Re:Total Generalship: Commanding Pre-Modern Armies, Part III...
by rocqua on Friday June 24, 2022 @05:35PM
(#31869652)
When comparing fruits (armies) it makes lots of sense to compare apples to kiwis to oranges (romans to greeks to Macedonians).
The article is in a series about "how does a general command an army in battle". Within that series this article is about the role of officers, in battle.
The officer numbers are mentioned to explain how armies acted. But how armies wanted to act is not used to explain why officer numbers were the way they were.
Hoplites were mostly a citizen army, phalanx were professional soldiers and Roman legions (in classic era) were professional army with many specialists troops especially engineering.
You need different numbers of officers not for the battle but for other tasks.. War for 99% isn't battle but engineering, logistsics etc..
Just as an example Jululis Cesar in Gaul had build a bridge over Rhine twice and it took them just a few days.. Hoplites from Anabasis were just wandering around looking for an existing bridge.