ROMAN LEGIONS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CI, Issue 15397, 14 July 1914, Page 2

ROMAN LEGIONS.

AN INTERESTING REVIVAL. NEW WAY TO TEACH THE CLASSICS. Brilliant as have licon the spot-tacks provided year by year at. the Naval ;-nd Military Tournament; none aroused so much interest as the appearaneo of the Roman legionarus in the display which was inaugurated by tho King in London. The interest created by tUc evolutions was enhanced by surprise. Even the oldest of us, states the .London •'Telegraph," have not forgotten our dull plodding with Caesar in his marchings and .counter-marchings against the Gauls. Even those of us who were fortunate enough 'to have access to pictorial reconstructions nf the commander's bridges and camps found their imaginations baffled by the unimpassioned style of the Commentaries, and resigned themselves to the task of mechanical translation of Latin prose into more or less halting English without more, than the faintest realisation of the stirring human story that lay behind it all. But the dry' bones were made to live. Tho legionaries, more or less mythical in our young days, became real. The spectacle of [martial t\hews and sinews, glowing armour, and gleaming weapons brought homo to us in a way thai many have never realised before the Roman discipline and valour which our teachers preached to tis but seldom made us know.

This success was achieved by thoroughly legitimate metods. Historical authorities were ransacked by Careful scholars, contemporary sculptures, still with us, were critically examined in places as far apart as Wiesbad-en am! Rom©, and Roman remains dug up in Britain and olscwhero wero searched for hints to secure accuracy of detail in tho engines and apni'ianees used in the display. The drill of the period was reproduced by Colonel Sir Mark Sykes with great success. The authority principally relied on for tho details of the various manoeuvres, whose complexity and strangeness puzzled tlhe spectator, was a book entitled "De Acicbus." This was written for the Emperor Hadrian by Claudius Aelinns, and gives by far the bestknown account of the method of training troops at the time. It is especially valuable for the face that at the- end the author adds a passage which consists of a number ot military commands strung together, and euding in a dedicatory salute to tlhe Emperor.

ROMAN "WORDS OF. COMMAND. As lie appears in the cold text Claudius Aclinus would be an object of aversion to ninety-nino schoolboys out of a hundred. No lad of ordinary tastes could bring himself with any enthusiasm to commit to memory the words of command set forth by this ancient military expert. Here is the list: — Miles attendai Prasceptis—Attention Versa—Dress by files. Juga—Dress by* ranks. Ad hastam tleclina—Right turn. Ad hastem immuta—Right-about turn. Ad scutum deelina —Left turn./ Macedouicam evolve —Face about as Macedonians. Per juga : —By ranks. Constipa—Close ranks and files. . Ad scutum convert© —Left."wheel. . Ad scutum inflecte—Right double wheel. ,-,i|.i ;, ]1: . . .. i,;, , Restitute —As you were ..(the reverse of the foregoing). ■•■ Dista—Fil'es and ranks extend. Orbc-m voire—Form circle • (or orb). Restitute ordinein- —Re-form ranks. Testud'nem fae—Form tortoise. Restitute—Re-form ranks. "Yet it is not a hopelessly wild prophecy to say that after this tournament has run dts course "wo shall find enterprising youths who hare been fortunate enough to see it using, at least this vocabulary' and drilling squads of their fellows on the model of" the Olympian Romans. We may have colloquial L'atin at last, -even if it is confied to a few dozen words. If tire Guardsman can drill in Latin, why not the enterprising sohooJboy will ask, should not he" and his playmates? "There is., however, a. ranch wider and more important possibility in this pioduetion. It has, we understand, already been kinemato£rraphed. "We' have heard much of the educationalpowers of the film. "Why sihould this one not bo multiplied and sent/, broadcast through the schools. 'Boys who are beginning the studv of Latin, as they usually do, with Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War, whether at the sec-. .orsda-ry schools throughout the country or at the great public schools like Eton. Harrow, and '"Winchester, • will findtheir imagination quickened and their historical sense stimulated bv this living demonstration of what the ancient Roman was. and how he did the groat things-- which, have left their indelible mark on tho history of the world."