Othismos: Classical vs Crowd Theory Othismos

[PMBardunias]

If you raise the aspis though you are susceptible to the next rank of sarissa points and negates any advantage the hoplite might have at attacking his immediate opponent that is off balance and his weapon at the moment unusable.

This is why the length of sarissa is so important: it allows 5 points to extend beyond the first rank of men. I don't think the one or two ranks of spears that can be brough to bear by hoplites are sufficient to keep other hoplites from closing. Since we have a number of descriptions of hoplites fighting shield to shield this either must be true or the two ranks closed by tacit agreement. But fighting through 5 ranks of spears would destroy the cohesion of a linear hoplite phalanx even if some scattered few managed to do so. As we read in that Euripides quote above for example, dory breakage and sarissa breakage would have been a problem for either type, so more points the better.