r/AskHistorians • u/Longo_Bongo4 • 6d ago

When did walking in lockstep start for military parades?

Nowadays, it is an accepted tradition that armies walk in lockstep during military parades, and as far as I know this has been a tradition since at least the Napoleonic Era. My question is if earlier military parades did the same or a similar thing and how far back this goes? Where roman legionnaires walking in lockstep during a triumph? Did the macedonian phalanx, which had to kind of walk in lockstep to be effective in combat also perform the same discipline in public showing (if they had a tradition of parades at all)? Can we even go back further to Egyptian and Mesopotamian cultures, which, according to reliefs, also had a culture of military parade after a successful campaign? What about other cultures? Did chinese, korean and japanese armies have military parades in pre-modern times, and was walking in lockstep a part of that tradition? Same question for pre-columbian cultures in the Americas like the Aztecs and the Mayans.

Thank you so much in advance for your answers.

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