What are the Latin and Greek phrases for double envelopment/pincer movement?
I haven’t been able to find the equivalent phrasing in either Latin or Greek online.
First place to look might be in Polybius’s Histories and Livy’s History of Rome for descriptions of Cannae. I don’t know if they’d avoid military jargon phrases; I think Caesar might use a specific term for it. Maybe his Civil War for his battle with Pompey? Might come up.
I checked Livy’s description of Cannae (Liv. 22.47), but he doesn’t use any specific term.
He says that when the Carthaginian centre gave way, the Romans were enfolded and ultimately surrounded by the wings of the Carthaginian army.
He uses the word ‘cornu’ [horn] for wing, but this is a standard term for the wing of an army. Caesar often uses ‘dextrum cornu’ or ‘sinistrum cornu’, right or left wing, in a way that doesn’t imply a curved shape.
As far as I can tell there isn’t any specific Latin term for a pincer movement.
Polybius also describes the details of what happened, but doesn’t appear to have a specific name for the movement.
Thanks GreenWyvern.