comely young women in scanty red outfits cheering and dancing. Occasionally they would spell R-O-M-A with their arms and bodies.

 

Now that's really one interesting fact I can tell my Latin teacher.

[DecimusCaesar]

I remember seeing a TV documentary about the Romans in Britain some years ago, in which they showed Roman soldiers (re-enactors) chanting and singing military songs in Latin during their training, while beating their pila against their shields.

If only I could have recorded it, but then again it might have been an invention of the Re-enactors, but that is unlikely.

 

btw, did anyone else notice that the battle cry of the German warriors at the beginning of Gladiator was straight off the Zulu soundtrack. It's strange hearing Ancient Germans shouting "Usuthu!" like African tribal warriors.

[FLavius Valerius Constantinus]

What's that Zulu movie where the English soldiers are surrounded by the 4000 Zulus, I believe that the Zulus had this really cool chant, but I think Gladiator really ripped them off by stealing the chant. If you watch Gladiator and that Zulu movie and compare it, they are almost identical in sound and chant.

[Jimbow]

Gladiator really ripped them off by stealing the chant.

Probably more an 'homage'

What's that Zulu movie where the English soldiers are surrounded by the 4000 Zulus,

'Zulu' starring Michael Caine and Stanley Baxter. Great film.

 

(off-topic) It seems in reality that it was the Colour Sergeant who kept the whole thing together at Rourke's Drift, but it was the officers who got the credit. Most of the men who survived ended up with severe post traumatic stress disorder, some comitting suicide.

 

Cheers,

Jim.

[Pertinax]

I was pondering the Zulu Nation's impis as a latter day version of legion style fighting-in that we have an emphasis on: stabbing with a larger bladed spear -a larger defensive shield -rigorous (to put it mildly) discipline and concerted regimental cohort action. All these things introduced by Shaka as deadly innovations.

Sorry to wander a little way from topic but its interesting that they were so deadly against other tribal armies and shook a machine age army quite badly.

[Jimbow]

Now that's a really interesting comparison, and one I would tend to agree with by and large. Thanks.

 

Cheers,

Jim.

[FLavius Valerius Constantinus]

Sadly, technological advances of the British farout repels the legionary tactics due to the tech. gap.