Greek/Roman origin of Germanic military terms

From: Torsten
Message: 66376
Date: 2010-07-27

One more:
Tacitus, Germania, 6:
http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/tacitus/tac.ger.shtml
'Acies per cuneos componitur'
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/tacitus1.html
'Their line of battle is drawn up in a wedge-like formation'

The cuneus, or wedge, in the military sense
http://tinyurl.com/3a7sdd8
'According to the Vikings, the wedge formation, called by them svinfylking, cf. the Latin caput porcinum, was invented by Odin himself'
(partly written by myself, I should add)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svinfylking

Kuhn: Kriegswesen und Seefahrt (Art of Warfare and Seafaring)
'Für Kriegskunst und Taktik war in der Schlacht nicht viel Raum. Dazu fehlten vor allem Befehlsgewalt, Übung und besonnene Ruhe. Hierin waren die römischen Heere weit überlegen. Es war den germanischen Heerführern nicht leicht, das Heer tief zu staffeln und Reserven zurückzuhalten, wie es den Römern selbstverständlich war.'

"For the art of warfare and tactics there was not much space in the battle, because of the lack force of command, training and calculated calm. In this the Roman armies was far supeior. It was not easy to set up the army in depth and to hold back reserves, as was a matter of course to the Romans."


Torsten