02-13-2012, 08:12 PM
Quote:Then you see that you could never adopt hoplite tactics in a vast army like the Roman or the Persian. It would be impossible to move around 100,000 hoplites and their armors for 1000s of km. Philip's reforms and the introduction of the sarissa that required a much lighter outfit could be the result of the effort to scale down both overall weight as well as expenses and logistics.
Not sure where you are getting this from. All that a hoplite needed to be a hoplite was an aspis and a dory. Its clear from the Anabasis just how little heavy armor the mercs had. Xenophon's march shows that obviously a hoplite army could march very far in hoplite kit. Unless hoplites ate more than Sarissaphoroi, I don't buy your argument. The aspis was surely a burden, but no more so than sarissa. I've read that during the 30yrs war pikemen regularly chopped down their pikes or simply "lost" them because of the hardship of moving them.
Add to this that, generations before Alexander, a hoplite-heavy army "conquored" Persia for Cyrus just before he lost it and his life.
Paul M. Bardunias
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A Spartan, being asked a question, answered "No." And when the questioner said, "You lie," the Spartan said, "You see, then, that it is stupid of you to ask questions to which you already know the answer!"
MODERATOR: [url:2dqwu8yc]http://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat/viewtopic.php?t=4100[/url]
A Spartan, being asked a question, answered "No." And when the questioner said, "You lie," the Spartan said, "You see, then, that it is stupid of you to ask questions to which you already know the answer!"
