The Fulcum, the Late Roman and Byzantine Testudo - the Germanization of Roman Infantry Tactics.pdf

The Fulcum, the Late Roman and
Byzantine Testudo: the Germanization of
Roman Infantry Tactics?
Philip Rance
HE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT of Roman and Byzantine
military terms have been the subject of numerous mono-
graphs, though the absence of an up-to-prehen-
T 1
sive lexical work leaves many obscurities in this field. This
study examines the fulcum or foËlkon, both as a significant
Roman tactical development of intrinsic interest and as an exem-
plum of the historical and linguistic problems posed by Greek,
Roman, and Byzantine military vocabulary. The word foËlkon
is first attested in the sixth-century Strategicon of the Emperor
Maurice to designate pact, well-shielded infantry forma-
tion reminiscent of both the testudo of earlier Roman warfare
and the hoplite phalanx of classical Greece. Maurice’s technical
description of the fulcum permits its identification in contem-
porary historical narratives as the standard battle formation of
1 C. du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium ad scriptores mediae et infimae Graecita-
tis (Lyons 1688), often remains the point d’appui. E. A. Sophocles, Greek Lexi-
con of the Roman and Byzantine Periods (Cambridge [Mass.] 1887), is frequently
in error with definitions of military terms. Still helpful is J. G. Kempf,
“Romanorum sermonis castrensis reliquiae collectae et illustratae,” Jahrbücher
für classische Philologie Suppl. 26 (1901) 338–400. Of the greatest value are H.
Mihaescu,≠“Les éléments Latins des ‘Tactica-Strategica’ de Maurice-Urbicius
et leur écho en néo-grec,” RESEE 6 (1968) 481–498, 7 (1969) 155–166,
267–280 (= Mihaescu,≠“éléments” I, II, III); H. Mihaescu≠“Les termes -
mandement militaires latins dans le Stratégicon de Maurice,” RevRoumLing 14
(1969) 261–272 (= Mihaescu,≠“termes”). See also T. G Kolias, Byzantinische
Waffen (Vienna 1988), for equipment terminology (= Kolias, Waffen). For work
on particular terms see . A. Dain, “‘Touldos’ et ‘Touldon’ dans les traités
militaires,” in