In the Roman army, what name was given to an overhead screen of overlapping shields, used by troops in close formation?
Testudo formation Testudo formation In Ancient Roman warfare, the testudo or tortoise formation was a type of shield wall formation commonly used by the Roman Legions during battles, particularly sieges. "Testudo" is the Latin word for "tortoise". The Greek term for this formation is "chelone" and during the Byzantine era, it seems to have evolved to what military manuals of the era called the "foulkon". In the testudo formation, the men would align their shields to form a packed formation covered with shields on the front and top. The first row of men, possibly excluding the men on the flanks, would hold
Close order formation the introduction of a "locked shield order" (synaspismos) with a frontage of only about 18 inches. The Roman legions also fought in close order, using the pilum and gladius, on a similar frontage per man to the phalanx. In the early Middle Ages, infantry used the shieldwall, a formation where shields were held edge-to-edge or overlapped. Close order was routinely used by infantry in the later Middle Ages, the intention being to avoid the enemy penetrating and disrupting their formation. A common literary image was that an apple should not be able to pass between their lances. In the 15th.