Writing Feedback / Short Story (heart still aches for Darren) [6]

Where is it?

Grammar, Usage / Another MLA question [11]

If any of you out there can answer my question without reading the paragraph, that's great. But I think I'm going to go ahead and post it anyway if you feel there isn't sufficient information.

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From what archeologists can gather today from the early historian, Vegetius, Roman generals were master tacticians. Nowhere does the Roman talent for organization show itself so dominantly as in its army. If they could, they used every variable possible to their advantage.

For example, in daylight the Roman army would ensure to approach their target with the sun at their backs. This causes the enemy to be "dazzled" by the oncoming sunlight, making it difficult for them to see (Roman-empire.net). Another prime example of strategy is whenever the Roman Army goes into to battle with a strong wind blowing they would approach the enemy with the wind at their backs. Not only does it give the Romans an advantage for their projectiles (adversely, the enemy would be at a disadvantage with theirs), dust and other particles have a larger chance of blowing into the opponent's eyes rather than their own (Roman-empire.net). Another successful tactic would be to place the infantrymen in the middle of the lines and the cavalry on the sides. The purpose of the cavalry placement this was to prevent the lines of infantry men of being outflanked (Roman-empire.net). Also, when the enemy begins to retreat, the cavalry are there to move forward and strike them down. "Horsemen were always a secondary force in ancient warfare, the main fighting being done by the infantry. " (Roman-empire.net). On top of general positions and placements, there are various strategic formations the Roman armies exercised in order to overtake the competition. One of them was appropriately named the "tortoise". "The tortoise was essentially a defensive formation by which the legionaries would hold their shields overhead, except for the front rows, thereby creating a kind of shell-like armor shielding them against missiles from the front or above." (Roman-empire.net). Another one of the army's countless military mechanisms is named "the wedge". The wedge, unlike the defensive tortoise formation, is an aggressively offensive tactic largely used by legionaries (Roman-empire.net). Just as the name suggests, infantrymen would line up forming a 'V' and point the 'tip' towards the enemy. This enabled the Romans to break enemy lines and push into their forces with ease (Roman-empire.net). The legionaries were at an advantage in such close combat, for they had their short gladius swords that are easy to move in such enclosed spaces (Roman-empire.net). With tactics like that, and the sheer force of Rome's 375,000-man army, the empire was seemingly unstoppable (Wikipedia).