Glare wrote:Time to throw in my 2 cents worth. As a South African I had to learn all this at school.
Firstly have any of you ever seen a Zulu Assegaai? It is not precisely a spear. What it is, is a 2 1/2 foot blade with a 2 foot handle. In effect the african version of the gladius. They used a decent forging method for it as well, so they weren't soft iron. The also used a knopkierrie - basically a hardwood mace.
Also before we go any further, the Roman shields are made of plywood. Yes you heard me correctly, plywood. It is stronger than a single lump of wood and only the edges and the boss were of metal.
The Zulu shields were also made in multiple layers of skins, stretched of a framework and allowed to dry. This made them harder than people may imagine.
Roman armour was of a scale nature, built onto a leather backing. So they can be pierced quite easily. They are more effective against slashing weapons, of the type used by the European barbs (who are the proto-typical barbarian)
As to the tactical side, the Zulu's used innovative tactics which took the nature of the terrain into account. They didn't just charge headfirst into the enemy (as depicted in Zulu). The flanking attacks used while the main line pinned the enemy was called the "Horns". Very useful to get into the back of the enemy and trash them there. True they had no dedicated artillery of any sort but the assegaai can be thrown as well as be used as a stabbing weapon.
To be honest I think the Zulus would win, but not after taking horrendous casualties.
The Zulus would lose. They would give a good account of themselves, but they would lose.
Your characterization of the Zulu equipment and tactics appears accurate. The Roman side not so much.
Taking a legion from the Augustinian period, let's look at a typical line soldier's combat gear:
#1. The helmet. That would normally be a "jockey cap" style helmet of bronze or irion, providing complete coverage above the brow line. It would also have a horizontal flange projectng at the rear (like a baseball cap worn stylishly reversed) to provide some neck protection without reducing comfort. Cheek pieces protecting the face against cuts from the sides are also standard.
#2. The mail cuirass of the period is normally the classic lorica hamata, a coat of iron (or occasionally bronze) rings linked 4-in-1. Coverage is from the base of the throat to a handsbreadth above the knee, with and additional thickness protecting each shoulder. The crotch is further protected by the cingulum, a belt with an apron of metal-studded leather straps. Arms and legs would be bare, though cloth and leather greaves as field expedients may have been worn (at least according to some experimental archeologists).
#3. The shield was of similar size to the Zulu equivalent, but of different construction. The rim and boss of the shield would have been iron or bronze, while the actual body of the shield was composed of two or more layers of what is, effectively, Roman plywood (typical thicknesses being 12.5 to 19 mm, or .5 to .75", usually thickest near the center). This plywood construction is analogous to that of the medieval European pavise, a shield designed specifically as a defense against arrows and crossbow bolts. The layered, glued strips, each layer glued down crosswise to the previous layer, prevented splitting of the shield.
While extremely efficient in their construction, they did prove unable to stand up to the arrows of the Parthians until the troops overlapped their shields to present a double layer; the medieval solution was to fit the pavise with a spike and ground it, so that partially penetrating arrows could do no harm. Against unweighted javelins, a Roman legion trooper's shield would be more than adequate protection.
Roman legion troops were trained to employ their shields offensively much as the Zulus were, using essentially the same techniques. The typical ploys were shield punches, physically pushing, and hooking the rim of the enemy warrior's shield, flipping the shield aside, and stabbing the momentarily defenseless enemy.
#4. The sword of an Augustinian soldier was typically roguhly two feet long (plus handgrip), double-edged, with a long, tapering point designed to stab effectively even against an armored opponent.
#5. The standard ranged weapons of the Augustinian legionary was the pilum, a weighted javelin roughly five to six feet long during that period. The head is narrow and pyramidal, backed by an iron shaft at least a foot long, and connected to the wooden shaft by a short tang set into a pyramidal block of wood. Two pins were sued to secure the metal tang in the wooden block, with the first a dowel of wood, the second of iron. A solid impact would snap the wooden dowel, leaving the opponent with a four or five foot length of wood flopping off the front of his shield. (Other models used a hardened iron tip with a thinner iron shaft tempered to softness, so that the shaft would buckle while the head penetrated.) Two of these weighted javelins were carried as standard equipment.
#6. The last line of defense of the Augustinian legionary was the dagger, which does not need explanation.
Against an army of 10,000 enemy barbarians equipped similarly to the Romans (and the Zulus certainly qualify as being similarly equipped), the first order of business would be to build a fortified camp, using that camp to anchor one of the flanks of the legion's formation. A typical line of troops would be arrayed eight deep.
The theoretical legion, at ideal full strength, would have 5,120 combatants and around a hundred supernumeraries, plus the inevitable few hundred slaves to act as batmen/assistants for the troops. So how does this break down futher?
Of the 5,120 combatants, 120 are detached as cavalry scouts, a potential ace-in-the-hole for the Roman commander.
Of the remainder, perhaps one maniple (160 troops) might be detached to man the legion's support weapons. These would, on paper, be 10 stone-throwing engines and 60 bolt-throwers. Assuming the most common form of stone throwing engine in Roman use, that would mean a total of 10 60-pounders. The bolt-throwers would most likely be of the Scorpio type, firing what is essentially a crossbow bolt some 67 cm long.
One standard cohort (480 men in 6 centuries of 80 men each) would have to be reserved as the minimum necessary to defend the encampment, and ideally two, or 960 troops.
That leaves a theoretical infantry contingent of 3,880 legionaries. A typical Roman formation would be for the centuries (paired up in maniples) to form up two centuries deep, with a gap between each maniple wide enough that the second-line century can advance to relieve the front line. Ten legionaries wide and eight deep, a century would occupy a frontage of 10 meters in close order for sword work. For the initial hurling of javelins, each rank splits and offsets itself laterally from the one before in order to allow space for javelin throwing. As the javelins are thrown, the half ranks close up into unbroken walls of 10 legionaries each. (The slightly different setup of the first cohort can be disregarded here, since it ultimately makes no difference.)
Drawn up in a single line of battle, the infantry should occupy a frontage of just under 500 (about 485) meters. On one flank is their fortified encampment, protected by nearly a thousand more troops and 70 assorted engines of destruction. The other flank is anchored by their cavalry reserve of 120 troopers, equipped in typical Roman legion cavalry wing fashion with full-face helmets, large shields, body armor, gladius, hasta (long spear/lance), and a quiver of light javelins.
One notable feature of the Roman maniples was that they were set up so that one half (a century) could advance or retreat under cover of the other. Any enemy trying to pursue a retreating century would have to run the gauntlet of the flanking centuries. In a similar vein, reinforcements could be cycled forward, by centuries, from the second and, if deployed, third lines of battle without risking the breaking of the formation. As an option, some of the war engines could be deployed on wagons in the gaps, adding long-ranged antipersonnel fire to the line of battle.
