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Re: orion 1QM i,1

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    Dr. Vandenberg raises a number of obscure points on the art of warfare
relating to the War Scroll, which I shall try to address.  
    First, he asks what Roman Tactica the War Scroll might have drawn on.  J.
Duhaime, "The War Scroll From Qumran and the Graeco-Roman Tactical Treatises,"
RQ 13.1 (1988) 133-51 shows the striking similarity in topics and structure
between 1QM 3-9 and Mediterranean military Tactica, which implies that the
author of 1QM 3-9 was familiar with the genre of Tactica and presumably copied
(or rather adapted) one rather than writing from observation of Roman armies
in Judea.  The resemblances between the practices in 1QM and Polybius
6.19.1-6.42.6 are so striking that a Tactica roughly contemporary with
Polybius (ca. 160-150) is called for.  Cato's _de Re Militari_ ca. 175 BCE
received wide circulation and is a good candidate.  

>  What is known is that the clientele states of the 1st c. BC indeed used
>  Roman armor and stratagemata (cf. King Deiotharus of Cappadocia in Cicero,
>  Epistulae ad Atticum).

    My article mentions Deiotarus and certain barbarian "legions" organizes in
North Africa as examples of non-Roman peoples adopting Roman military
practices.

>  A word about the manipel and cohort tactic: You^̉ll find both in the War
>  Scroll, the latter - the unspecialized heavy armored one - in col. v,4b-7.

    I don't see your point here.  1QM 5.4b-7 describes the polished metal
shields of the Sons of Light.  Such shields are common to Roman armies of the
second and first centuries BCE and are not peculiar to first century cohorts.
My article shows the 1QM shield shape and dimensions correspond to those of
2nd century legions.  

>  To ignore the Cold War between Rome and Parthia not only means not to
>  understand the East-West (imitatio Alexandri-) confrontation (introduced by
>  Herodot), but to carry a mass banners of silk to Carrhae. 
>  We know that the Romans had only 2 banners per legion, whereas in the War
>  Scroll each infantry division was equipped with 700. 

    1QM banners serve the same function as Roman shields inscribed with name
and unit ("To prevent soldiers straying from their comrades at any time in the
confusion of battle" - See Vegetius 2.18).  I rather suspect that the banners
of 1QM 4.1-17 was related to this Roman practice, especially in light of 1QM
5.1-2 where a functionally identical inscription appears on the "shield" of
the Prince of the congregation. 

    Regarding kataphracts (armored horses) at 1QM 6.15-16, you raise a very
interesting point, if indeed this passage refers to riders and horses both.
The major weakness of your argument is that the phrase "and their horses" [v-
rekhev] is restored from lacuna of which all that survives is the vav and
resh.  I would find the evidence of Parthian kataphracts more compelling if
its major evidence wasn't hidden in a lacuna.  Further, the description of the
armor and weapons sounds like that of rider, not the horse!  ("The horsemen...
and vr[...] shall be garbed in cuirasses, helmets and greaves, armed with
round shields and a spear eight cubits long.")  This sounds like ordinary
heavy Roman cavalry.  On the other hand, I don't have an alternative
restoration for the lacuna, so my rebuttal is less than complete.  

>  That Philistaea (col. i,2) was conquered first by A. Jannai in 98 BC and
not
>  by Judas Maccabee is known;  

    Maccabean victories in Philistia are recorded at 1 Macc. 5:14-21, 65-68.

>  unknown is the Enochic  reference to Judas in
>  col. 1,8 (Maier:) ... the Horn of [Israel]; cf. 1Enoch 89;13 f.
>  But ist only a trap, because "Horn of Israel" is a metaphor to the military
>  Commander (Davidide by work not by genealogy) of Israel - a simple
>  Judas-redivivus (like Antigonos, my favorite candidate).

    The reference is of course 1 Enoch 19.13ff (Judas Maccabaeus symbolized by
a horned ram).  I agree that the phrase "horn of Israel" isn't an unambiguous
reference to JM.  However, I believe your citation of 1QM 1.8 is also
incorrect.  

    Russell Gmirkin