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[3] For it was planned and carefully arranged beforehand that the Alamanni, who were raging beyond their customary manner and ranging more afield, should be driven into straits as if with a pair of pliers 1 by twin forces of our soldiers, and cut to pieces.

1 The forceps or forfex was a military formation with diverging wings for meeting and baffling a cuneus; cf. Vegetius, iii. 19, nam ex lectissimis militibus in V litteram ordo componitum, et illum cuneum excipit atque utraque parts concludit. The open part of the V of course faced the enemy. Here forceps is perhaps used in its literal sense.

Ammianus Marcellinus. With An English Translation. John C. Rolfe, Ph.D., Litt.D. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1935-1940.

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