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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GinoLR, post: 24848583, member: 128351&quot;]The Mauger medal is interesting. The rev. legend, DISCIP. MILIT. REST. probably means <i>Discip(lina) milit(um) rest(ituta)</i>, &quot;Military discipline has been restored&quot;. What does that mean? Does it mean that before 1665 the French army was undisciplined, that the soldiers were uncontrolled roughnecks?&nbsp; The reverse shows a platoon of musketeers (they are holding muskets, they may be the famous king&#039;s musketeers) performing an exercise under the command of some drill instructor. If we enlarge the medal view and look at the muskets, we can see they are of the 16th-17th c. model, like this one (a reconstruction) :</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1592362[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>All soldiers look perfectly synchronized. Today, it&#039;s a very familiar scene for everybody who has been in the military, it&#039;s just the uniforms which may look old-fashioned.</p><p><br /></p><p>One could not imagine medieval or Renaissance soldiers doing that. Even in Antiquity the soldiers were not coordinated that way, except maybe on the battlefield when forming the Macedonian phalanx or special formations of Roman legions. There was nothing like military step or <i>ordre serré</i> in the Roman army. On this aureus of Hadrian (not my mint-state gorgeous freaking aureus), we can see the standard bearers are not synchronized.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1592354[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><i>Ordre serré</i> was an innovation in the 17th c. under Louis XIV, a very modern way of training soldiers. It came with the uniform, for I don&#039;t think there were actual uniforms before the 17th c. Not even in the Roman army. The representations show Roman soldiers wearing uniforms, for ex. on Trajan&#039;s column, but archaeological finds tell a different story. Even the knights of William the Bastard (he wasn&#039;t the Conqueror yet) seem to wear uniforms on the Bayeux Tapestry, which was very unlikely in 1066.</p><p><br /></p><p>This medal is an interesting document, illustrating the birth of the French modern army in the 17th c. under Louis XIV and his minister Michel Le Tellier and his son, the future marquis de Louvois.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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