THE SCENE: Often, ancient battles could be won by a simple rock-paper-scissors mismatch of weapons, as Julius Caesar demonstrates in this passage from his account of the conquest of Gaul.
THE TEXT: By throwing down spears from their commanding position the troops easily broke the enemy’s phalanx, and then drew their swords and charged. The Gauls were much hampered in action because a single spear often pierce more than one of their overlapping shields and pinned them together; and, as the iron bent, they could not pull them out. With their left arms thus encumbered it was impossible for them to fight properly, and many, after repeated attempts to jerk their arms free, preferred to drop the shields and fight unprotected. At length, exhausted by wounds, they began to fall back towards a hill about a mile away.
– The Conquest of Gaul, Julius Caesar, 1st Century BC
