Andrew Barton had an interesting critique of the historical
(non)authenticity of teaching left handed fighting as a tactic--basically
that it would have been mentioned in the sources if used. I agree, but
would add that if one were to teach left handed fighting, one would surely
put such lefty units in positions to prevent the tendency of long battle
formations to move to the left (because people tend to duck behind that big
shield hanging off their left arm). The consequence is that battle lines
tended to slip around to each other's left flanks. If I recall rightly,
battle leaders tended to put more troops to their rights to prevent being
out flanked, with the result that the right is called the "strong" flank and
the left the "weak". But maybe I have that backwards. Anyway, if you had
lefty units, surely you would either use them all on the side where you want
to compensate. Or all on the other side, kinda like a bookend. Or maybe in
alternating units of lefties and righties to keep everything balanced.
Surely the alternative placements would have been discussed if left-handed
units were available.
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