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FLAVIUS
VEGETIUS RENATUS BOOK ONE EVOLUTIONS No part of drill is more
essential in action than for soldiers to keep their ranks with the greatest exactness,
without opening or closing too much. Troops too much crowded can never fight as
they ought, and only embarrass one another. If their order is too open and loose,
they give the enemy an opportunity of penetrating. Whenever this happens and they
are attacked in the rear, universal disorder and confusion are inevitable. Recruits
should therefore be constantly in the field, drawn up by the roll and formed at
first into a single rank. They should learn to dress in a straight line and to
keep an equal and just distance between man and man. They must then be ordered
to double the rank, which they must perform very quickly, and instantly cover
their file leaders. In the next place, they are to double again and form four
deep. And then the triangle or, as it is commonly called, the wedge, a disposition
found very serviceable in action. They must be taught to form the circle or orb;
for well-disciplined troops, after being broken by the enemy, have thrown themselves
into this position and have thereby prevented the total rout of the army. These
evolutions, often practiced in the field of exercise, will be found easy in execution
on actual service.
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