Phalange Mixte

[Paralus]

At Plataea, the Persians "make a barrier of their shields" from behind which they launch an archery barrage at the Spartans and Tegeans, who, stung by this, charge; there is a brief Hand-to-Hand struggle at the shield barrier, and then the shieldless Persian Archers desperately resort to trying to grab the Greek spears, to no avail of course. (Her.IX.61-67)

I haven’t a copy of Herodotus at home. How incredible, I’ve had one for over thirty years, it must have decamped with my Curtius (it too has wandered but kindly been electronically replaced by Marcus over at Pothos). Never a lending library be. Therefore I was flying from memory, which memory seems to have conflated the attacks on the Megarians and Athenians with that on the Lacedaemonians it seems. My head is far too deep into the Iranian campaigns of Antigonus and Seleucus at the present. A refocus might be necessary. Ask me about the chronological debate over Gaza, Babylon, Nicanor, the upper satrapies, Babylon again…..

Well Old Man (with all possible respect), that indeed implies a shield wall from behind which the foot archers let fly. How deep I wonder? I shall endeavour to run down an internet translation and have a re-read. The only problem there being the aged, near (if not) Victorian translations that dominate the public domain publications (“Thou takest thyself forsooth to Lacedaemon…â€