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The testudo was a common formation in the Middle Ages, being used by Muhammad's forces during the Siege of Ta'if in 630, [4] also by the Carolingian Frankish soldiers of Louis the Pious to advance on the walls of Barcelona during the siege of 800–801, by Vikings during the siege of Paris in 885–886, by East Frankish soldiers under king ...
Testudo formation, a Roman military tactic which involved a formation of soldiers using their shields to form a tortoise-shell-like protective cover against enemy weapons; Testudo, the Latin variant of the Greek chelys harp, involving a sound-box made from a tortoise shell; Testudo, an obsolete constellation now in the constellation of Pisces
The scutum (Classical Latin: [ˈskuːt̪ʊ̃]; pl.:scuta) was a type of shield used among Italic peoples in antiquity, most notably by the army of ancient Rome starting about the fourth century BC. [1] The Romans adopted it when they switched from the military formation of the hoplite phalanx of the Greeks to the formation with maniples (Latin ...
Cylix of Apollo with the chelys lyre, on a 5th-century BC drinking cup (). The chelys or chelus (Greek: χέλυς, Latin: testudo, both meaning "turtle" or "tortoise"), was a stringed musical instrument, the common lyre of the ancient Greeks, which had a convex back of tortoiseshell or of wood shaped like the shell.
The Greek tortoise (Testudo graeca), also known commonly as the spur-thighed tortoise [1] or Moorish tortoise, [3] is a species of tortoise in the family Testudinidae. Testudo graeca is one of five species of Mediterranean tortoises ( genera Testudo and Agrionemys ).
This structure moved so slowly, however, that he called it the testudo (Latin for "tortoise"). [2] Another type of ram was one that maintained the normal shape and structure, but the support beams were instead made of saplings that were lashed together. The frame was then covered in hides as normal to defend from fire.
The systematics and taxonomy of Testudo is notoriously problematic. Highfield and Martin commented: Synonymies on Testudo are notoriously difficult to compile with any degree of accuracy. The status of species referred has undergone a great many changes, each change introducing an additional level of complexity and making bibliographic research ...
In 1779 the English illustrator John Frederick Miller included a hand-coloured plate of the African spurred tortoise in his Icones animalium et plantarum and coined the binomial name Testudo sulcata. [4] Its specific name sulcata is from the Latin word sulcus meaning "furrow" and refers to the furrows on the tortoise's scales. [5]