06-02-2009, 12:44 PM
Agreed...all the evidence, slim though it is, has been aired. Only once ( Xenophon) are we told what formation Hoplites customarily fought in - 4 deep- and only once do we hear of the depth of Alexander's phalanx in action - 8 deep ( Arrian). Elsewhere we hear of Hoplites 8 deep and sarissaphoroi 16 deep.The manuals tell us how the changes in depth were carried out - even to the fact that there were half-file leaders etc .....and evidently there is no viable alternative theory, at least that can be offered up here, to explain these changes in depth and their function.
We are therefore left with the model I have suggested or...............??????
We are therefore left with the model I have suggested or...............??????
"dulce et decorum est pro patria mori " - Horace
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff