Othismos: Classical vs Crowd Theory Othismos

[PMBardunias]

So, as the arm represents a fundamental limitation on the pack of the aspides, assuming a maximum lateral pack where the rim of your neighbours' aspis is pressed against the inside of your left arm

This is true for doratismos, but not othismos. In othismos, when side-on, your shoulder is in the bowl of your shield. Thus the rim of the man on your right is not hitting your arm. In fact, depending on how deep you reconstruct the aspis, his rim may be edge-on into your sternum. This would be fatal in even moderate packing laterally. Any forward or backward movement on his part grinds that edge into you. Like I said, there are a lot of "unintended consequences" problems with side-on. There are many with frontal too. I have spent a long time thinking of this.

This leads to an interesting outcome when you consider the classical sources that describe compacting the frontage of the phalanx to increase its effectivenessWhen we read about compressing the frontage.

My scheme allows men to pack "shoulder to shoulder and side to side"- just like Arrian says by the way, which I think is clear from the context of the rest of the passage. (I actually find this passage useless for hoplites. I believe that Arrian pushed side-on because in his day men formed shield walls in the fashion of the later Fulcum and even if this were drawn from some lost earlier hellenistic manual- it is not in the older taktika- it would be sarissaphoroi pushing. I think here though he is describing men "shoulder to shoulder" in the ranks in "synaspismos", a trope used by Procopius and Maurice as well for close order. Thus it should be read "pushing as is done in close order".)

It may be important that Phillip is credited with a "new" even tighter formation based on his reading of the Illiad. This new formation could surely be the side-on stance which is almost surely the way sarissaphoroi fought. Thus, it is not a hoplite stance.

you are no longer in an effective pushing position, but you could dramatically increase the number of men fighting along a particularly piece of frontage.

But you now have to reach across your own body to strike forward with a sword- spears are irrelevent for promachos in othismos because you cannot reach the man ahead in any geometry with an accurate dory. Even if you use a spear, you can no longer torque your body to strike, or swing your arm out laterally, but have to jab along side your face at the foe in an extremely weak fashion that engages none of the major muscle groups. unless of course you shift to 3/4 stance, but then you will never get back into side-on with pressure behind you and will eventually end up collapsed into your aspis.

First, Cole, i might remind you that according to Paul B's view,the shields overlap right over left.

If they pushed side-on, then I it could go either way, or alternating forward and back, though I personally would not let anything come between my and my aspis.

I don't have one to test it myself,but i think that the shape of the shield might allow for pushing even if it's not square on

I think it quite possible that both lines were in fact angled, right forward, left back. When you overlap my way this is a natural tendency, if the man on your right wants to stay square to the foe he should be a little bit ahead of you. This may in part explain the rightward "pinwheeling" that seems to occur in battles. If you overlap the other way, the tendency is reverse, but less marked in that position.

Of course, if we presume a starting stance prior to collapse consistent with the art, he would have to collapse into his neighbours shield.

I know of no art that clearly shows a formed phalanx in combat with overlapping shields. Certainly not the Chigi. You should read van Wees on this topic. He rightly points out that these men are all standing with their aspides edge-on. This is commonly seen in art and some of the images make it obvious that they are edge on because there are spears or arms sticking out from between the shields in a way that cannot occur if they were overlapped. If the artist did in fact intend to portray them overlapped we have no way of knowing.