09-12-2016, 05:48 PM
YES! you got it. Othismos was ALWAYS initiated by the front rank, with the subsequent ranks coming up in support. Even if you had a man behind you who started pushing you, yo would still have the ability to lean back on them rather than forward, and unless they are real jerks and trying to get you killed, they would ease off. This surely is what happens in almost any linear battle with a shield. Only if you want to enter into what we call othismos, and accept the support from behind rather than push back, can it occur. If you did not have an aspis you would push back hard and try to make the guy behind you back off because you would be crushed. Only the shape of an aspis allows you to accept the force of the men behind without crushing the breath out of you.
